PHOTO COURTESY GOLF ALBERTA
Medicine Hat's Kassie Bourassa poses with the Alberta Women's Mid-Amateur and the Alberta Women's Mid-Master trophies after winning both championships in Leduc on July 4, the third day of the three-day tournament.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Like a fine wine, Kassie Bourassa’s golf game matured with a little bit of time.
The Medicine Hat golfer won a pair of Alberta golf championships last week, capturing Alberta’s women’s mid-amateur and mid-masters titles at the 112th Alberta Women’s Amateur Championship held in Leduc from July 2-4. The 48-year-old says she wasn’t expecting to win both but saw the chance entering the final day.
“It wasn’t even on my radar, I just wanted to go and play some good rounds,” Bourassa said. “It probably took until after the second round that I realized I had a good shot at both winning them.”
Bourassa improved throughout the week, with an opening round 78 followed up with a 77 on July 3 before capturing the titles with a 76 on the final day.
“I couldn’t make a birdie the first two days and all I wanted that last day and I finally made a couple,” Bourassa said. “I was just very consistent, I would say that is my game, consistency. But I was striking the ball really well and just wasn’t getting in trouble, even with the conditions. It got windy day two and day three and I just kept it down the middle and tried to try to make as few mistakes as possible.”
With the win, Bourassa was named to Alberta’s Women’s Mid-Amateur Interprovincial team for the Canadian Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship to be held at Lachute Golf Club in Lachute, Que. Aug. 6-8. She had already signed up for the tournament, but will now have an Team Alberta branded bag holstering her clubs.
It’s the first provincial win for Bourassa who is in her third year of playing competitive golf after a 25-year hiatus from competition. She played competitively from the ages of 18-20 before returning to playing at a high level in 2023. Bourassa played golf during COVID-19 shutdowns, with it being one of the few recreational activities available at the time. She played a lot of golf with her daughter Libby, who at the age of 18 decided she wanted to take the sport in a competitive direction.
Libby then signed up for the 2023 amateur championship and Bourassa decided she would get back into the competitive spirit, signing up as well. She says it’s been special to share the sport and the extra time with her daughter as they both pushed toward a similar goal.
“I was able to put the time into my game and I had the time to put into the game that I didn’t for a lot of years, and frankly didn’t want to put in the time I knew I needed to be able to compete,” Bourassa said. “So it’s been a blessing that her getting into golf has kind of brought me back into the game, too.”
Bourassa credits the local support she’s received over the years and even more the last week for being able to compete at the level needed to win provincial championships. She says the help and support both her and Libby received from golf instructor Dean Spriddle also made her success possible.
“Dean has made me feel really good about my game and he said to me, you should be competing with these women, I don’t know why you’re not,” Bourassa said. “I kind of took that to heart going into this feeling like that I was good enough to compete.”
Bourassa wasn’t the only local golfer competing in Leduc last week. Hatter Sarah Armstrong played in the amateur event, finishing fifth. She was named to Alberta’s Women’s Amateur Interprovincial Team for the 111th Canadian Women’s Amateur Championship to be held at the Riverside Country Club in Rothesay, N.C. July 22-25.
While playing at different age levels, Bourassa was proud and impressed of Armstrong’s play and she wasn’t afraid to admit she learned some lessons from the younger golfer.
“She made me realize golf doesn’t have to be as hard as I make it,” Bourassa said.
“She has such a great mindset and isn’t that crazy to say when you’re learning things from the kids, but I told people there, it’s not like this is a big secret. That’s what I took away from playing with her, is she has such a great outlook and that I can probably score lower than I believe that I can.”
Bourassa says she is able to enjoy competitive golf more than she did her first stint as a teenager. It took some life experience but she’s able to handle the ups and downs a little better now than she did before.
“Back then you thought everything was such a big deal and now you have perspective,” Bourassa said. “I’m just thankful that I get to do it, that my body still allows me to do it and that I can still be competitive doing it.”
