Jean-Louis Lamarre

Head Golf Professional

Club de Golf Beloeil, Quebec

A Globetrotting Golf Professional, Teacher and Father

The province of Quebec has produced its fair share of great professionals, but none any better than Jean-Louis Lamarre, the pro at the Club de Golf Beloeil (just south of Montreal).

Lamarre is perhaps best known as the winner of the 1989 Canadian Professional Golfers’ Association (CPGA) Championship at Glencoe Golf and Country Club in Calgary – his high water mark as a pro.

He outduelled PGA Tour veteran Dave Barr and the 1988 CPGA winner Brent Franklin to win a stirring three-man battle.

He was also part of a mini-wave of Quebec-born players who starred during the 1980s and 1990s, including Danny Talbot and Remi Bouchard.

This year, the good-natured Lamarre is approaching that golden age for pro golfers – 50. It’s when many aging players think about giving some thought to qualifying for the senior tour, or simply slowing down and passing on the wisdom they’ve acquired from years of playing.

Lamarre is doing a bit of both.

He says his new position at Club de Golf Beloeil allows him much more time to work on his game and play with members. He loves to pass along these tidbits when giving lessons. He’s also wise counsel to his son Iannick, winner of the Quebec junior title at age 16, who is now weighing his options in golf (scholarship or pro career) as he leaves high school.

His son’s unusual first name, by the way, is a combination of Nick Faldo and Ian Woosnam who were the No. 1 and No. 2-ranked players in the world when he was born.

The elder Lamarre still plays competitive golf and can be seen on the Quebec Tour that criss-crosses the province each summer. The former Canadian Tour player also dips his toe into that tour at times, including the Montreal Open, but he’s realistic about playing with the fading pros like Irwin, Crenshaw, Langer, et al., now starring in the 50+ events.

“They [tour organizers] don’t want me out there,” he says. “It’s a tour for the big-name players. I understand that.”

Lamarre’s other claim to fame is as a globetrotting pro. He’s played in 55 countries, including India and Pakistan, and tours in South Africa, Australia, Asia, and South America, as well as Canada and the U.S.

For the past dozen years, he’s been using TaylorMade products, and jokes that he’s a walking advertisement for the company. Outfitted in adidas, and hitting the TaylorMade woods and irons, he’s a huge fan of the product.

He calls the TaylorMade balls the “best wind ball I’ve ever played,” and his pro shop at Beloeil is heavily outfitted with the company’s products. He says the new R9 driver is a delight to play, and the chance to adjust it to fit the swing pattern for club members is an amazing aspect of the product – something he never thought he’d live to see.

The Beloeil Club is a par 71 at just over 6400 yards from the back tees, and it’s a great members’ club. “You don’t get killed by the distance,” says Lamarre.

With the new R9 in his bag, the “gap” between his drives as a youth and the ones he now hits as a pro is narrowing.

Is it narrowing enough that he might try and revive his tour career?

“It’s not impossible,” he joked.

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