A new charity golf tournament is coming to Lethbridge this summer. The Hearts and Health Classic will help benefit the Chinook Regional Hospital Foundation. The tournament is in partnership and will be hosted by Paradise Canyon Golf Resort. This year’s edition will benefit the CRHF’s Bringing Hearts Home campaign, which is aiming to build a cardiac centre of excellence in Lethbridge. “My father-in-law had a lot of heart problems and couldn’t get to Calgary on time. It was really hard. That’s what happens to a lot of people, and they don’t make it,” said Ron Sakamoto, owner of Paradise Canyon. The foundation has raised over $27 million towards its $30 million goal. “(It’s an) incredible achievement in a very short timeline. So, thank you southern Alberta. We can’t do this without you,” said CRHF CEO Crystal Elliot. She added the fundraiser will remain open until January 2027. This new tournament helps fill the gap left by the Val Matteotti Italian Open, which ended in 2024. That tournament ran for 30 years and ran $1.7 million. This new tournament hopes to fill that void and become an annual event. “We do at Paradise around 40 tournaments a year. We raise a lot of money over $2 million a year for charities. And that’s what we do, that’s something that is near and dear to all our hearts,” Sakamoto said. The Bringing Hearts Home campaign has seen plenty of support from across southern Alberta. Elliot says big community events like that highlights how much support the campaign has garnered. “The power of the community, that has enabled this to succeed is utterly incredible. We have over 20 or 30 different community partnerships where people are stepping up to do fundraisers,” she said. About 40 per cent of the spots available for the tournament have already been sold. The tournament will be held Aug. 26.
