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With the top women golfers in the world making their way to Regina shortly to hit the links, preparations for the LPGA CP Women’s Open are underway at the Wascana Country Club.
The tournament will take place at the golf course from Aug. 20 – 26 and is the first time an LPGA tour event is taking place in Saskatchewan.
As of Wednesday, work was being done on the skyboxes which will be placed at the 18th and 17th holes as the golfers complete their round.
Greg Dukart, CEO of Wascana Country Club, said some of the major work being done on the course involves repairing its fairways and greens from damage done during the winter.
Dukart said they had to replace almost 200,000 square feet of sod on the fairways.
“A large part of fairways died this year,” he said. “They can’t withstand ice and rain that we had in January so a lot of it went dead.”
Along with the fairways, over 20,000 square feet of their greens also had to be replaced. Dukart said there has been constant management of the course to bring it up to the standards their members and LPGA expect.
He added the hope is to get a couple days of rain before the tournament starts to help with course conditions.
Along with the work being done on the course, there’s on-course concession stands and a fan zone which will have activities for all ages.
“It’s like planning for a wedding for 50,000 people and it’s a lot of work – but the crews did a great job, all our team’s done a great job, and we’re looking forward to the opportunity,” Dukart said.
He said they are expecting between 50,000 and 70,000 spectators at the event over the week and it’s expected to have an economic impact of around $10 million.
Spectators who are going to the tournament will need to park at the University of Regina and take a short bus ride to the course.
