Celebrating the Past – Anticipating the Future
Compiled by Dianne Finstad
It’s a major accomplishment for a community jewel like the Innisfail Golf Club to mark one hundred years of operation.
Through rainy days, growing pains, technology changes or whatever challenges have presented themselves, the Innisfail Golf Course has continued to move forward, adapt and still provide the community and the bigger golf world a place to appreciate both the landscape and the game.
What’s been the key to the longevity? Looks like there have been several reasons, according to folks in the know, as they share their perspectives.
Longtime member Reg Stotz soon found out when he married into the McGibbon family (father-in-law Jack and his brother Terry McGibbon both served as President of the club) golf was something he needed to learn to do! Fortunately, he didn’t have to look far for help.
“My father in-law learned to golf as a boy at Innisfail,” Stotz explains. “Both my brother-in-law’s golfed – all three were very good. My father-in-law gave free lessons to anyone who asked (prior to Innisfail having a pro), and ran swing lessons for beginners in the school gym over the winter as well. He was very dedicated to growing the game and freely shared his knowledge of golf.”
Stotz shares his thoughts on the century of success at Innisfail.
So just what makes the club so good and successful? Well to start with, we were blessed with wonderful terrain – hills and valleys, sandy soils that can absorb a lot of water, and still be playable. A series of good greens keepers with their staff, wonderful front-end staff from the pro shop to the clubhouse, and choosing the right management and support people.
A spirit of volunteerism and a desire of the membership to have a great golf course. Volunteers. The guys in the men’s league clearing deadfall from the trees each year, picking roots from the new fairways being built, and I even remember crawling over the new greens on the Aspen nine with a table fork pulling up plugs of Poa Annua grass; the ladies’ help in running the large tournaments; the board members; members who own businesses who gave their time, expertise, and equipment to do jobs either free or at discounted rates. Whenever the club put out a call for help, it was there.
Good programs and events for the members – The Junior Program, very reasonably priced lessons with great instructors. Three of my children took advantage of these. I do remember one instructor telling my Grandson “No Corben – this way, not like your Grandpa!”. The men’s and ladies’ leagues brought and retained many members. I was part of the first year of men’s league. If memory serves me right, we started with about ten teams of four players. A few years later, we had eighteen teams of six players. Within a few more years, most teams were carrying ten players. Well-run tournaments both for members and open were very popular, and open tournaments certainly exposed our course to many golfers.
Innisfail is fortunate to have a mayor with a great passion for golf. Jean Barclay grew up in Innisfail and played some golf during high school, but her passion for the sport blossomed in her early 20’s. She became the first female golf professional in the province, working at Glendale Golf and Country Club in Edmonton, and she was also the first female in Alberta to become a Class A professional. Barclay owned and ran a golf practice facility where she focused on teaching, and also played on the Du Maurier Tour in Canada, the Futures Tour and Players West Tour. For three years running, she was the Women’s Alberta PGA Champion, and also served on the provincial PGA board. Although she moved on from golf as a career, the IGC always had special place in her heart, especially since moving back to town two decades ago, and now the top elected official in town.
“We definitely recognize what an incredible asset the golf course is,” acknowledged Mayor Barclay. “We know it’s importance to the community. Lots of people have moved to Innisfail because of the Innisfail Golf Course. You think of the economic impact it has when you have tournaments coming in. People come and stay overnight for weekends and play golf. It’s a huge attraction for this area.”
When Barclay is out in other communities in her municipal role, when people find out she’s from Innisfail, she often hears comments about the ‘great golf course’.
“In my opinion, it’s one of the best public courses in Alberta. It’s absolutely beautiful out there, with the flowers and trees. It’s quiet, and I think that history is very special. The people make it special as well. There’s always been a great staff complement out there, and it’s a very welcoming venue to play.”
“I have seen people come and look at the scorecard and say ‘it’s not very long, so I’ll go play from the tees back there’ without realizing that it’s difficult. It’s always been a special course with the topography that it sits on. What a vision to put it there.”
Dwayne Simpson also has some insights. He started golfing at Innisfail as a Junior in 1980. He began helping Brian Jackson with the finishing work on the expansion project in 1985 as an 18-year-old, as landscape labor. The very next year he began working under then Course Superintendent Tim Knutson, as the 18 holes officially opened. Then there was seasonal work while he was off at college, taking turf management at Fairview. By 1991, Simpson was drawn back to Innisfail for full-time work, and two years later, he became Superintendent himself. He served as Project Manager for the expansion to 27 holes. Simpson held the Superintendent position until 2020, when he stepped up to become General Manager for three years, before moving on to a sales role for a golf course turf supplier.
“Innisfail’s been very fortunate in that all their key staff have always been from around Innisfail or area, and proud of it. They’ve been in it for the club, and for Innisfail,” says Simpson.
In fact, it’s quite a stat at the leadership level. In the ‘modern’ era, after the expansion to 18 holes, there have only been three golf course superintendents: Tim Knutson, Dwayne Simpson, and the current Erwin Alvarez, who just celebrated 25 years working at the course! And there have only been a handful of General Managers since Jim Romane became the first one to be named to the position: Romane, Darren Black, Dwayne Simpson and Kendall Keeley. Dale Tomlinson has just taken over the role this summer.
