Allan Elgie

Head Golf Professional

Belvedere Golf and Country Club, Alberta

Championship Form

Edmonton, Alberta is known as the City of Champions.

The Wayne Gretzky-led Edmonton Oilers and Warren Moon-led Edmonton Eskimos played a rather large role in creating that label.

But there are also champions in other sports, like golf, and look no further than the Belvedere Golf and Country Club in nearby Sherwood Park, Alberta, to find two more examples.

The last two head professionals at the club, Garry Meyer and Allan Elgie have both been named ‘Alberta Club Pro of the Year’ – and justifiably so.

Both have played a huge role in the success of the private club that sports about 700 members and was founded in 1961.

Elgie learned his craft under Meyer, and the Kamloops B.C. product continues his legacy.

Elgie has been at the club a total of 24 years, and in that time, keeping the membership happy with great customer service has been his goal, along with his staff of three assistants.

With one of the largest and most active memberships at any private club in Alberta, Elgie says Albertans appreciate their golf, especially when the season is only about five months long.

In the summer season, the sun can stay up as long at 11 p.m., which might make for long days at the club. But Elgie isn’t complaining.

One of his big thrills is seeing the graduates succeed from the club’s unique junior program.

The program begins just after school ends, and runs each Monday in three different age groups.

Teaching the kids the fundamentals of the game has paid off big-time. Players like Jill Swenson (Alberta amateur champ), Lee Barrett and Kyle Brandt (U.S. college players) are graduates of the program.

Elgie grew up at the Kamloops Golf Club and remembers carrying a leaderboard for Canadian touring pro Jim Rutledge during the JC 55 Labatt Open at his club. He worked the backshop at the club during that time, and got his love for the game from his parents, both keen players.

The aptly named Mike Grass was the head pro, and he had a great influence on Elgie’s introduction to the game, and the job of head professional.

The married father of two identical 19-year-old twins is up for Merchandiser of the Year for the Belvedere Pro Shop, one of the finest in Alberta.

Elgie is a big fan of the TaylorMade adidas line of clubs and apparel, and says the new Burner irons are very popular with the membership, as is the R9 driver, his favourite club.

“We take a lot of pride in our golf shop,” he says, and likes the fact it’s a “one-stop-shop” for the membership.

Belvedere has had only four head pros in its long history, and all have contributed to making it a club of “champions.”

Miles Mortensen

General Manager /Director of Golf

Tobiano

Kamloops, BC

A Real Hotshot

The hottest spot in Canada this past year was Tobiano Golf Club in Kamloops, B.C. – literally and figuratively.

For 17 straight days this summer, Tobiano, and other clubs in the B.C. interior, baked in 35+ Celsius weather.

Tobiano, the Thomas McBroom masterpiece located above the shoreline of Kamloops Lake in the Thompson-Okanagan Region of B.C., was also voted the No.1 public course in the province, as well as the best conditioned.

Even summer wildfires that affected the air quality at Tobiano and environs couldn’t stop an increase in the number of rounds played in ‘09.

“I’m surprised and grateful about that,” says Miles Mortensen, general manager and director of golf at Tobiano.

Mortensen has been at Tobiano (located on historic Six Mile Ranch) even before the championship courses that stretches from 5358 to 7367 yards (depending on tee blocks), was built a few years back. Tobiano is an instant classic with funneling fairways, carries over arroyos, sagebrush and cacti, and greens perched on cliffs.

The picture-perfect backdrops are like nothing else in golfdom.

When the job posting for head pro went up, Mortensen was pro-active. The head pro at Banff Springs bundled his wife and two children into their car and drove to the site 20 minutes from Kamloops. Developer Mike Grenier was talking at the presentation centre about his dream for the lifestyle project.

Mortensen wanted in, the two men met, and the first pro/general manager was hired.

“Working with Mike is the ultimate tutelage,” says Mortensen. “I’ve learned more about business than I would ever learn in school. He’s so intelligent, and such a visionary. It’s like getting a free MBA just being around him.”

Setting up a golf shop and overseeing the food and beverage component at the clubhouse is what Mortensen calls “a legacy thing.”

That means everything that he is doing now will affect the club and its future aspirations.

From buying the right tee block markers, to filling the pro shop with 100 per cent TaylorMade hard goods, and plenty of adidas soft goods, Mortensen says “we are setting standards for years to come.”

Mortensen recently hired Mike Porco, former director of golf at The Dunes, as the club’s new director of business development.

Porco’s job will be to grow the membership numbers (now 15 per cent of the tee times), bring in more corporate rounds, and work with travel agents and Golf Kamloops to secure a steady influx of players.

While Mortensen gets more involved in the real estate side of the business, the golf club will continue to find its way in one of Canada’s great natural playpens.

Mortensen says the financial viability of Tobiano is very good, and 10 years from now, he hopes the standards being set today, will create one of North America’s great facilities – a mecca for golfers and outdoors lovers alike.

Mortensen has been a TaylorMade staffer for over a decade and thinks the hard goods are “leading edge – when it comes to flexibility and playability.”

“TaylorMade clubs have a longer lifespan for players,” he adds. “The clubs adjust to you and bring confidence to the first tee.”

The native of Brooks, Alberta, is one of many graduates of the junior program who went on to head professional jobs across Canada. Under the watchful eyes of Barry and Harry Wren, Mortensen said getting a free “cinnamon bun and pop” was what first got him interested in hitting balls Brooks Golf Club. His hunger for golf grew under Doug Wood at Banff Springs and Murray Blair at Chateau Whistler.

With its lifestyle mantra, a championship course, and a head pro and general manager with a philosophy of setting high standards, Tobiano will no doubt continue to be one of hottest clubs.

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