By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

BALFOUR — There’s a poster on the wall outside the entrance to the pro shop at Balfour Golf Course thanking the corporate sponsors who stepped forward to support the B.C. Women’s Amateur and Mid-Amateur Championships.

It’s a rather long list as more than 20 businesses have pitched in to make contributions to the event, which began on Tuesday. That corporate support, along with an army of about 50 keen volunteers from the golf club and Balfour area have truly made this a community-driven tournament.

And that makes Jackie Little smile. Little, of course, is a bonafide B.C. golfing legend. Her numerous provincial and national titles have earned her a spot in the British Columbia and Pacific Northwest Golf Association Halls of Fame.

Little and her husband Patrick moved to the Kootenays a few years ago and began playing regularly at Balfour. She was instrumental in convincing British Columbia Golf tournament director Jerome Goddard to bring the event to Balfour.

“Nobody comes to the Kootenays and I just wanted everyone to come and see how beautiful it is and how well worth it is to come and play golf here,” Little said after her first round on Tuesday. “Everybody here has so stepped up to the plate. All the volunteers have been great and the course is amazing.”

Little was quick to credit her husband Pat, a former longtime club pro, with taking charge and organizing the event. Jackie and Pat owned and operated a golf course in Port Alberni for more than a decade, so they both know the business well. “I give him all the credit,” Jackie said of her husband. “He is an organizer. He has made it his mission for this event to be the best it could possibly be.”

Pat Little joked that it was Jackie who was supposed to be the tournament director. Pat said he inherited the job from his wife and it’s safe to say he’s taken the ball and run with it. He not only secured much of that corporate support, Pat also recruited the volunteers and had individual meetings with all 50 of them to make sure everyone was clear about their responsibilities.

“I was very emphatic,” Pat said. “I don’t care how good we are, we just want everybody here to say, wow, that was an amazing experience. We want to come back.”

Craig Wilkinson, the general manager at Balfour, jokes that Pat Little has been so efficient he has had nothing to do himself. “It’s weird for me because I’m used to being the guy that runs and executes and promotes, does the scoring and does the prizes and today I am fortunate enough just to watch all the competitors tee off,” Wilkinson said.

“That’s because it is so well run by B.C. Golf with amazing community support. Pat is a longtime industry veteran and he took it upon his shoulders to make it happen and it has really been fun to watch.”

All that corporate support has enabled the tournament to offer the players some nice perks. For example, their meals are on the house, courtesy of those sponsors. Goddard is delighted to have the kind of club and community support the tournament is receiving this week.

“Jackie and I spoke about this 18 months ago,” Goddard said. “I had heard so much about this course and I had to come and see it myself. I was lucky to play it with Jackie, Pat and Craig Wilkinson. I didn’t even finish the first hole and I was astonished at what they have been able to do with the size of their team.

“We wanted to bring this event to the Kootenays for a while because it had been a long time, so we needed a site and this was the clear favourite. The golf course is like a puzzle. It is not immediately clear how to play it. I love that and what the community has been able to do.”

The golf course really is the star of the week. Balfour is a beautiful layout that sits above Kootenay Lake and offers fabulous vistas of the surrounding mountains. It is in incredible shape, thanks to the hard work of Superintendent Larry Olson and his staff.

Olson was the original superintendent when Balfour was just a nine-hole course. After a lengthy stint in Penticton, he returned to Balfour six years ago and the course has never looked better. The field here this week has been raving about course conditions. Wilkinson refers to Olson as ‘Super Larry.’

“When Larry got back here the golf course needed some love,” Wilkinson said. “He started to work right away and I would say by year three we were starting to get notoriety in terms of course conditions. Now I truly feel like we set the standard in our area for course conditions.”

In some respects, Balfour still remains something of a hidden gem. It’s a little out of the way, about 25 minutes northeast of Nelson. The course has about 230 members, so there’s never much trouble getting a tee time. About 40 percent of its play comes from visitors and Wilkinson thinks that number will climb as local developments in the area come to fruition.

He hopes hosting an event like the Women’s Amateur will boost the course’s profile. “Just to be able to host an event like this, big picture, is really big for us,” he said. We are super excited to see this kind of competition on our course.”

‘We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia.’