Kory Postma, Golfer, 2000-Present
Kananaskis has always been an iconic golf experience for my father and I. Every year since I was a boy (now age 28) we would play Father’s Day golf, typically mixing up the front nine holes of Lorette and the front nine of Kidd. These were our favorites!
One year I remember playing with him and we were getting increasingly competitive. He always says I’m trying to “get in his kitchen” when bugging him about his golf game. As the game progressed, he had a beautiful drive on Hole 6, Par 5, Mt Kidd (the hole backing up against the mountain). He was going to try and get there in 2, hopefully putting some pressure on me.
As he walked over to his ball in the fairway, took his stance and turned his back to the mountain, a huge grizzly came out of the forest. I was now in a predicament: Should I allow him to shoot? Or should I tell him a bear is walking towards us, only a few hundred yards away?
“DAD, there is a bear behind you!” I said, but he shrugged me off and continued with his shot routine. “DAD, there is actually a bear behind you… I’m not trying to ‘get in your kitchen’!”
He mumbled a few words under his breath and shook his head. I remember him taking a pretty great shot and saying, “nice try, son”.
I continued to point behind him as he walked back to the cart, until eventually he looked over his shoulder and saw the bear. We were both in awe. As we drove up to the green, a park ranger in a truck came out of nowhere and got between us and the bear. It carried on with its business slowly making its way back up the mountain.
To this day, that is one of the great memories of my life. I can’t wait for spring 2018! You can bet we’ll be there for Father’s Day golf and I’ll be getting in his kitchen with the memory of the Hole 6 grizzly!