When the Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Club celebrated its 151st year last week, it was elbows up as golfers teed it up for Canada.
The club hosted a Canadian Icons golf tournament Sept. 16, celebrating the nation’s history and culture across nine themed holes.
Longtime club member Martha Cruikshank helped organize the event after a positive response to the historic club’s 150th anniversary celebration last year.
In the era of Trump nastiness and trade wars, “It was just time to be Canadian,” Cruikshank told The Lake Report.
Volunteers were assigned a hole along the golf course, with each themed around Canadian patriotism.
Dressed as the Blues Brothers, Larry Mantle and Paul Jacot manned a music trivia station at the first tee.
Their trivia game featured a long list of Canadian artists, from Joni Mitchell to Justin Bieber, for a game of name that tune.
“I even had to add some songs I’m not a big fan of,” Mantle told The Lake Report. “Like Shawn Mendes.”
Don Cruikshank and Ginny Green helped out at the seventh hole, which celebrated Canadians in space.
Golfers were greeted with David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and posters of 11 space travellers.
Cruikshank, an engineer who had an interest in space from a young age, had fun with the creative decor.
“I grew up in the age of astronauts actually going to space,” he said.
Harry Huizer manned #8, an homage to Canadian war veterans from the War of 1812.
The hole, located next to Fort Mississauga, was an ideal location, Huizer said.
“It fit in so that we could honour the veterans,” he said.
Re-enactors were on hand in full uniform with muskets that would fire as each new group teed off.
At the ninth, golfers had the chance to use a 100-year-old hickory golf club.
Lorne Emery, director of the Golf Historical Society of Canada, has played around 700 rounds with the old clubs since 2018.
“People are absolutely surprised,” he said. “Everyone thinks that old clubs are impossible to hit with. They’re not.”
He said the meticulous nature of the hickory clubs encourages a more precise golf swing. “They demand a bit more attention.”
The second hole had a cottage theme, great Canadian golfers were celebrated on #3, Frederick Banting on #4, Canadian comedians at the fifth and hockey icons at the sixth.
When all was said and done, winners were named and prizes were handed out.
Team Cannon Fodder, consisting of Marie and Bill Ellison and Greg and Karen Berti, finished in first place.
The Defenders, with Don and Sharon Allen and Debb Hodgkinson, was second, followed by Never 51, consisting of Tracey Peters, Carroll Baker, Mandy Rennehan and Joe Oswald.
Organizers said a similar celebration of Canadiana likely will return next year.
