The Willow Bunch Golf Course has been an integral employer and tourist draw in the south central Saskatchewan community 42.2 kilometres south of Assiniboia since the mid-1960s.
“The golf course has been around for a long time,” said Sarah Thorhaug, an Associate Business Advisor for Conexus Credit Union in Assiniboia and a long-time resident of Willow Bunch. Thorhaug’s family and other families in Willow Bunch have had deep connections with the golf course since the venue’s beginnings. “I am on the board of directors as the secretary and treasurer. I’ve been there for almost 10 years.” Her brother acts as the course’s superintendent. “He’s the one who’s in charge of how it looks,” she added.
Also, several others in Willow Bunch have served as volunteers in different facets to keep the golf course running every season. “There’s so many volunteers – lots of people are involved,” Thorhaug inserted.
Since the initial days, the Willow Bunch Golf Course had been a community-run development. The course had encompassed the input of local people spanning three to four generations. “I’ve always been involved, because my grandpa was interested in golfing and my parents took me golfing too,” said Thorhaug.
The story of the golf course began when a quarter section of wooded land 3.5 kilometres south of Willow Bunch and belonging to the Co-op Association was offered for sale in 1959 for the price of $4,000. Members of the Willow Bunch community devised a plan to transform an area close to what would later become the Jean Louis Legare Regional Park into a golf course.
Thorhaug believed one of the principle keys to golf course’s success involved the outdoor facility’s proximity to the regional park. “If it wasn’t for the park, the golf course wouldn’t be what it is,” Thorhaug confirmed.
Albert Mainil, Jim Paterson, Jim Gibson, James Porter and Laurent DeBlois canvassed the Willow Bunch region, asking for donations of $50 per person to raise the money and buy the land in 1959. After a rough draft of the course was designed, some of the trees and brush were removed with a bulldozer furnished by the R.M. of Willow Bunch. Construction for the course continued in 1960, as various people loaned trucks used to haul in sand. However, the designers of the course discovered they’d used the wrong kind of sand for golfing. So, new sand was trucked in from Coronach and the greens were rebuilt. Trees were burnt off, allowing the building crew to finish breaking the land for the fairways in 1963. Young men in Willow Bunch were paid 50 cents per hour to pick up tree roots and carry the debris away in buckets.
Prior to starting work on the sand greens, James Porter and Jim Paterson visited close to 34 courses to see how the fairways were seeded and how the sand greens were constructed. Annual ryegrass was chosen as a carrier, Creeping Red Fescue was planted for bounce and Merrien bluegrass was used for filler along with Kentucky bluegrass. Before golfers were able to use the course, Frank Barrett was hired to blast out some huge stumps in 1965.
Four years later, the Willow Bunch Golf Course purchased the Sharon School in 1969 to use as a clubhouse. Although the current clubhouse on the course has been altered considerably since then, the building still incorporates the Sharon School within its structure.
The local golf club in Willow Bunch took over the course in 1995. Thereafter, the Willow Bunch Auto Lotto came into being with the purpose of raising funds for watered fairways and grass greens. The annual lottery with a grand prize draw of $50,000 has assisted the Willow Bunch Golf Course with a diversity of operational needs such as maintenance.
