An Impact Player
Compiled by Dianne Finstad
Having a golf course the calibre of Innisfail’s in the local community has had a significant impact over the one hundred years of its operation. While providing a prime recreation facility for those nearby, it’s also brought countless guests and visitors from afar to tackle the challenging and beautiful links. That means the Innisfail Golf Club has been an economic benefit, bringing hospitality business to the region. But it’s also been a local employer, giving many young people a valuable opportunity of a job, plus golf course experience. And that has taken some down the path to golf-related careers. Let’s meet a few who have shared their stories with us…
Rylee Plitz was a Junior Member at Innisfail from 1997-2008, where she earned a Junior Girl Club Championship. She went on to claim a Ladies Championship and was a Ladies Open Winner at Innisfail as well. She had a successful University and Amateur career, before becoming a PGA professional in New Jersey. She’s earned numerous playing and professional PGA awards in the state and currently serves as PGA/LPGA Head Golf Professional at Eagle Ridge Golf Club, in Lakewood, New Jersey. Rylee writes:
I will forever be grateful to Jim Boomer and my time growing up at Innisfail Golf Club. My first lesson was from Jim, first time breaking 100, 90, 80, & 70 came at IGC, my first hole-in-one was there, and my first club championship, ALL of my firsts came at IGC.
Being a member at one of the top golf courses in Alberta provided my brother, Ryan and I with skills that could only be fostered at Innisfail Golf Club. Spending countless hours on the range and putting green is something I try and tell all my juniors about now. Junior Night was one of my first experiences being around other junior golfers, and the fact that we were allowed on the course to play unsupervised was a great experience. IGC will always have a special place in our hearts… and IGC is the epitome of how a golf course should be; amazing conditions, friendly staff, & great food and beverage operation.
Rylee’s brother also excelled in golf and pursued a related career. Ryan Plitz played Junior golf at Innisfail from 1998 until 2004. His junior golf included four years on the McLennan Ross Alberta Junior Tour, where he claimed the Championship in 2002. Another highlight was setting an all-time scoring record of -5 in one of the Tour events. As Plitz pursued an amateur golf career in provincial events, he used his McLennan Ross Scholarship to enroll in Glendale Community College in Phoenix, AZ, where he became a walk-on member of Glendale College Golf Team, scoring a top 20 placing in the National Jr. College Championships. In 2009, he qualified through Q-school for the Canadian Tour for full membership, but was injured during his first season and had to withdraw after seven events. In 2022, Plitz received his Amateur status back, and now continues to compete in Arizona amateur events and USA Mid-Am events.
Another IGC youth member who has gone on to great golf things is Kirk Williscroft.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share some memories of the club that helped me grow as a person, professional and mentor. I first began playing golf at the age of 8 and immediately grew a passion for the game. My parents bought a junior membership for me in 1998. My family lived in the southwest area of town which was a fair distance from the club. However, I would strap my clubs on my back, hop on my bike and ride to the club almost every day I had the chance.
What made me feel so welcome was not just Jim (Boomer), but also the other staff and members at the club that never had a problem with me joining their group. I began to have a knack for the earlier tee-times and met a group which included Ed Asmundson. Ed and his group would always welcome me and often included me in their tee-time bookings. The group was always so welcoming and encouraging, and that made me realize the kindness of the club and the members. One of my most fond memories was when I came to the club for the usual early time and was informed in the pro shop that the group would look a little different this morning. When I got to the first tee, I was surprised to see a group of younger and larger men standing on the tee. Starter Vince Tedeschini was smiling as he informed me I would be joined up with some Calgary Stampeders. I can recall the day – as the roles had switched and someone was asking me for advice on where to hit the ball. I still have a copy of the scorecard which they all gratefully signed following the round.
Of course, I owe a lot of what I learned not just as a player but also as a professional from one of the best in the business, Jim Boomer. Jim was always welcoming to me and saw my passion for the game and industry. When I was 14, Jim approached me to see if I was ready to start working in the backshop. This was a job I had only dreamed of for the previous 5+ years watching the kids drive golf carts and pick range balls. I could now, literally, live at the club!
