Enshrinement truly meaningful for Al Scott

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This article was published 19/09/2018 (2815 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Elmhurst Golf and Country Club holds a special place in Al Scott’s heart, so it’s fitting that he will be inducted into the Manitoba Golf Hall of Fame during a ceremony there on Monday evening.

Scott, who grew up in the Wheat City, began his career as a golf professional at the Winnipeg-area private course in 1982 and remained there through the end of the 1988 season.

He met his late wife Dorothy at Elmhurst in 1984 and the two of them were married by the putting green two years later. She was the assistant food and beverage manager at the time.

While Scott is proud to be entering the Hall alongside fellow builder and former Clear Lake Golf Course superintendent Greg Holden, Sandy Weir of Selkirk and the 1974 Manitoba men’s amateur team (Steve Bannatyne, Ted Homenuik, Barry McKenzie, Gavin Speirs and captain Bill Doyle) that captured the Willingdon Cup, he wishes Dorothy was still alive to share the moment with him. However, their daughters Alana and Alex as well as his parents Walter and Mary will be in attendance.

Dorothy, who lived with muscular dystrophy, died of cancer on April 24.

“Going to Elmhurst for the ceremony is going to be a happy thing because that’s where I started my career but it’s also going to bring back some memories that’s going to make it a little sad for me,” Scott said.

“There’s many, many people that make sacrifices along the way so that you can have success and your family probably makes the ultimate sacrifice for all of the time you’re not around. Dorothy’s support and support from my two daughters really allowed me to achieve what I achieved.”

He’s happy that his parents will be present at the ceremony.

“It’s going to be pretty special for me because if they didn’t come to Canada back in 1968 to give their three sons a chance for maybe a better life, none of this would be happening,” Scott said. “They made sacrifices along the way and it’s going to be nice to recognize them so that’s going to be special for me.”

Scott was born in Loughborough, England, but when he was four-and-a-half years old the family emigrated to Canada and wound up in Regina.

A couple of months later they relocated again, making their way to Brandon prior to the summer of 1968.

“It wasn’t long enough to become a Rider fan,” Scott quipped.

His introduction to golf followed a few years later when he was nine.

Scott went to the Northern Pines Golf Course with a few of his hockey teammates one day, rented clubs and was immediately hooked.

“I went home and told my parents about it and under the Christmas tree that next year was a set of clubs,” Scott said.

He played at Northern Pines for a few years before graduating to what is now known as the Wheat City Golf Course.

At age 13, local teaching pro Rich Bull asked Scott if he was interested in going to Westman communities such as Killarney, Minnedosa and Glenboro to shag balls while Bull taught lessons.

Scott points to that moment as a key one in heightening his interest in golf, and there was another bonus to going on those road trips with Bull.

“The best part was — I got maybe $2.25 an hour — but I got a Coke and a hot dog so that was pretty great,” Scott recalled.

And by the time he was 15, Scott was working in the Northern Pines pro shop full time during the golf season and helping Bull and his club company, Taurus Golf Ltd.

The second moment Scott realized a future in golf was calling his name came when he was 15 or 16.

Scott doesn’t remember if it was 1978 or 1979 but Bull invited him to come to Shilo Country Club and play a round of golf with former Brandon Sun sports reporter Bruce Penton and local PGA Tour player Dan Halldorson.

“It was a pretty neat experience so maybe that’s how I got hooked on golf and the business itself,” Scott said. “I remember playing and Dan was my partner, and if I remember correctly he and I won that day. I always remind Rich of that.”

Scott played several junior tournaments and claimed the Tamarack junior men’s championship at Clear Lake in 1981 during his lone appearance at the annual event.

Instead of trying to build a strong amateur resumé, Scott, while studying at Brandon University during the 1981-82 school year and recovering from knee surgery, decided the golf industry was definitely the path he wanted to pursue.

Bull contacted Chick Duncan, who he had worked for in Winnipeg, on Scott’s behalf. Duncan didn’t have any jobs available but one of his assistant pros, Laurie Pierce, had just taken on the role as Elmhurst’s head pro.

The first question Pierce asked Scott was: “Do you do club repairs?”

Scott got the job because of his experience making, manufacturing and repairing golf clubs with Bull’s company and it launched the start of what has been a 36-year tenure as a golf pro.

Following his time at Elmhurst, Scott served as the head pro at the Selkirk Golf and Country Club from 1989 to 1997 — he was named the top Manitoba PGA professional in 1992 and 1993, and took home the provincial organization’s player of the year award in 1995 — before taking on the same role at Grand Pines Golf Course, which is located just south of Victoria Beach. He held that position from 1997 to 2005.

Since 2006, Scott has been the director of golf at Links at the Lake Golf Course in Gimli, and he oversees several Lakeland Golf Management courses in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Grand Pines was also under the guidance of Lakeland during Scott’s time as its head pro.

“It’s pretty neat that you start playing a game at the age of 10 and start working in it at 13 and here I am now at 55 still working in a business that really is a game,” Scott said.

New to Winnipeg in the 1980s, Pierce told him to get involved with fellow assistant professionals.

Scott became a Manitoba assistant professionals board member and moved onto the Manitoba Zone Board where he served on multiple committees, including as president in 1995 and 1996.

“I just kept getting involved and it was a great way to get to know the local golf pros in Winnipeg because I didn’t know any of them growing up in Brandon,” Scott said.

In 1993, he joined the Canadian PGA board of directors, served on multiple committees, and was president in 2004 and 2005.

During his CPGA presidency, the organization was without an executive director for 11 months but it enjoyed a positive financial turnaround under his leadership.

Scott has always been a major supporter of golf development, especially junior golf, and the Selkirk Little Swingers program he formed, which introduced over 500 children to golf between the ages of 4-9 over a six-year period is one he’s quite proud of.

“The biggest thing for me was I needed juniors to fill tee times,” Scott said.

Pepsi sponsored the program and got The Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba involved too.

“I hoped to draw 30 kids and I made clubs for each junior that didn’t have one,” Scott recalled. “We had 94 sign up the first year we had the program, which was not what I was expecting but it was great. At the end of the year I took them to the telethon and we presented them with some money.

“We taught the kids to give back.”

Earlier this summer at Falcon Lake Golf Course, Alana bumped into a kid who was a Little Swinger and told her father how much the now-RCMP officer thoroughly enjoyed his experience under Scott’s tutelage.

”That’s the kind of thing that makes you proud of your career,” Scott said. “It’s when those young kids grow up to be adults and they remember the impression you made on them.”

DIVOTS: Glen Lea Golf Course is having a fall scramble on Sunday. It’s a shotgun start at 1 p.m., and costs $35 for members and $55 for non-members. For more information or to register, contact the pro shop at 204-728-9090.

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