Your tireless correspondent caught up to Neil in the BCC Bunker, (the casual lounge across from the Pro Shop), just days after his return from a two week, two tournament road trip.
 
First stop was the Canadian Men’s Senior Championship which took place from August 25-29 at Capilano Golf and Country Club in West Vancouver, where he finished T61.  The second stop was the Senior Porter Cup in Lewiston, New York where he played reasonably well and just missed the top 30.
 
Neil, and Neil’s full head of wavy white hair (one of his many signature characteristics) looked none the worse for wear.  As usual, he was in an upbeat frame of mind and was pleased to talk about his golf background and share his thoughts about the Mid-Am.
 
His parents were members of Weston Golf & Country Club when they introduced him to the game at age 12.  His Mom, who is 92, still lives on Weston Road and is still a social member at the Club.  One of the kids Neil played golf with at Weston was Warren Sye, who went on to become one of the most celebrated amateur golfers in Canada.  Sye was inducted into the Ontario golf Hall of Fame in 2003.
 
Neil advised, in his gravelly voice and understated manner that “I did OK in the Ontario Amateur Championship as a young kid, but I was more interested in playing hockey back then”.  Neil played centre for the Junior B Weston Dodgers when he was 15 - 16. 
 
His goal production and hockey career was compromised by a right shoulder injury suffered after a giant sized goon on skates leveled him with a dirty hit worthy of a lifetime suspension. Neil subsequently suffered torn ligaments in his right knee after a yet another giant sized goon with the IQ of a Neanderthal cross checked him into the boards from behind.

Remarkably, Neil did not pick up a golf club from age 20 – 46, a time spent working in Toronto in the paper and plastic industries, courting and marrying Cathy, and raising a family.  He describes his marriage as “34 years of bliss” and he is a proud and dedicated father to Matt, 33, Amanda, 29, Lance, 25 and Darren 23.
Neil is the owner/CEO of Vistapac Inc., a company he started out of the garage in his home in Weston in 1992, and grew into what is today, one of Canada’s leading manufacturers and suppliers of packaging films, and other packaging products.
 
Vistapac moved to a newly renovated 10,000 square foot facility in the south end of Barrie last year and promises its customers “best practices and technologies for continuous improvement in their packaging operations.”  The warehouse section of the facility also features a golf hitting area where Neil and his preferred clients can hit balls in climate controlled comfort year round.

Moving on to Neil’s BCC golf persona, Neil joined the Club in 1996, four years after he and his family moved to Barrie, and quickly improved from a 5 or 6 handicap to the 1 or 2 handicap that he sported as a 16 year old.  He was one of those rare individuals who career golf hackers and slashers envy enormously.  The more he played, the better he got.
Neil, now 58, is “living the dream”.  He won BCC’s Senior Club Championship in his first year of eligibility in 2011, and repeated in 2013.  He finished runner up in the overall Club Championship twice, and has registered several top 5 finishes.  He has qualified for eight out of the last nine Ontario Mid-Amateur Championships and three Canadian Mid-Ams.
All that, PLUS he hand built a wine cellar in the space that used to be a cold cellar in the basement of his home that contains a wonderful collection of fine wines.  His favourite wines are Montepulcianos and Brunellos from the Tuscany region in Italy.  His absolute favourite single wine is Shatter Grenache, an audacious, 100% Grenache from Maury, Languedoc-Roussillon, France.

Asked to comment on BCC’s hosting of the Mid-Am and our Club’s unprecedented “Magnificent Seven” competitors, he said, “Fantastic! Having the event here provides us with a tremendous opportunity to showcase our club and make a lot more people aware of how really good our golf course is.”

Neil’s goal is to make the cut and play in the final two days of the championship.  He acknowledges that the nagging shoulder injury he is nursing has reduced his swing speed, and therefore makes a top 30 finish unlikely.

However, as one of just ten golfers in the Championship who are seniors (Greg Hotham is another), he claims, “I’ll be excited on the first tee but I won’t feel any pressure.  There will be lots of people cheering me and the other Barrie guys on, and I’ll just try to play my usual game and try to put the ball in the hole.”
 
That’s good advice for everybody.