Northern Bear Golf Club bands together to host ATB Classic

Canadian Irv Williams is no stranger to running towards the fire.

Williams lost his home to a wildfire that hit Fort McMurray, Alberta, in May of 2016. In the moment, despite losing his home, Williams rushed to the front of the volunteer line to help provide aid to those who needed it.

Eight years later, Williams has had to answer the call once more, this time as the owner of Northern Bear Golf Club located in the greater Edmonton area and the host of the ATB Classic, the second event of the PGA TOUR Americas North America Swing.

Early in the morning on Jan. 13 the Northern Bear clubhouse was lost due to a fire.

Despite the shock from the loss of their clubhouse, the club ownership, staff and tournament organizers – as well as title sponsor ATB – recognized the importance of hosting the ATB Classic at Northern Bear.

“At ATB, we understand the importance of standing by our clients during challenging times,” said Kris Noble, senior manager of ATB Community Initiatives. “We made a commitment to host the tournament at Northern Bear, so we had full intention to see that through. It's been amazing to see the TOUR, Linx Marketing and Northern Bear all rally together to prepare the course to host another fantastic PGA TOUR Americas event.”

Hosting an event in Edmonton is integral for both PGA TOUR Americas and players such as Matthew Anderson. The 2023 ATB Classic was Anderson’s first made cut as a professional. He finished T13 and has since posted a win this season at the 69th ECP Brazil Open and currently sits No. 1 in the Fortinet Cup. The second-year pro cited that the hospitality and upbeat atmosphere is what made the ATB Classic memorable.

“I remember on No. 18 they had the biggest hospitality tent I’ve ever seen and it was great," said Anderson. "The food was awesome, I can definitely speak to the hospitality of the ATB Classic being amazing.”

While hosting the ATB Classic was a must, making sure that Northern Bear would be open for golf season was a priority. Led by Northern Bear Director of Golf Blair McDowell, club staff went to the drawing board and started planning how to not only operate the tournament, but how to service members and guests through the season.

“We knew we were in a position where we had to move forward,” McDowell said. “We still had one of the best golf courses in western Canada. Although we didn’t have our beautiful clubhouse, we still had what was important to our members and for our guests which was the course itself.”

Getting the course operational didn’t just entail finding structures to host members, it came down to replacing everything down to chairs and silverware.

“Knowing that we had a business to run, we had to somehow find a way to do that with temporary structures," McDowell added. "We went out and found some temporary structures and basically started from scratch. We had to house our trailers with everything you could imagine. … Everything from basic necessities such as plates, tables and chairs.”

While the journey has been filled with adversity, McDowell is proud of the work that the staff at Northern Bear has done to host Edmonton’s PGA TOUR Americas event.

“I’m just amazed at how things have come together and how strong our staff is,” McDowell said. “I think it’s really important for them to be involved to showcase Northern Bear and what we can do. Last year we really felt a sense of accomplishment as a staff for putting on a great event and hope to do so this year.”