I remember when IGC opened up to 27 holes. I was working in the backshop and was able to see the construction and design of the cart barn from stage 1. I was amazed at the upgrade from the chain link cart yard we had previously, in which we had to park the carts in numerical order, and you always seemed to be waiting for the cart that was at the back of the line. To this day, you would be hard-pressed to find a backshop that was run with more precision than the one Pat McAllister ran.
When I turned 16, I was offered to move into the pro shop and this I where I realized golf could become more than a sport for me and could become a profession and career. I continued to work on my game and play when I wasn’t working. I had the privilege to work with many great colleagues and fellow professionals. In 2019 I began attending Grant MacEwan University and competed on the collegiate golf team for 2019 and 2020. I gained a tremendous amount of experience in tournament play and was offered additional training and coaching to better my game.
To this day I will never forget the opportunities and experience that IGC gave me to succeed as a professional. From playing privileges, tournament and league organization, and staff management these were all key aspects of my golf professional career I took from IGC.
After obtaining his Golf Business diploma, Williscroft turned professional with the PGA of Canada and went on to get his Commerce degree in Saskatchewan. His golf career has included work in clubs in Saskatoon, and Airdrie, before eventually becoming General Manager of the Carstairs Golf Club, at the age of just 26! It’s a role he says he dreamed of from the day he started at IGC. Although Williscroft is no longer working directly in golf, it remains a passion. As he’s still in the region, and with friends and family still involved at Innisfail, he gets to return to where his love of the sport was born from time to time.
Stories are often told of folks who move to Innisfail because of the golf course, and one of those comes from Alan and Lise Rundell.
Upon retirement from a teaching career in Saskatchewan, Grandpa Rudy Dressler and Grandma Mabel debated moving to either Innisfail or Olds to be closer to family. They chose Innisfail based on the golf course. During his time as a member shareholder at Innisfail, he loved teaching and helping many golfers, young and old, learn the game…this included his great-grandchildren, Rachelle and Luke Rundell. Rachelle and Luke would go on to start their golf careers at the Innisfail Golf Course…thanks to Great Grandpa Rudy. Luke and Rachelle Rundell are both golf professionals and both work for the Maple Leaf Junior Golf Tour.
One of the former Innisfail players who has gone the farthest in golf, distance-wise, is Mark Bates, who has made a career in golf and now works in Singapore!
I first started coming to the Innisfail Golf Club when I was about 6 years old and playing regularly at 8. Looking back on it, being in the industry now, I have to credit the club for being so family-friendly and open to growing the game of golf through junior development. Jim Boomer and his assistant professionals were instrumental in creating an environment where I could learn to love the game. They also employed me from the day I could legally start to work! The Innisfail Golf Club was my second home and if I wasn’t playing or competing there, I was working my first job and learning about the industry and all kinds of life lessons at the same time.
Ultimately, my love of the game culminated in me joining the PGA of Canada as a golf professional. After working several years in the Calgary area, I moved to Bangkok, Thailand and worked at Heartland Golf Schools. This led to me moving to Singapore in 2006, where I am now the Director of Golf at Laguna National Golf Resort Club. Nearly 30 years from when I first washed a cart and picked the range in Innisfail, I’m applying skills I learned in my career here on the other side of the planet.
I’m fortunate that my dad, Gavin, continues to be a member and very much look forward to getting in a round with him every summer when I come back. Many things have changed and the club has evolved in so many ways since my formative years there, but the heartbeat of the club remains – a legacy that is continued by the Board of Directors, the members and the staff that are entrusted to take the club into the future. Cheers to another 100 years!
