Golf is a many splendored thing, June 5, 2021

Back row, left to right: Don E, Bill, Gary, Ron, ?, ?, ?, Don K
Front Row, ?, Roy, Ernie, ?, Bill M.

Yesterday (June 4, 2021) on the par three seventh hole at Brampton Golf Club my five wood shot stopped 6" away from a Hole-in-one that would have been my fourth for all time. I was playing with Ray Coole, Paul Hurley and Dave Hastie on our regular Friday game. Ray is eighty-nine years old, a past Ontario Amateur Champion who has been playing at our Brampton Golf Club for fifty-five years. We are a foursome who never keep score, play from the forward green tees and have a very nice time out there.  There is plenty more on Ray Coole two paragraphs below. 

Other friends of mine have a regular tee time on Wednesdays around noon hour for twenty-four of our mates where we wager $10 per man and the four players rotate each week, so in time one will be partnered with all twenty-four. We've been doing this for years now, but not for all of the 37 years I've been a member. With that passage of time we've lost some friends; some move on from these Brampton manicured lawns to other places; some just quit the game altogether, and some pass away. These names are great guys with whom I golfed and who are looking up, instead of down at the green grass that some of these guys would have personally planted way-back in the day. 

Tak Tanaka was a regular, a gambler, an architect and one who designed some of our buildings, and, offered my son Rob a summer of employment in his firm before he left for U of T Architecture School. During one of our matches for the club championships he called the head pro Don Lunn over and said, "Look at this guy chip and putt, he's been doing that all day." Our match was very close, but Tak prevailed that day. He's been gone for a long time now. Don Elliot also passed away too early. Don was a fussy Englishman who admonished the waitresses when his glass of beer wasn't 1/32" from the very top of the glass-- he'd send them back without even so much as a smile. He was a great one for gimmes too -- it had to be within the leather of the grip or it was a no-go. Don was also the statistician who always kept the score and advised all of us how much we owed him -- before he took us for more money playing GIN. Bill McMahon had some form of cancer from day one of our meeting. It was mostly skin cancer and Bill would show up religiously wearing another bandage in another place every Wednesday on the first tee and went home long after the GIN game was over. Bill is gone now. There was another gentlemen that had the same breakfast -- a half grapefruit and a bowl of oatmeal -- everyday of his life, except for the time when he enlisted with the RAF in England from 1939 to 1945. He was an avid golfer too in a swashbuckling way. He liked to play, never practice but just get out there until he couldn't do it anymore. That was when he was 88 years old and said that was enough. He and his wife lived in a house that he built in Cheltenham, Ontario until Jean said, "Roy, I can't do this anymore, we're moving to a senior citizens home in Brampton." I met the two of them at Greenway Senior's Home where I had been convalescing for many months. And there he was in all his glory absolutely hating the fact that he was not in charge in his own home. Roy didn't last very long at Greenway he went down hill quickly and past away. Roy's best buddy was Ernie Smith who was a fair golfer with a temper. One time after a poor shot his club throwing skills missed me by about 36" on the par three 3rd Hole. Ernie didn't say he was sorry, so I said if you ever do that again I'll wrap that iron around your neck, twice. Ernie was a great fisherman of lost golf balls and at Christmas time all of us got a gift wrapped bag of his best Titleist golf balls. We heard that his basement at home was full of them. In due course our group was getting smaller every year so we left and played with another bunch of guys. Ernie passed away six months before Roy. Ron Cote who was my partner when I first joined; we had plenty of fun challenging a different twosome every Saturday. If we won the game I had a small camera in my bag to take their photograph as one of our many 'conquests.' Ron and his wife Bernice were great friends and I called them often and socialized with his family: seven sons and daughters, twenty-five grandchildren, and now the great grandchildren are arriving. Ron left the Brampton Club ten years ago, Bernice left 2 years ago and they are still going strong at ninety years of age. There is plenty more to write about. I found a great group photograph and placed it at the top of this story. You may have noticed that I have forgotten a few names already.

