The historic Waskesiu Golf Club

Since opening in 1935, the historic Waskesiu Golf Club located in Prince Albert National Park has played host to the likes of Canadian professional ice hockey player Gordie Howe, American actor Bob Hope and Canadian professional golfer Pat Fletcher.

“We get so many celebrities, NHL players, baseball players and politicians,” said Waskesiu’s PGA of Canada head professional Tyler Baker. “If you go way back into the fifties and sixties, my parents owned a place here and they used to have the Diefenbakers stay there all the time and John went on to be the prime minister. There’s such history.

“Pat Fletcher, who was the last Canadian to win the Canadian open, he won a Lobstick Tournament here in 1953,” Baker said. “He went on to have a pretty successful PGA career.”

Fletcher’s youngest son Ted, current president of Cobra-Puma Golf Canada, said he still remembers Waskesiu as “a great place to spend some time in the summer and a great golf course.

“During the years we were in Saskatoon, from 1944 to 1954, we used to spend two or three weeks every summer in Waskesiu and I used to play the golf course there,” said Ted. “I remember playing it very well; I remember the facility and some of the holes even.

“Every single hole was tree-lined. What I remember most about that golf course were all the pine trees. Every single hole was lined with pine trees. It was a very pleasant, enjoyable country club that was very appealing. They were known for their trees and small greens.

“My father had played there too,” he said. “It was a great spot.

“Maybe ten years later, I went back to Saskatoon to play in a Canadian junior event and when I was in Saskatoon I had an opportunity to go with some friends to Waskesiu and we played the Waskesiu golf course again.”

Today, to honour the accomplishments of his father, Ted acts as a trustee of the Pat Fletcher Scholarship Foundation.

“My father was a widely respected teacher of the game, loved junior golf and loved promoting the game and developing the game,” he said. “He certainly appreciated the fact that he was given the opportunity to play golf when he was a young boy.

“Following his passing in the mid eighties, our family started the foundation and I administrate it today.

“The foundation provides financial assistance to young Canadians with some connection to golf who are deserving and who need the help, to pursue their education at the post secondary level. They don’t have to be the next Tiger Woods, they just have to be an interested golfer.

“We’ve now awarded almost $500,000 in scholarships in the last roughly 25 years.”

For more information on the Pat Fletcher Scholarship Foundation, visit their official website.