Simpson calls having long-term dedicated staff a real asset, admitting his own long service at the Club was because he was allowed to keep improving.
“The ‘secret sauce’ has been the culture of the golf course from day one,” insists Simpson. “It’s the ‘club’ feel, and the family atmosphere, where people do what they can to contribute.”
Simpson points out that over years so many individuals have done so many things for the good of the golf course. But while he’d never say it, others credit Simpson himself for the spectacular ongoing condition of the course in his time there. But he adds the board supported putting money back into construction and upkeep of the course, including the greens nursery supplying their own supply of bent grass sod. The constant has been every year a focus has been on getting the course even better. Plus the volunteer labor and contributions have enabled the course to maintain overall financial stability.
The ‘welcoming’ feel of the course goes right back to the very beginning. A newspaper article reporting on a 1923 Innisfail Golf Club meeting notes: The question of ladies’ fees was brought up and as the meeting was fortunate enough to be graced with several lady members who expressed the opinion that they would prefer to pay their share, it was decided that ladies should pay $4 per annum. (Town and country members were at $5, visitors paid 50 cents a day or 25 cents a round unless introduced by members!) So it appears thanks to women like Miss Vivian Cox, Mrs. Mckenzie-Grieve, Mrs. Early Freeman, Iris Milligan, and Mrs. Fred Bye, Innisfail’s course was a place where women were able to play golf early on. (Although women and juniors were not allowed access to the coveted Sunday morning tee times until much later.) The ladies had their own organization as well, and while they may have been non-voting members, they were involved at early stage. (As some related, their opinions were voiced through their husband’s!) The women were very involved in the hospitality aspects of the course in the early years as well.
New golfers were also encouraged – in fact members often went to the high school to give golf lessons and teach young people the etiquette of the sport. Junior programs have given many a golfer a great start – whether for recreation or a career.
Visitors of all types have also enjoyed their time at the Innisfail Golf Club, and have helped draw attention to the course.
A highlight memory for many is the day Moe Norman came to Innisfail. Former pro Jim Boomer met the famous and unique ball striker on a Florida holiday and struck up a friendship, inviting him to IGC to demonstrate his skills and swing. Members say the course was packed with people (some still have their ticket stub!) to see Moe’s magic. They recall Norman had stakes set out on the course and he would call his shot… and make it. Or that he hit a hundred balls of the same small spot, and did not take a single divot!
When Red Deer hosted the Memorial Cup of hockey in 2016, IGC was picked to host the Golf Tournament, giving a number of people from across the country a chance to see and play the course. At the time, it was the only course big enough to hold all the golfers, and a first time for such national recognition.
The annual Rotary Club Celebrity tournament gave a lot of professional sports figures a chance to play Innisfail – stars of the CFL, NHL, rodeo cowboys and figure skaters all took part, and they attracted lots of players and media coverage. Over the years, various golf columnists traveled to Innisfail and wrote of its delights and challenges, attracting more interest in the playing public.
IGC has also hosted the Alberta Golf’s Men’s Amateur tournament three times – in 2002, 2016 and 2023, along with the 2009 Alberta Senior Ladies Championship. For this Centennial year, IGC was selected by Golf Canada to hold the Junior Boys Canadian Championship August 13-16 – the first ever national championship at Innisfail.
So with one hundred years complete, thoughts naturally turn to the future. What will the next years of golf look like? Golf ‘boards’ or hovercrafts replacing golf carts? Drones finding your ball in the bush? AI swing analysis? Virtual reality simulators? Technology certainly has, and will continue to impact the game.
When you think about founders like Doc Wagner, John Orton, Norman Babcock and Fred Bye heading out with their wooden clubs in the 1920’s, could they ever even imagine what we have today? Yet their foresight and actions prepared the way for today’s Innisfail Golf Club to look forward to tomorrow.
As the late Dick Percy put it: The Golf Club has a great tradition and a great deal of credit must be given to the people who pioneered it getting started. Also to the many members of gave of their time and talents to make it one of the most challenging course in Central Alberta. All who had any part in its formative years are to be congratulated and I hope it will continue for many years to come.”
One constant that has never gone out of date in a century is the feeling of comradery in the place and around the game, as described by current members.
IGC is always a place that I can go and run into a friend, have a pint and peg it. Happy 100th to one of my favorite places on earth – I hope my grandkids and their grandkids can enjoy it for another 100 years or so. -Brett Kelly
One of the things I like most about golf is there are no restrictions of who you play with; young or old, male or female, beginner or expert. People you have a chance to meet and get to know. As a 30-year member, I have had the opportunity to golf with quite a few of the younger players. Even though they may not know it yet, they are the leaders of tomorrow & will inherit responsibilities of overseeing the club. Fortunately, in most, you can see the same altruistic spirit alive in them as it was with the club founders. -Daryl Sugden
There will be plenty of celebrations marking this special year for the Innisfail Golf Club. But when you’re out on the course, lining up a shot, or as you’re strolling by Hazelwood Lake over Jellicoe Bridge, pause and listen. See if you can hear the echoes of the past, maybe the laughter, or the plop of a long-forgotten ball finding the hole? Or the ring of a ‘Fore’ call off the trees?
The century old tradition of Me-too-Seke – the meeting place in the woods – lives well at the Innisfail Golf Club.