Sundre Golf Club, a hidden gem in Central Alberta will once again play host to the Alberta Best Ball Championship in 2025. The Best Ball Championship will be played on May 19^th this year. With two successful years in the books, this event has become a fan favourite as a great way to open the season and get an early competitive round under players’ belts. In 2023, the field was only 100 players, and in 2024 registration grew to a full filed event of 120 with a great mix of players of different ages.

The format will remain the same to years previous, with players competing as a two-person team and each player playing their own ball. The team will then take the better score of the two balls played on each hole. The upside of this format early in the season allows for a partner to pick up their ball and not finish the hole if they don’t intend to use that ball on the scorecard. The two-person team can be any gender or any age, with males and females playing from different tees. Additionally, there is a net and gross division that teams are competing in.

In 2024, the gross division was decided by a sudden-death playoff in the rain between Team McKinlay and Team Graf, with Carter and Logan Graf of the Red Deer Golf & Country Club emerging victorious. The net division was won by Matt Clark and Tyler Kirk of the Leduc Golf & Country Club.

Sundre Golf Club is a great partner of Alberta Golf, and along with hosting the Best Ball recently hosted the rain shortened Alberta Open in 2022 which was won by Ethan Choi, and low professional honours going to Stefan Cox. The course offers a variety of unique challenges with exquisite water features, speedy greens, and tree-lined fairways. This, combined with their wide range yardages lends itself to nearly any championship Alberta Golf has to offer.

Scott Shouldice, Director of Golf at Sundre Golf Club, has hosted plenty of events in his time at Sundre including a U.S. Women’s Amateur Qualifier and in 2025 will have a Canadian Open qualifier. The reviews of the course are always positive, and he’s seen how versatile the course can be in terms of hosting with its central location, difficult tee shots, undulating greens, and the pace of play. The Best Ball is no different in his eyes.

“For hosting the best ball championship, I believe the reason our course is perfect for this event is the layout of the course.  As I said earlier, it is a very challenging course, and any mistakes punish you severely.  With a best ball format though, even if one player makes a mistake and is out of the hole, the other player can bail them out.  If both players don’t make a mistake on the same hole, then they will score well.” – Scott Shouldice

Registration opens for all 2025 events on April 1^st and Alberta Golf looks forward to another successful championship season.