GORDON – The first-ever Maple Ridge Memorial Golf Tournament, held in memory of friends of the Manitoulin Golf Club who have passed on and to benefit the Mindemoya Hospital, was a huge success, drawing a total of 63 golfers and 77 in attendance for dinner.
“This first annual tournament is being held in memory of long-time club members and great friends we lost in the last year, Merle Idle and Peter Fletcher and John Windsor’s brother Andy,” said Brian Bainborough, the main organizer of the tournament along with Jack Clark and Allison Idle.
The nine-hole tournament was held Saturday afternoon with a fantastic dinner served afterward for golfers and those on hand for the dinner by staff at the golf club. Greg Wilkins provided the musical entertainment for the evening.
“I would like to thank all of you for coming out here today to take part,” said Mr. Bainborough. He explained how this tournament had come about: “it actually started a couple of years ago. I had a fall at the sugar shack and Merle came to help and drove me to Mindemoya Hospital, where I had to stay for awhile. Merle said jokingly at the time we should do something for the hospital,” he said.
A little time passed and while they were bottling maple syrup one day, “again we were talking among the three of us (Mr. Clark and Mr. Idle, along with Mr. Bainborough) and we all agreed that we needed to do something for the hospital. And after Merle got sick we said this type of event needed to take place—and it started from there. We decided that this tournament needed to be in memory of Merle and Peter (Fletcher) and Andy (Windsor) who were all avid golfers and friends who passed away in the past year,” said Mr. Bainborough.
Mr. Bainborough said every one of the nine holes in the tournament had a sponsor attached to it. He thanked the total of 27 sponsors for their tremendous support of the tournament.
“This event has brought together golfers and non-golfers to have a fun tournament and raise some money for the hospital.” He also praised Myrna Thomas, manager of the Manitoulin Golf Club’s clubhouse, and staff for being instrumental in making the event such a success.
“We want to continue this tournament on an annual basis,” said Mr. Bainborough, to raise funds for the hospital.
Several gift certificates were also provided for the event and handed out as prizes, as were bags filled with t-shirts denoting this as the first Maple Ridge Memorial Golf Tournament. This and much more was handed out to all golfers by the three organizers of the event.
Mr. Bainborough told the Recorder on Tuesday that just over $3,000 was raised by the tournament to go toward the Mindemoya Hospital.
