Alberta Golf Hall of Famer, Betty Stanhope-Cole, with 2007 Women’s Amateur Champion, Nicole Forschner.

Alberta Golf, or formerly known as the Alberta Golf Association, has been around since 1912 running our provincial championships for over 100 years. Throughout our history we’ve seen many great champions whether it’s been Betty Stanhope Cole and her impressive record of 16 Alberta Women’s Amateur wins, or Bob Wylie, Keith Alexander, and Doug Silverberg’s historic amateur careers. We’ve had impressive young players blast on to the scene like Doug Lecuyer winning the Alberta Junior three times in four years, and the year he didn’t win he claimed the Alberta Men’s Amateur. We’ve had young people like Jessica Luciuk and Kareen Qually-Nelson who won everything Alberta had to offer and began representing Canada as part of our International Teams.

While many people know the names of the winners, many don’t know the history of what they’re winning. Alberta Golf has had a variety of different championships over its history whether it was the Edmonton Journal Trophy, the original trophy for the Open, the Calgary Herald trophy for the Country Districts Championship, or the Pepsi Cola Junior Trophy. Over time lots has changed, been renamed, sponsors coming and going, trophy plaques and names being changed and removed. The two that have been remained the same from the start are the Men’s Amateur and the Women’s Amateur, and this is their story.

The Alberta Men’s Amateur, the highest prize in the province for the male amateur golfers has been around since before even the Association began. Before the AGA got its start there were two clubs, the Edmonton Country Club and the Calgary Golf & Country Club, who began hosting a competition to name the provinces top golfer. In 1908 the first ever Alberta Men’s Amateur was played at the Calgary Golf & Country Club and was won by hometown favourite Charlie Hague, an Alberta Golf Pioneer, who helped lay the foundation for the great amateurs to follow. Hague was a Calgary banker who despite his provincial success liked to stay out of the limelight. This would be out of his control in 1921, when he was the runner up in the Canadian Men’s Amateur. He quickly became a fan favourite as he came back in every match, he played including the final, where he was five down through the first 12 holes and rallied to force extra holes in the 36-hole match. Hague’s showing put Western Canada on the golfing map at a time when golf was ruled by the east.

Hague continued his winning ways in Alberta throughout the early years of golf in Alberta. He won three of the first four unofficial Men’s Amateurs. Officially in 1912, the Alberta Golf Association was founded by The Lethbridge Country Club, The Edmonton Country Club, the Calgary Golf & Country Club, Fort Macleod Golf Club, and the Calgary St Andrews Golf Club. It was with this event the Association named its first executive all of which are considered pioneers of the sport in Alberta. Coinciding this was our first official Men’s Amateur which was won by non-other than Charlie Hague of Calgary. This is the first mention of a cup of some kind being given to the winner, and it was named the C.W. Cross Cup.

The Cross Cup was the original cup awarded to the winner of the Men’s Amateur.The cup was donated by none other than Charles Wilson Cross. Cross was born in Ontario in 1872. He received a variety of education culminating in his BA and LLB degrees from Osgoode Hall. After articling at a Toronto law firm, he moved to Edmonton in 1897 and became a Liberal MLA in 1905 working in politics till passing away in 1928. Cross’s connection to golf was he was a member at the Edmonton Country Club during his time in Alberta. Cross donated the original Alberta Men’s Amateur trophy and his legacy in golf will be forever felt because of this.

The Cross Cup remained as the crowning achievement of winning the Men’s Amateur for the years to come and is still prominent as it sits atop the current base today. In 1976, the trophy base was changed and renamed to the Charlie F Scott Memorial Trophy after C.F (Charlie) Scott. Scott was a huge part of sports in Alberta generally speaking. Moving to Calgary as a baby, Scott played hockey, baseball, and football in his youth. He turned to golf in his twenties, where he played a part in the founding of the Inglewood Golf Club in Calgary and won two club championships there before moving to Edmonton after the Second World War. While in Edmonton, he became the president of the Edmonton Golf Association and helped create the first Edmonton Open in 1949. At the same time, he became the secretary of the Alberta Golf Association and held the position for twenty years. Through his time, he saw the rise of many of Alberta’s great champions including the junior careers of Silverberg, Wylie, and Alexander among others. In 1971, the Calgary Booster Club named Scott the Sportsman of the Year because of his work with golf, curling, and football. Scott resigned from his secretary role and in 1976, to honour a man who devoted his life to sport, the Alberta Golf Association proudly named its most coveted prize after him.

Today, the Men’s Amateur proudly boasts the C.W. Cross Cup on top of the Charlie F. Scott Memorial Trophy which will be once again handed out to the top male amateur in the province, with the winner’s name adding an additional chapter of history to one of Canada’s oldest trophies.

The Women’s Amateur trophy, just like the Men’s is seen as the epitome of amateur golf success in the province and has been around for just as long. The Women’s Championship has been competed for as long as the Men’s with the first winner coming in 1907 won by Mrs. W.N. Clark. This too was an unofficial championship until 1912 when the Alberta Ladies Golf Union was born. Refusing to join the growing the Canadian Ladies Golf Union as a provincial branch, the Alberta Ladies continued running their own Women’s Amateur championship for nearly a quarter century. While not much is known about this time, many of the winners of the ALGU’s championship are early pioneers of the women’s game of golf in Alberta like Janet Sparrow, Mrs. J.R. Henley, and Mrs. W.E Milner. At the time ladies were competing for the McKay Cup a coveted prize, which was donated by the Watson Bros Jewelry store. The Watson Bros. were a popular choice in the early 1900’s, even being commissioned to help create the temporary parliamentary mace in 1906. The Watson Bros commissioned a carpenter to create this mace out of wood, and while it was always going to be temporary the mace was used until 1956.

While the ALGU continued running it’s own championship for the province, the Canadian Ladies Golf Union was hard at work trying to create a chain of provincial branches of it’s own. Originally started by Florence Harvey, a Canadian Golf Hall of Fame member from BC, in 1913 the Canadian Ladies Golf Union was created to provide the women in Canada access to the British Ladies Golf Union and their handicapping system. Until this point, the RCGA was running a Canadian Ladies Amateur championship by themselves. In 1921, the CLGU met at the Canadian Ladies Amateur and decided to adopt their own constitution and began the process of recruiting provincial branches.

In 1928, the ALGU finally decided to join the CLGU as its Alberta branch. At this time, they needed a new trophy to represent their joining of the CLGU. In comes the trophy we have today, and often seen as the best trophy in the Alberta Golf trophy case, the Sheffield Cup. The Sheffield Cup was also donated by a local jewellery store known as Jackson Bros. Jewellery in Edmonton. This pioneer jewellery store was started in 1906 and closed in 1933. Being around for 27 years, the Jackson Bros. created a wide range of jewellery including war pins. The unifying piece in all their jewellery was their signature logo which is proudly displayed on the Sheffield Cup. There’s no clear connection between the three brothers who ran the store and the CLGU or golf in general, their insignia is hard to miss. While there’s still a lot of unknown about this trophy it’s still a coveted prize and was first won by Mrs. Milner and would be held by other golfing legends like Paddy Arnold, Irene Horne, Betty Stanhope Cole, and Rae Milligan Simpson throughout our history.

Today, the Women’s Amateur proudly and beautifully displays its own history with the Jackson Bros. logo front and centre for all to see. The next chapter in its history patiently awaits its next winner which will be crowned over July 1^st to 3^rd with a host club yet to be announced.