Grant Cammidge and Bill Penny, two of Alberta’s top golf general managers and professionals — the latter especially true in every sense of the word — are, sadly, leaving the business.
Penny, the current GM at Camrose, is retiring; Cammidge, the current GM at the Edmonton Petroleum Club, is simply moving on to a yet unannounced future endeavour.
“Grant is going to be tough to replace,” said the Pete Club’s President Leon Marciak.
“He has carried the club to give it a very high stature in Alberta both competitively and on a recreational basis,” Marciak said referring both to the Pete Club’s strong, vibrant membership and the course hosting several high-profile tournaments like last year’s Alberta PGA Championship, qualifying events for the LPGA, the Alberta Ladies Amateur, the Alberta Men’s Amateur, the Alberta Senior Ladies Amateur, an annual Pro-Am for members and guests to play with various golf pros from across the province and a Canadian Junior Boys championship.
Next year, the club will, for the first time, host the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada annual Syncrude Oil Country Championship.
“Grant has also built a strong junior program,” said Marciak, which is hardly a surprise given Cammidge’s previous work with juniors when he was at the Stony Plain golf course for 17 years as an assistant pro, head pro and pro-manager and where he introduced hundreds upon hundreds of juniors to the sport.
“Why not?” Cammidge said without pause. “It’s all about growing the game and giving back something to the game. This is a game for all ages.”
Grant Cammidge demonstrates chipping techniques out at the Stony Plain golf club in 2008 Staff file / Postmedia
Cammidge, who has been the Pete Club’s GM for 13 years, also constantly surrounded himself with sharp people like himself — cases in point being the Petroleum Club’s head professional Kyle Boyd, who was recently voted by his peers as the Alberta PGA’s merchandiser of the year, and Keith Blayney, voted Canada’s top superintendent last year.
“If you have good people around you who work well together, you are going to find success. We’ve always had great people around this club,” said Cammidge, 52, who recently showed he still has plenty of game winning the Belvedere Pro/Am.
Penny is legendary in Alberta. He started up three very high profile Alberta courses: Calgary’s Speargrass, Canmore’s Stewart Creek and Sherwood Park’s Northern Bear.
Starting off as an assistant at B.C. in 1971 and also working at Maui, it was at the Edmonton Country Club where, from 1983 to 1998, Penny really made his name.
