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Phil McCluskey and Logan Hill will be on familiar turf.

Before they were pros at River Bend Golf & Recreation Area, both honed their skills as youngsters at Red Deer Golf & Country Club, so they should know every nook and cranny of the course that will play host Thursday to the final of the PGA of Alberta’s Srixon/Cleveland Golf Team Match Play event.

Eric Locke, meanwhile, will be in familiar territory. He’s been to the championship match three times now. 

“I’m hoping third time is a charm,” said Locke, the manager of player development at Priddis Greens Golf and Country Club. “Both times I’ve been to the final, we’ve lost on 17.”

McCluskey and Hill — the head professional and associate professional, respectfully, at always-busy River Bend — have never previously advanced this far in this season-long showdown. 

Their reward is an opportunity to compete for the title at their old stomping grounds.  

“I was a junior member at Red Deer Golf and Country Club,” McCluskey said, starting to chuckle as he prepared for a joke at his own expense. “I’m not even going to say when, because it was before electricity.”

And how about Hill?

“I grew up there, too — a lot later than Phil did,” he quipped. “To compete at what used to my home course, that will be a lot of fun.”

For a lot of PGA of Alberta members, the Srixon/Cleveland Golf Team Match Play is among the highlights on the annual tournament calendar.

This March Madness-style bracket starts with 64 two-player teams — 32 in the south, 32 in the north. 

If you want your name engraved on this trophy, you need to win six straight matches. 

McCluskey and Hill proved to be the most dynamite of duos in the north.

As McCluskey put it: “We’ve done an unreal job of picking each other up this year.”

The boys from River Bend most recently knocked off Cardiff’s Dallas Cantera and Jeremy Lavallee to secure their spot in the provincial final.

Locke and his usual partner, Inglewood Golf and Curling Club head pro Sam Kirkness, sizzled through the south side of the bracket. They punched their ticket to the last dance by eliminating Matt Cook and Craig McArthur of Canyon Meadows. 

Thing is, Kirkness departed earlier this week on a members’ trip to Ireland. Since he will be unavailable for the championship match, Locke will instead join forces with Matt Bean, an associate pro at Priddis Greens.

“The main thing that Sam and I do is we hit lots of greens between the two of us,” Locke said, dishing on their recipe for success so far. “So, 13, 14, 15 times a round, we’ll have two looks at birdie. And very rarely does one of us not have a look. For us, we almost feel a little relentless. We don’t give holes away, I guess, is the best way to put it.”

As Kirkness prepared for his getaway, he had a message for his pal.

“He just said, ‘Go get ’em,” Locke relayed.

And what did Bean say?

“He was like, ‘Are you sure you want me?!’ ” Locke said with a laugh. “I said, ‘Oh yeah, it’ll be just fun. There’s no pressure.’ ”

No pressure, although there are bragging rights on the line.

And not just among the four gents who will be trading birdies Thursday at Red Deer Golf and Country Club.

“It’s more of a joke than anything, nothing serious, but we like to be able to say the south is a little stronger than the north,” said Locke, winner of the 2024 PGA of Alberta Championship. “It’s kind of Calgary-Edmonton in hockey, that same kind of thing. We like to play it up a bit that way.”

Red Deer has always been considered neutral territory in the Battle of Alberta, but McCluskey and Hill have picked a side and are now hoping to notch a win for the north. 

“The two guys we’re playing are good friends, really good players,” McCluskey said, setting up Thursday’s final match. “We’re going to have to play our best to even have a chance. But there’s no reason we can’t.”