2025 Alberta Men’s Amateur Golf Championship helping ‘build the resume’ for Lethbridge’s sport tourism

Golfers from across the province are in Lethbridge for the 2025 Alberta Men’s Amateur Golf Championship. Karsen Marczuk reports.

Some of the best golfers in Alberta are teeing off at Paradise Canyon in Lethbridge for the 2025 Alberta Men’s Amateur Golf Championship June 25-27.

“Some players down in colleges throughout the winters come back home for the summer, they’re still amateurs, so they’re still going to play in this event,” said Jae Maegaard, head golf professional at Paradise Canyon.

“They’re very high-level skilled players that we’re going to see and we’ll see a lot of local players that also play very well at their home clubs.”

The amateur field includes 120 golfers competing in the three-day tournament.

The top golfers of the championship will go on to compete in the Canadian Men’s Amateur Golf Championship—an event that has seen PGA Tour players Nick Taylor, Corey Conners and Adam Hadwin compete.

“This golf course offers the right yardage, a great test for our golfers and it really shows who can play with the weather conditions as well as who has every asset in their game,” said Taylor Tracey, content and competition manager with Alberta Golf.

Boosting local economy

About a dozen or so golfers are from Lethbridge, with the rest from around the province.

“Out of the 120 guys, about 100-and-change travelling at least, so that’s 100 hotel rooms and/or meals a day on top of their caddies, if their families are coming in to watch,” said Matt Barkway, executive golf professional at Paradise Canyon.

It’s those travelers that helped generate nearly $18 million to the local economy last year, according to the Lethbridge Sport Council.

In a recent report, the sport council found that there were 28 sports in 35 different venues that contributed to the economic boost.

The report focused on 2024, collecting data from 214 single and multi-day sporting events in the city.

“It’s also nice to have more of these provincial events,” said Susan Eymann, executive director of the Lethbridge Sport Council, “because we are working with our sports venues and sports organizations to look at what larger events --what national and what international event do we want to look at -- and golf is one of the sports that we’re having conversations with,”

Along with the financial impact, Eymann says hosting the men’s amateur championship is a chance to show what resources and supports the city has to put on larger events in the coming years.

“We know that it’s the same events that are happening and then there are the ones like this that are one-off that are building the resume to host larger events,” said Eymann.

The last time Paradise Canyon hosted the championship was in 1993.

The tournament is open to the public to watch for free.