This past month, local amateur golfer Wenda Recoskie and her team took fourth place at the RBC PGA Scramble at Cabot Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
The RBC Scramble is a golf tournament held all over Canada which anyone over the age of 19 with a registered Golf Canada Handicap can participate in. The first stage of the tournament took place in May and June of this year, in more than 170 golf facilities across the country. The local qualifier was held in an 18-hole scramble format with teams of four eligible amateurs. Recoskie and her team began their journey at Rockway Vineyards Golf Club in Niagara, where they placed well and moved on to the Regional Finals.
Stage two of the tournament was held in an Ambrose scramble format, meaning the team played with net scores based on the handicap for the team. Teams also faced elimination during this stage. Recoskie’s team pulled off the wild card spot in Brantford, missing out to the team that beat them by one stroke. A few weeks before the nationals, however, they received news that they had made the Championship Final.
“We were ecstatic,” Recoskie shared, pausing for an emotional moment. “We felt like we already won.”
Recoskie hasn’t been a golf fanatic her whole life, but only began playing in her thirties.
“You don’t have to play golf when you’re twenty,” she said. “You can take it on when you’re older and you still can achieve things.” Like beating out 12,000 other Canadians to play at the RBC Scramble tournament. “Dreams come true and anything can happen.”
If beating out all the other players to get to Nationals wasn’t enough, Recoskie had an injury ten days before the tournament and was unsure if she would be able to play.
“The whole ten days prior, I couldn’t swing a club… I had to heal myself.” With the help of an amazing team of health care professionals she got through and was able to get to Nova Scotia. She was nervous heading out to the first tee; while everyone else had been practising she hadn’t even swung a club. “The first hole was so intimidating to me, but I never let on.” Not even her teammates knew, only her sister. “I didn’t tell anyone else because I didn’t want people to perceive that I was an injured player… this way I went in as the way they knew me.” It took a few holes to warm up but in no time, Recoskie was back and ready to play, even walking all three days of the tournament.
But it was really the team that made all the difference out on the course.
“It was the fun of it. This team had fun, we all gelled together and everything went really, really well for us,” she shared.
Aside from Recoskie, the team included her twin sister Wanda Brown, Mary Hanna, Kathy Smithson, and pro Caleb Ellis from the Twenty Valley Golf Club in Vineland. At the Regional stage, all teams were paired with a pro from their region. Smithson only joined the team for nationals after their fourth had to drop out. It was a ‘scramble’ finding someone with the same handicap to replace their previous teammate, and the team only met Smithson at the airport on the way to Nova Scotia, but she instantly fit in with the team.
“We knew how to have fun… it showed how a group of ladies can go to something like that and compete, but yet have so much fun,” Recoskie noted.
With a positive attitude and a whole lot of heart, Recoskie and team took fourth place at the 2024 RBC Scramble. She is eager to share her story and thinks, “They might see this as an inspiration to other women.”
