CANMORE – New champions were crowned at the women's and men's open golf tournaments at the Canmore Golf and Curling Club.
Canmore's Todd Hutcheson won the men's open this past weekend and Calgary's Morgan Bell claimed the Canmore Ladies Open at the end of June.
After sitting tied for eighth with a 79 opening round, Hutcheson stormed back the next day and shot a second round best 68 to win the overall gross at 147.
Eric Praught placed second (147), and Brendan Miles and Alexander Large tied for third place with 151.
A smaller field of 68 competitors teed off for the men's open, which typically sees it max out at 100.
Last year, the men's and women's open were cancelled due to COVID-19. However, the local club held a modified version of its club championships.
"We're happy with the field and there were more locals, percentage wise, than before," said Darren Cooke, general manager of the Canmore Golf and Curling Club.
"It was kind of tough before to get anything organized because you didn't know whether it was going to come off or not so that was always a struggle for us to get excited about any sort of tournaments ... So now, the excitement is coming back – to see people in the club house after, it was a lot of fun."
From June 26-27, the Canmore Ladies Open took place at the local course, which saw Bell winning gold with a 147 overall gross over two rounds.
In second place was Andrea Kosa (150), and in third was Lynn Kuehn (157).
Bell took a four stroke lead after the first round and held off Kosa, the second rounds top golfer, as she nipped at her heels in day two of the action.
The overall net winners of the two opens were Kelly Smith and James Thomson.
Coming up next for the club are the mixed open on July 24 and junior open on July 26.