The Canmore Golf & Curling Club will celebrate its 100th anniversary on May 31 with a community celebration at the Pro Shop and curling rink at 2000 8 Ave. The ticketed event runs from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. in Canmore, Alberta, and is meant to bring together members, residents, visitors and guests to mark a century of local sport and community life.
The club traces its roots to June 1, 1926, when 17 people met at Memorial Hall, then the old YMCA, to form the original Canmore Golf Club. The Canmore Museum says the first president was Mr. A. Francis, with Father Osborne as vice-president and Mr. C. Fowers as secretary.
Its first course was a nine-hole sand green layout where the Seniors’ Retirement Home now stands, and mine tracks once ran through the middle of the fairways. The club later moved and expanded after local volunteers secured a $4,800 grant from the Alberta government in 1962, with help from community labour and donated equipment from Canmore Mines.
The club’s history also includes the 1988 Winter Olympics, when the clubhouse served as the athletes’ village for the Nordic events. The current curling rink officially opened on October 29, 1988, according to the club’s history page at Canmore Curling Club, with Ken Ritchie throwing the first rock and Randy Nichols cutting the ribbon.
Today, the Canmore Golf & Curling Club says its goal remains the same as it was at the start: to offer golf and curling that are affordable, welcoming and built around community.
