Dave Mills is the only blind man to ever compete in the Canadian Men’s Mid-Amateur Championship since its inception in 1987.  (Dave is the owner of Complete Blinds, Barrie’s leading custom window coverings and drapery shop in the south end of Barrie.)
 
He started his Junior golf career at the Peterborough Golf Club when he was 10 years old.  His Dad Dall was a golf enthusiast and a low single digit handicap player, so Dave received excellent coaching on the ins and outs of the swing and how to negotiate a golf ball around a golf course.
 
Dave’s family moved to Barrie in 1988 where he started high school at St. Joe’s on Cundles Road.  His Dad joined the Barrie CC before all of the moving boxes were unpacked and often schlepped young Dave to the course to caddy for him.  Caddying for his father was an unwritten condition of enrolment in BCC’s Junior section, which at the time included two younger budding superstars and negative character influences, Mark Henderson and Matt Oldershaw.
 
Dave was a Junior golf stud.  He beat the crap out of the aforementioned budding, but less physically mature, superstars Matt and Mark, and won the BCC Junior Championship three straight years (1988 – 1990). (Matt did eventually win the Junior Club C after Dave graduated out of the Junior section, and Mark enjoyed tremendous success in the NCAA playing for University of Illinois.)
 
One of Dave’s other Junior career and humanitarian highlights was agreeing to enter the Ontario Junior Better Ball Championship with young Matt, who, up to that point, had never really won anything of significance.  Dave recalls leading the team to a surprise second place finish.  Prodded by your inquisitive correspondent to reveal more about how they managed to finish second in a very strong field, Dave said, “It wasn’t easy.  As I recall, I had to hit the ball, drag Matt, hit the ball, drag Matt, hit the ball, drag Matt, etc., on almost every hole.  Nothing has really changed when Matt and I team up to play in better ball competitions today!  Ha ha . . . I’m just kidding!”
 
Dave clearly had a thing for Better Ball tournaments.  He experienced the thrill of playing with his Dad against golfers twice his age and qualifying for the Ontario Amateur Better Ball Championship at Oakdale GC when they were both at the top of their games.
 
After high school, Dave enrolled in Georgian College where he played intercollegiate golf and earned an Aviation Airline Management diploma.  After graduating, he went to work for Canada 3000 Inc.  Years later, after moving to other increasingly senior airline management jobs, 911 happened, the airline industry took an abrupt nosedive and Dave found himself without a job.
 
So to make ends meet, he started working with a buddy in Mississauga who was in the window coverings business and after a few months, discovered that he enjoyed it.  So he moved back to Barrie where he did the next logical thing.  He secured a bank loan, talked Hunter Douglas, the window covering manufacturing giant in to extending him favourable terms, and abracadabra . . . Complete Blinds & Window Coverings was born.
 
Dave’s drive and determination and customer relationship building skills put the business on track for exponential growth, and in 2006, the year the new clubhouse was completed, Dave rejoined Barrie CC.
 
“Millsy” as his buddies call him today, is an imposing 240 lbs of twisted steel on a 6’ 6” frame.  OK, OK, that’s an exaggeration, he’s more like 205 lbs of marshmallow and cellulite on a 6’ 2” frame, but his outsized personality and trademark booming laugh, make him look and sound bigger than he really is.
 
He can often be seen playing golf or socializing in the “Bunker”, (BCC’s casual lounge) with his good buddy from Junior days, the similarly jumbo sized Oldershaw . . . which brings to mind their partnership in a charitable initiative for Gilda’s Club Simcoe Muskoka a few years ago.
 
“Millsy” and Matt were recruited to participate in the annual Gilda’s Club CA Charity Golf Tournament held at BCC.  They were billed as “Gilda’s Gargantuan Golf Guys” and set up camp (camp consisted of two lawn chairs and a case of Molson) on the forward tee of the 6th hole, making the 436 par 5 an easy eagle  hole after a 350 yard drive.  In return for a voluntary donation from participating foursomes, they would smash drives into the stratosphere that the groups could use as their best ball.  According to a Gilda’s Club spokesperson, no foursome has ever asked for their money back, and many foursomes never found the errant balls hit askew by the Gargantuan Guys.
 
But enough about past exploits!  These past few days, since Dave got the last minute call from Golf Canada advising him that his “first alternate” status had changed to “championship competitor”, he has been walking around with an ear to ear grin on his face.
 
Asked how he felt about making it into the championship alongside six other BCC members, he said, “I’m relieved, excited and proud.  What a great testament to the Club that we have these kinds of guys competing at this level.”
 
Asked if he would be competing for bragging rights with Oldershaw, he replied, “All seven of us will be competing hard to be BCC’s low scorer. I play a lot with Neil, Matt and Greg. We’re competitive, but we also support and motivate each other to get better.”
 
Your intrepid reporter asked Dave whether he allowed himself to dream the near-impossible dream, i.e. if he won the Mid-Am Championship and got the exemption into the 2015 RBC Canadian Open at Glen Abbey, which PGA pros would he want to be paired with?  “Mike Weir and Phil Mickelson” was his thoughtful response.

Sunday, September 14 was Dave’s birthday.  An invitation to play in next year’s Canadian Open with Weirsy and Lefty would sure be a nice present.