It was in the early 60s when I first discovered the game of golf watching tournaments on television. It was the time of the big
three; Arnold Palmer,Jack Nicholas, and Gary Player - golfs emerging superstars. They began dominating a sport in which winning a couple of tournaments was considered a pretty good year for a successful pro. I fondly remember the 50 foot makeshift hole in my backyard and the epic clashes I played out between the three - Arnie by the way was my favorite.
Lakeview GC was a semi-private club close to where I lived growing up. I started caddying there In the summer when I was ten years old. I was pretty big for my age and thankfully the bags were never as large as the ones that are common place today. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to learn at an early age about etiquette and the simple things others don't always do that I take for granted; tending a flag stick properly or repairing divots and ball marks on greens.
As a side bar while I did occasionally caddy for the club pro Larry Edwards, the most memorable person I had the privilege to be paired with was Canadian Hall of Fame jockey Avelino Gomez. El perfecto as he was referred to wasn't the best golfer but he was probably the most competitive; the afternoon I caddied for him more than a few dollars changed hands including a nice tip for yours truly. I was so taken back by his personality that I followed his career for years afterwards. Not that I was ever a big fan of horse racing but when I was fourteen I convinced a neighbor to place a $10 bet on Gomez's mount Titled Hero in the 1966 running of the Queen's Plate. It was my first ever bet on a horse race and it turned out to be a winner!
I started chipping around in the backyard used a left-handed old wood shafted club of my brothers. By the time I started playing golf at age twelve I had switched over to using right-handed clubs; a Spalding starter set as I recall. I couldn't hit my woods very well, irons a little better, but as one might imagine I was a better chipper and putter from all the practicing in the backyard.
The Lakeview course where I played is steeped in history; established in 1907 and twice
the home of the Canadian Open (won by C.W Hackney in 1923 and
Tommy Armour in 1934). The course also hosted the very first Ontario Open and Ontario Amateur
championships, both in 1923. The course can best be described as a traditional parkland style, heavily treed with tight fairways and large sloping greens. It remains mostly untouched since it was built except the 7th hole that is now a par 5 instead of a par 4 when I played it. By today's standards it is not overly long at 6,340 yards par 71 and slope of 124 but requires a lot of control particularly off the tees.
I never saw golf as a serious sport growing up so I never really devoted that much time to the game. I did try out for my high school golf team and while in serious contention in the qualifying tournament early on, I faded fast - I was simply not consistent or good enough. By the time I finished high-school I was shooting the occasional round in the low 80s with an estimated handicap around 14. I stopped playing while attending the University of Toronto; too busy with school, working a couple of jobs and squeezing in time with the ladies.
My
first full-time job after university involved moving to Sarnia Ontario
on a temporary assignment and then a permanent move to a job in
Waterdown just outside of Hamilton nine months later. I started to play
golf again with my co-workers who were there on temporary assignment as
well. It was shift work with rotating days off which made it easier to
get out and play.
I was married while living in Sarnia and
after moving back to settle in Hamilton I got the bug to play again. I picked up an annual membership for a year at Chedoke and met a group of guys that were very competitive and
liked to play golf on a regular basis. That year I played over 70 rounds and was consistently shooting high 70s to low 80s.
My first golf vacation was in 1980 to Myrtle Beach
with two other couples; the guys would golf while the ladies shopped or
tanned by the water. I made in back to Myrtle again for a guys only vacation five years later. Unfortunately I herniated a disc in my back in the spring of 1985 and was in rehab for 9 months so I didn't play get a chance to play on that trip.
I moved to Mississauga in 1981 for a
job in downtown Toronto. I stayed close to my Hamilton buddies for a number of years afterwards. We set-up a golf league and designated between 8 and 12 Sundays each season to play. We incorporated an annual trip to the Conley Resort in Butler Pennsylvanian as part of the golf league schedule. There was eight and as many as twelve in our league that would make the trip; driving down on a Thursday in time to
play 18 holes, then 36 holes on both Friday and Saturday. Before the seven
hour drive back on Sunday we would grab another 18 holes. During this period of time I was playing some business golf and a few rounds outside of our golf league - probably between 20 and 25 rounds a season.
The Conley Resort by the way was all about quantity (all you could play golf) and having lots of fun in a very informal setting. The course was not unduly difficult and had some very interesting holes. A couple of par 4s over 300 yards from elevated tees were drivable and I
will always remember the 18th hole par 3 as one of the most difficult
finishing holes I have played; surrounded on three sides by water, a
sloping green and a bunker with overhanging tree to take away an easy
lay-up. The resort also had a large indoor water-slide and nice quiet bar for drinks and snacks in the evening that our group always managed to liven up.