The Brampton Golf Club celebrates its 100th Anniversary 1921 - 2021. One of the stories being told is about my good friend Ray Coole. Here is some of Ray's thoughts as he recalls his 60 years at BGC, “It turned out to be a fantastic week. I was staying with relatives in Bowmanville and each morning I would wake up, eat breakfast, pack, and thank them for letting me stay. Because it was match play, I had no idea if I would be coming back to their home at the end of the day. It went on like that all week. It was a great run and showed me that I could compete against some of the best players of the day. It certainly gave me something to shoot for in future years.”

A year later, it was time to tee it up for a second shot in the Ontario Men’s Amateur Championship at Highland CC. In battling his way to the title in 1957, Coole lived up to his last name with five of his seven matches going 18 holes. After two comparatively easy wins in the first and second rounds, he scored 1-up victories in the third and fourth rounds. His next two wins came over future Canadian Golf Hall of Fame members, a 2-up win over Gary Cowan of Kitchener, and then a 1-up victory against Nick Weslock of Windsor, the pre-tourney favourite.

“What I remember most about the victory were the three final matches that went right down to the wire when Bill Parkes, Cowan and Weslock all drove their tee shots on No. 18 out of bounds down the right side of the fairway,” Ray adds. At the time, he was all square with Parkes and Weslock and 1-up on Cowan. Coole defeated Bill Morland of North Bay 1-up in the 18-hole final in a back-and- forth battle that he clinched with a par on No. 18 before about 1,200 spectators.

Ray continued to play competitive golf, and over the years won twelve invitational tournaments across Ontario. He won the Brampton Men’s Club Championship four times (1967, 1975, 1977 and 1978), twice in match play and twice in medal play. He also won the Brampton Senior Men’s Championship twice (1986 and 1992).

Another competitive highlight for Ray was being part of the Brampton team including Bob Ptashnik, Mike Pullen, George Schramm that won the 1971 Golf Ontario George S. Lyon Shield team championship played at both Hamilton G&CC and Brantford G&CC.

Ray was on the club’s Board of Directors from 1968 to 1976 and was Club President in 1973. “I remember being involved in the hiring of John Henrick as our Head Golf Professional back in 1969. He was a touring pro at the time, and we had to make sure that he was prepared to settle in as our head pro and not continue to tour. I played a lot of golf with John over the years. He was a good friend,” Ray says, noting John was at Brampton from 1969 to 1990 and died in March 2020.

Now, 90 and having played a good number of clubs in Ontario over the years, Ray is now content to play his golf at Brampton.

“It is a terrific club. We have a really good course and so many great people. I really enjoy it here,” says Ray, who became a Legacy Member (85 years of age and 50 years membership) at Brampton in 2017. “The Board of Directors has always worked hard to continually make improvements to the course and the clubhouse, so members enjoy their time at the club. It continues to get better, and I am looking forward to the club’s 100th anniversary this year. It is hard to believe that I have been part of it for nearly 60 years.” And I've been playing golf with Ray for 35 years. He's a gentleman of the first order.

Ray Coole 1957 Ontario Amateur Champ

Only two weeks ago I was paired up with Jill and Mark Stafford and a new member Mark Rodgers. On the third tee a par three 145 yards Mark Rodgers hits a beauty and it rolls into the hole for his first ever Hole-in-one. Congratulations were extended and accepted by Mark who was ecstatic. On the next hole, a par four Mark Rodgers hit a nice drive around 250 and then, his second shot from 165 yards hits the green and rolls right into the hole for an Eagle: that's like two Holes-in-one back-to-back which is around sixteen million to one in Las Vegas talk. Here is Mark picking his ball from the hole:

I have always been a student of the golf swing. When discussing the never-ending tinkering I usually state that I'm using swing tip number 787 or some other invented number indicating I'm not quite there friends. To that end I subscribe to a couple of YouTube golf gurus who have lesson videos for sale, actually these are memberships that store your purchased material on line for easy access. On long cold winter nights I've spent hours reviewing these courses, tips and general information that is the basis of a good golf swing. And of course it works, more to the point somedays it works; however there are other days when it doesn't, and that's golf my friends: a many splendored thing.