Back on June 19th, 144 golfers took to the Red Deer Golf and Country Club for the 20th and final Women's Classic Golf Tournament, with all the funds raised going towards breast cancer research.

Due to the tough economic times, this year was decided to be the last year, after losing some major sponsors, and seeing the funds raised slowly decline as the years went on.

Even though they raised less this year than they have in recent years, Committee Treasurer Janie Nielsen says they knew it would be less this year, with the economy also playing a role as to why this was the last year for the tournament.

“We felt that this last year, as a committee, that it was really hard with the economic times here. We were pulling from the same pool of sponsors and the same pool of golfers. As a committee, we asked for help, for anyone to come forward to carry it on, no one came forward… it was a good decision, 20 years is an awesome achievement.”

They managed to raise $39,100 this year, which is down from the over $50,000 they raised back in 2014.

The total amount the tournament has raised in the last 20 years is $943,872.

Some of the places who benefited from the generosity of this tournament throughout the years include the Canadian Cancer Society, who received $8,800 total prior to this year’s tournament, the Red Deer Regional Hospital Foundation, as well as the Tom Baker Cancer Centre, who both received $17,600 in total prior to this tournament.

This year’s live auction items included Michael Bolton concert tickets in Kelowna at a winery, 4 VIP passes to Gord Bamford and an autographed guitar, and 24 bottles of assorted wine valued at more than $600.