Manitoba extends to an area of more than a quarter of a million square miles and it’s home to around one and a quarter million people, many of whom are of British, Irish, German or Ukrainian descent. French then British traders established Winnipeg, the capital and largest city in the province, as a fur trading post in the early 18th century and its diverse modern economy is now one of the nation’s success stories.

Five clubs – St Charles, Pine Ridge, Norwood, Winnipeg Hunt Club and Elmhurst – were represented at the first meeting of the Manitoba Golf Association in 1915, seven years before women in the province established their own governing body, the Manitoba Ladies Golf Association. Both associations continued to serve their members for more than eighty years until they eventually merged in 2004 to form Golf Manitoba.

Manitoba is not exactly overflowing with quality golf courses but the layout at Pine Ridge, one of the province’s oldest clubs, is an old Tom Bendelow-design that was remodeled by Donald Ross when he visited Winnipeg in 1919 and it’s widely regarded as one of the province’s premier 18-hole tracks.