Chautauqua Golf Club and Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy joined forces Monday to host a golf tournament to benefit the Conservancy. Twenty-eight foursomes, each consisting of three amateurs and one PGA professional, took to the Lake Course to help raise nearly $45,000 for the local nonprofit.

“The overarching goal (of the tournament) was to support the mission of the organization and raise funds so that we have the resources to work with landowners to deliver cleaner waters and a healthy watershed,” said John Jablonski III, executive director of Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy. 

Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy works with landowners around Chautauqua Lake to ensure that proper landscaping is being used to protect the waters from pollution. Fertilizers must be used correctly, in such a way that it doesn’t accelerate algal growth in the lake. The Conservancy also assists in the landscaping for lakefront vegetative buffers, which act as filters to absorb nutrients to make sure that the plants on land are the ones growing, not dangerous algae inside the water.

Chautauqua Institution and Chautauqua Golf Club have installed wetlands to treat the water from the courses. Golf Club crews are very cautious and frugal with their usage of fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and other chemicals that have the potential to become dangerous if used in high quantities or without companion natural filtering programs.

Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy has conserved more than two miles of Chautauqua Lake’s shorelines over the last 20 years. The group has also conserved 1,100 acres of watershed lands around Chautauqua County, with the help of the still-in-progress watershed tributary and wildlands system of important locations to help support clean water, along with healthy fish and wildlife habitats.

Dwayne Randall of Peek’n Peak Resort and Ryan Swanson of Pinehurst Golf Club tied for the lowest score by a professional by carding a 68 (-4). The foursome of J.A. Sutherland, Bill Bernard, Scott Crist and E. Ann Knepshield posted the lowest score for a team at 119, winning by eight strokes over the rest of the field.

Founded in 1990, Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy works with local landowners to ensure healthy water and fish habitats throughout Chautauqua Lake.

Photo from left to right: J.A. Sutherland, E. Ann Knepshield, Bill Bernard and Scott Crist won the tournament with a scorching 119 (-25).