Submitted story and photo
After finishing in the top five at the recent ACAC Golf Championships, the Thunder Golf team’s Kassidy Turcotte found herself qualifying as an individual for the 2016 PING Golf National Championships hosted by Holland College in Charlottetown, PEI during Oct. 17-21.
The Championships were held at Fox Meadows Golf Course and was a unique blend of links-style course surrounded by mature maple and birch trees lining the outer perimeter of the course.
While the weather held for most of the Championships, wind gusts upwards of 50 km/h and intermittent pouring rain for an interesting few days of competition.
After playing two practice rounds at Fox Meadows, Turcotte felt good about her chances and set a goal of finishing in the Top 15 female golfers out of 30 that qualified as the top collegiate golfers in Canada.
Day 1 was by far the best of the weather, with mostly blue skies, temperatures of 16+ degrees throughout the round and the course playing under great conditions for fall golf in Canada. Turcotte turned in a first round of 82, sitting her comfortably in the Top 15 in the competition.
Day 2 saw the changing of the weather, with winds starting to pick up and sunny skies disappearing, with the temperature falling to single digits. The wind played havoc across the field, and despite battling a migraine in the morning, Turcotte shot an 86 on the day and held her position in the field.
Day 3 brought out the most challenging weather conditions of the week, with the temperature hovering just above zero, winds howling and the rain pouring on and off throughout the day.
Despite the chilly and often unbearable conditions, Turcotte managed to continue to strike the ball well off the tee, but the weather made putting extremely difficult.
In the final round, Turcotte shot an 87 and finished tied for 14th overall.
Nineteen-year-old Kassidy Turcotte is from Falher, Alberta, and is a graduate of Georges P. Vanier in Donnelly.