New team golf champions emerge

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The third annual First Nations Cup brought some of the best golfers from two provinces to play at the Ironhead Golf & Country Club in Wabamun, Alta. this month.

The three-day, high-profile championship game took off Aug. 3. with 13 teams putting up a $2,000 entry fee and corporate sponsorship fee of $500 to play.

First place finishers Alexis First Nation took home $7,000 in prize money and the coveted trophy they took from last year's defending champions, the Blood First Nation , both of Alberta.

The first year of the cup, 1999, Enoch First Nation near Edmonton won with seven teams participating. Last year eight teams played in the tournament.

Merv Kootenay, one of the organizers of this year's event and the originator of the idea for a tournament in the first place, is a member of the triumphant Alexis First Nation.

After seeing a lot of tournaments, Kootenay related, he figured there were enough Aboriginal golfers in the Western provinces to initiate a competition that pitted community against community "in the spirit of sportsmanship. I figured that would create a lot of excitement as far as competition goes." Each team was to have eight golfers and one alternate.

He added, "similar to the Dunhill Cup of the PGA tour. . . . The tournament was patterned after that, the Dunhill Cup."

"You play as a team, representing your community, and there's a bit of bragging rights I guess involved in it, trying to win the First Nations Cup."

That was the reason Kootenay wanted to initiate the cup challenge. He ran his idea past avid Enoch golfer Bruce Ward, who comes from a community of many golfers. Then he contacted the communities.

Co-organizers this year were Andy Fox and Willis Kootenay, with a lot of volunteer help, mostly from the families of the players.

At this year's tournament the youngest player, Percy Potts Jr., 17, "shot a 69 in the master play and beat his opponent by nine points. He was our number one ranked player. Basically he was our best player on the team. There's a lot of potential for him to go far, with the proper coaching."