A current generation of young golfers is also still benefiting from the Innisfail effect, as expressed by Joe Kelly:
The Innisfail Golf Club has meant a lot to me and my development. It is where I learned to play golf at a young age and have grown and progressed my game throughout my junior career, and into my collegiate and amateur career. However, I have learned more than just golf during my time here. I have learned many life lessons and skills throughout my time here, many of which I carry with me to this day. I grew up here. This is a place where I have had a ton of fun and somewhere I always look forward to going to, not only because of the course but because of the members, the staff and the environment. I have represented the club in several high-ranked junior, amateur and collegiate tournaments thus far in my career, and am very grateful for the continuous support the Innisfail Golf Club has provided me along my journey.
I now play collegiate golf at Benedictine University, Mesa (AZ) and this opportunity was made possible because of all that I have learned at the Innisfail Golf Club. I am beyond grateful for my employment and membership at the club. Happy 100 years!
There are more who used experience from Innisfail to launch into a golf-related career, like Colby Johannson, Founder/Owner of Par 6 Golf Marketing. From his own admission, his earliest memories of the Innisfail Golf Club make him chuckle.
I’m actually surprised I was allowed past the first tee box beyond the age of 8. Mrs. Jarvis was the chaperone for my first-ever golf tournament. For the life of me I couldn’t understand why she didn’t let me walk into the trees, pick up my ball and toss it in the fairway. As far as I was concerned, I was hitting two and enjoying the fresh air. There was a time when I was given the opportunity to hit Ray McGinnis’ driver off of number five…I made contact with his head before I started my downswing. Blood was involved. And then the time I watched my Dad summersault down 5 fairway after I turned the cart a little too abruptly and without notice. Never thought of him as a gymnast but his tuck-and-roll was pretty impressive.
Needless to say, the golf club was a giant playground and a lovely one at that. In a lot of ways, I feel as though I grew up there with my closest friends, some older, some younger.We all bonded over a game we were falling in love with. And we learned a lot. We learned about responsibility; we learned about respect and traditions.
I was a range rat until I was finally old enough to hold employment. I really just wanted to drive the golf carts and—joke’s on them—I would’ve done it for free.
I’ve always been proud to say that Innisfail was my home course growing up. People’s faces seem to light up when the Innisfail Golf Club is mentioned—“it ate my lunch”, “beautiful course”, “tough course”, “can’t wait to get back”. I look back and feel grateful and amazed to have been able to play a course of that calibre— I became the player that I am today because of it.
It’s hard to say whether golf would be such a big part of my life if I grew up at a different course with different people. It was more than a golf course – it was a community. I fell in love with golf there and continue to nurture my love of the game.
Others keep golf connected to Innisfail in unique ways, like IGC’s graphic and web designer, Matt Berry of Arktos Graphics, who designed the new IGC and Centennial logos for the course. Or Trevor Meding, who’s many rounds hiking the hills at IGC perhaps helped build a foundation for his ultrarunning career!
Innisfail’s links continue to produce some outstanding golfers, the likes of Jace Ouelette, Cara Vanderham, Nikki Norlan, Courtney Dixon, or the Medings, and others who have become well-known in golf circles.
But countless more young people have been given a lift, by earning income, experience and life lessons working and playing at the Innisfail Golf Club.
Current board member Brett Kelly sums up that sentiment well:
The Innisfail Golf Club is a very special place for me, and it’s hard for me to put into words what it has meant for my growth as a golfer and more importantly, as a person, a community member, a friend, a husband, and a dad. My family moved to Innisfail from Regina in the summer of 1987. I was so excited as my dad said membership at the course was only $50 for me. I was 13 and obsessed with golf; that spring I watched Larry Mize chip in on 11 at Augusta to win the Masters and I was hooked. One of the lessons I learned was your name and reputation are your most valuable asset – act with honesty, respect, and integrity, on and off the course. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention some of the people at the golf club who shaped me along the way – Jim Boomer, Jim Romane, Al Norlin, George Killam, and Mike Moller (who taught me how to drive the range tractor at my first job), to name just a few. Our golf club has grown and changed over our history, and I’m confident that the leadership team, grounds crew, and F&B staff will continue to honour our past while building for our future.
The common thread in all these inspiring stories is the important role the Innisfail Golf Club has played in developing youth in golf, and beyond, for a whole century!