I’ve been a member of BCC since 2013.  I grew up in North Toronto and Markham with aspirations of playing professional football, but more on that later . . . this is supposed to be about my golf background.  I’m pretty sure my golf resume won’t get me into the Golf Canada Hall of Fame, but my wife and kids tell me it isn’t too, too shabby compared to the rest of the guys in the Mid-Am field. 
 
I played junior golf at John Evelyn Golf Club, now known as Bushwood GC in Stouffville.  Bubba Watson’s wife’s parents now own the course.  My dad used to drop me off at the course at 7am and pick me up at 8 pm every day in the summer.  I played and practiced quite a bit but my only junior tournament win was the Peterborough Junior Invitational in 1979.  More impactful to me was my suspension from golf after I mixed the salt and pepper shakers in the Bushwood dining room and loosened the tops.
 
I developed into a career 6 handicapper in the 1980s & 90s and after finishing runner up in Club Championships approximately a dozen times to 10 different golfers, I finally, mercifully, won a few events.
In fact, I won a handful of Club Championships: four consecutive years at Mill Run Golf Club in Uxbridge (1999-2002) and one at Tangle Creek Golf Club in Barrie in 2005, for a total of five. (Five’s a handful, get it?)  I had a really good year in 2003 when I won the Golf Association of Ontario Public Players’ Championship. 

Here at Barrie CC, I’ve managed to hang around the course too much and put on about 10 pounds of Molson muscle at the 19th hole.  It might be the improved stability related to the extra weight I packed on that has helped me develop an outstanding putting stroke.  Either that, or the necessity born out of playing on quality greens every day.

I’ve often wondered whether I would have achieved more success in golf had I not taken so many blows to the head playing football from 1974 (the year of my first hospital visit) to 1994  (when I was stretchered off the field unconscious and woke up as I was being rolled into the CAT scan room at Toronto Western).  I played defensive back and was University of Toronto’s Varsity Football Captain when we won the Ontario University Association Yates Cup in 1983.

I played a few games with the Hamilton Tiger Cats, with former CFL greats Dieter Brock (QB), Rocky DiPietro (TE) & Bernie Ruoff (Kicker).  I met Harold Ballard, the team owner at the time, at training camp, and was quite surprised that he was a short, fat guy with pale, snow white skin.

I guess you could say I took un-voluntary retirement from football.  I got cut by Coach Joe Bruno who failed to appreciate my blinding speed and lethal tackling ability, so I switched gears, and decided to try living and working in Hamburg, Germany. 
Once there, I felt I had to keep playing sports and was immediately signed by a semi-pro Division III hockey team, because the Europeans thought ALL Canadians were as good as Wayne Gretzky. However, my team found out I was more of an Ogie Ogilthorpe.

I only spent a half season in Hamburg until the team’s Russian import arrived and the Canadian who I had replaced had his teeth fixed.  The compensation plan of 50 marks per point wasn’t the best, but not bad for an OHA Junior C League grad who scored 6 career goals for the Stouffville Clippers and racked up 20 fights in two years, most of which I lost.  The fact that the hockey groupies in Hamburg were marvelous had absolutely nothing to do with my decision to play for peanuts.

After my football and questionable hockey career, I enjoyed working in the advertising industry, shooting television commercials and film series in Canada and the U.S.  In the 1980s & 90s I was fortunate enough to book many sporting "gigs" working with pro athletes like Yvan Cournoyer, Marcel Dionne, Mike Bossy and Tom "The Terminator" Henke, a Blue Jays closer.
I was Wayne Gretzky's stunt double for a few Gillette Canada spots and met Wayne and Janet when they were dating.  One Gretzky commercial was with Vladislav Tretiak, the USSR goalie from the '72 series.

My favourite golfer is Carl Spackler.  My best golf story . . .  I proposed to my wife Anita in 1990, on the 6th tee of Mill Run Golf Club, which is quite an elevated and romantic spot with a breathtaking view of beautiful downtown Uxbridge.  Of course she said “yes”. For the next 10 years, until we moved to Barrie in 2000, whenever I needed a free pass to play golf, I would say to her, "Honey, I'm going to the place where I proposed to you." 

I have many fond memories of summer afternoons in Uxbridge, when our son Max, now 20, and our daughter Pressley, now 18, would accompany me to the golf course, where I could spend time with them and practice my short game.

Like everybody else competing at the Mid-Am level, I’m a working stiff.  I’m the managing owner of  www.furnishedcondominiums.com in the Corporate Housing Industry in Toronto.  The feature film production industry in Toronto is a regular business partner.

Right now I'm working with an Adam Sandler film called “Pixels” that is wrapping up shooting this summer.  Adam's production studio is called Happy Madison named after his famous golf movie “Happy Gilmore” and another of his comedies “Billy Madison”.

In regards to the Canadian Mid-Am, the talent at this level will be fun to compete against.  There are so many naturally skilled golfers at this level of competition.  The course will need to defend itself with long rough and firm, fast greens.
Barrie’s “Magnificent Seven” competitors’ familiarity with the course will allow us to commit to shots and make confident decisions.  However winning or being near the top 20 will be a challenge.

Maybe a few members/spectators could help us out by sliding extra clubs into competitors’ golf bags or even better . . . wearing squirrel suits and hiding their golf balls!