Mackenzie Tour announces 8-year professional golf event at Elk Ridge Resort

REGINA -

A new professional golf event will be making annual stops in Saskatchewan starting this fall.

The Elk Ridge Open is a new Mackenzie Tour - PGA Tour Canada event starting in 2021 that will run consecutively through 2028. It is one of eight official tournaments announced by the Mackenzie Tour this season, and will be held at Elk Ridge Resort in northern Saskatchewan.

This year, the tournament will be held during the week of Sept. 6. It will feature Canadian-based players due to the pandemic, but in the years to follow it will be a full-field tour. In 2022, it will be played from June 20-26. The Mackenzie Tour was last in Saskatchewan in 2016.

“We’re delighted to be back in Saskatchewan,” Scott Pritchard, the executive director of Mackenzie Tour, said. “Fans, sponsors and volunteers in Saskatchewan have always been extremely supportive of our tour. We can’t wait to see them back on the course later this summer.”

Ryan Danberg, a managing partner at Elk Ridge Resort, said this partnership was a no-brainer for the ownership group.

“Golf is back in a very big way. It unfortunately took a pandemic to make that happen, but we’re seeing and living that right now,” he said. “From the resort standpoint, we’re really excited to showcase this resort. It’s ready to take to a new level and to take an event like this on and bring golfers from across the country and neighbouring countries in.” 

Graham DeLaet, a PGA Tour player from Saskatchewan, is an honourary chair for the tournament.

“When a lot of people think about Saskatchewan, they think farms and wind and maybe some wide open spaces, but it’s so beautiful out at Elk Ridge and Waskesiu and it’s going to show people just a different side of Saskatchewan,” DeLaet said.

Dalaet hopes to attend the event in September. He said he looks forward to having players from around the country experience the course.

“[The players] might get a little bit of bite of that Saskatchewan cold weather, especially in the northern part of the province, but that will toughen them up and show them what we’re all about as prairie boys,” he added.

Premier Scott Moe said this event will provide a great opportunity for people to gather again once all pandemic restrictions are limited.

“We also love golf in this province and we love the PGA,” Premier Moe said. “[Elk Ridge Resort] is a world class destination that will be on full display for the entire golf world to see, not only this Fall, but over the course of the next eight years.”

The course will be played as a par-70 for the tournament.