Call it home course advantage for Jason Martens.
The Oil Country Championship tees off next week at the Windermere Golf & Country Club. Martens, 20, has been a regular at the course for almost his entire life.
“My dad would bring me down here at two years old,” said Martens, who on Monday was granted a sponsor exemption to play in the tournament.
He’s no stranger to competitive golf at Windermere. Martens is a six-time junior club champion and won the men’s club title as an 18-year-old.
“It’s pretty tight off the tee. They can grow the rough, so you really want to be accurate off the tee. Some of the greens have multiple tiers, so you really have to place the ball on the right portions of the greens to play well,” Martens said. “I expect it to change drastically though. They like to switch it up when we get tournaments here. It’s going to be a test.”
Even though Martens started swinging a club at a young age, he didn’t fully commit to golf until he was in high school.
“I was coming off a couple of different injuries,” he explained. “I thought, ‘I can’t afford to get hurt for golf.’ I was better at golf, so that’s when I chose to focus on the sport.”
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Other sponsor exemptions include former Oilers goaltender Grant Fuhr, Edmontonians Steve Lecuyer and Nick Vandermey, Sarnia’s Matt Hill and Californian Benjamin Shur.
The Edmonton Oilers Community Foundation will direct all net proceeds from the tournament to the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation, specifically in support of its Pediatrics Procedure Suite.
The Oil Country Championship will feature a celebrity pro-am on Tuesday, Aug. 1. Some of the celebrities involved will be Wayne & Janet Gretzky, Glen Sather, Cam Talbot, Mark Letestu, Kevin Lowe and Craig Simpson.
Tournament play will run from Aug. 3-6.
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