The year after recovering from the herniated disc I found my back would begin to stiffen on the back nine and it would become very uncomfortable near the end of a round. With a stiff back I tend to stop turning and shots become all arm; a recipe for flubbed and misdirected shots. Over time I reduced my back-swing to shoulder height rather than above my head and that seemed to help keep the stiffness under control most of the time. For a while this resulted in a significant loss of distance particularly on long iron shots. Over time I adjusted the swing and gained back most of the distance loss on my woods and some of the distance loss on my irons. I have also added a hybrid 3 and a five wood to my bag to compensate for the distance loss on my irons.
By 1990 I started to drift away from the my golfing group. I had been promoted to Director and collectively we all seemed to get really busy with families or work and other things. We moved our golfing
vacation to Holiday Valley
in Ellicottville NY. to be a little closer to home but after a couple
years we stopped going away altogether and the golfing league fell apart. By the mid-1990s I found that the only golf I was playing
was at company golf tournaments or at customer meetings. My interest in
golfing outside of work was declining about as fast as my scores were
going higher.
A pity because while I was playing
less golf it was on some really great golf courses. For instance from
1992 through 2004 I was able to play Glen Abbey
in Oakville at least once and as many as four times a year; the Abbey
has hosted many Canadian Open Championships. A round in the summer will
set you back $235 there now but it is still quite the course as this photo shows. The best round I ever shot at Glen Abbey was an 82 but for the most part I would shoot in the low 90s. It didn't take too long afterwards before my scores began to rise as I played less and less each year. On my last round there I carded a brutal score of 110; so bad did I play that I seriously thought of giving up golf.
By 2006 I was down to playing about five or six rounds of golf a year. I felt like I was a better golfer than what I was scoring but after many bad rounds I was loosing confidence that I would ever play well again. Then on a business trip to Calgary I was invited to play a course called SilverTip near Canmore in the Rocky Mountains.
SilverTip at the time was one of the toughest public golf courses in North America; par 72, slope of 153 and 7,200 yards long off the tournament tees. (Today the course is a little easier and the holes have been changed around so it is a much different set-up than when I played it). That day we played the SilverTip tees (6,585 yards and a slope of 144). High in the mountains it is a gorgeous course; picturesque and intimating all at the same time.
I started with little in the way of expectations. On cue I opened with a double bogey on the first hole wasting a good drive by flubbing a couple approach shots and missing a short putt on the par 5. Then things changed around! In the high altitude I started hitting some monster drives over 300 yards and then hit some short irons stiff to tight pin placements. Before my back stiffened on the last three holes in the damp afternoon air, I managed to make three birdies and seven pars over a 14 hole stretch. Although I finished the last three holes with double bogeys I ended with an implausible score of 84 and a renewed enthusiasm for the game.
Despite wanting to play more I still wasn't getting out enough to be consistent let alone match that round at SilverTip. With a couple of my resort weeks banked and soon to expire, I found someone interested in going away for a golf vacation. This led to my first trip to Williamsburg in 2008. Even with the five rounds I played on the trip I still only managed 10 rounds in 2008 but it was the start.
My clubs were more than 10 years old and it was a great investment when I bought new woods in the summer of 2008. The following spring I bought new irons on my next trip to Williamsburg in April 2009. I since bought a new driver, four wood five wood, and hybrid, lengthened all my clubs (putter as well) and added thicker grips. What a difference technology makes!
While I was able to break 100 fairly consistently on that first trip to Williamsburg it wasn't until 2010 that I started to play enough to see my scores move noticeably lower. I stopped consulting on a full time basis that year and in 2011 I played about 30 rounds including 11 rounds in Williamsburg on a spring and a fall trip. I actually was able to crack 90 in the spring trip and had an 86 on the fall trip. When not playing I started to use the driving range for practice.
This year I played 32 rounds including 6 in Williamsburg on my fall trip. My low round was an 80 and my worst round was an 89. Not only am I scoring better but I am really enjoying the game again.
I am not playing business golf anymore so I am selective as to where and when I play to get the best value for my golfing dollar. I actually played 36 holes once and 27 holes on four occasions this year taking advantage of some golfing deals I picked up. My back is not stiffing up much anymore even when I walk a course. That said the majority of rounds I play are with a golf cart.
As you can imagine I see a lot of different courses in a year which is in sharp contrast to playing one course all the time as I did growing up.I think I have played 40 rounds in Williamsburg since 2008 on 16 different courses. In general I find courses tend to be the expansive resort style or the more traditional local course that tends to be shorter and tighter. In some ways as the number of rounds I played declined each year my game suffered from playing too many of the resort type courses where businesses tend to hold their tournaments. These courses you tend to need more distance off the tees and don't get hurt as much spraying the ball around because the fairways are wider. As I now play more of the local type courses I think my game is better rounded and more adaptable so I enjoy playing on most courses regardless of their style.
This also means that when booking a golf game I am flexible on the type of course I'll play and can be a lot more objective when assessing value. This is part of the key in my booking strategy...