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LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON - Thirty golfers spent May 31 on the Seven Spruce Golf Course as the club in Fort Simpson officially started its season with the Opening Day Tournament. The team of Ted Grant and Owen Rowe won the event.

"We stayed on the fairway. It's simple," said Rowe to explain the team's success.

With a gentle tap from his putter Gordon Thompson sends his ball rolling towards Hole 9 during the Opening Day Tournament on the Seven Spruce Golf Course. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

During the 18 hole, two-person best-ball event Grant and Rowe got three birdies, three bogies and 12 pars. It was all about playing consistently, Rowe said.

"If one misses the other makes it. We just pulled each other across," he said.

Rowe said it was nice to spend a day on the course during the season's first tournament. You can already see the improvements the staff have been making to the course, he said.

Two teams followed on the leaders' heels. The teams of Kele Antoine and T.G. Wilson and Steven Lenoir and Darrell Littlechild both finished with 76. Trevor Kjeldsli and Scott McIntosh finished third with a 79.

Littlechild attributed his team's finish to getting birdies on Hole 9 in both rounds. There were lots of pars but some missed putts, he added..

"It's the beginning of the year, not everything's going to be perfect," he said.

Littlechild was also enthusiastic about the start of another season of golfing.

"It was a really long winter and I'm glad it's done," he said.

For Wilson and Antoine their placing was all about consistency. Between the two of them someone always had an OK shot, Wilson said.

Wilson said the pair's best hole was four, which they birdied during the first round.

In the individual awards Wilson, Laurie Ozmun and Alex Roche won the longest drive competition in the men, women and youth categories, respectively. Roche and Ozmun also won the closest-to-the-pin competition on Hole 2 while Steven Lenoir took it for the men.

The tournament didn't set any attendance records but the numbers were reasonable considering the event was delayed by a day, said Roger Pilling, the tournament's organizer.

Heavy rainfall on Saturday led to the Sunday tee times.

"We really needed that rain. The course will green up nicely this week," he said.

The event was notable for the number of young golfers it drew. Ten of the 30 participants were juniors, which is one of the largest turnouts for a tournament, Pilling said.

The next event for duffers at the Seven Spruce Golf Course is the Aboriginal Day Tournament scheduled for June 21. That will be followed by the Kingland Ford Tournament on July 18.