VICTORIA — Whether working behind the scenes at a national competition or championing opportunities for Indigenous golfers, T’esóts’en (Patrick Kelly) has spent years using golf to bring communities together.
That meaningful work is part of a broader record of public and community service that has earned Patrick a deserving appointment to the Order of British Columbia, the province’s highest honour.
A member of Leq’á First Nation, he will be invested into the Order at Government House in Victoria on Sept. 24.
His contributions to the sport with B.C. Golf and Golf Canada as a longtime volunteer have taken him from the boardroom to some of the country’s biggest tournaments. A past president of B.C. Golf and former director at large with Golf Canada, he has served on numerous committees over the past decade helping to advance the sport.
Patrick was tournament chair for the 2023 CPKC Women’s Open at Shaughnessy Golf and Country Club in Vancouver, the 2022 Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship and a 2021 U.S. Open qualifier.
One of his most meaningful assignments came in 2022, when he chaired a reconciliation golf event at the Royal Ottawa Golf and Country Club in partnership with the Office of the Secretary to the Governor General.
A member at Gorge Vale Golf Club in Victoria, Patrick’s path into golf leadership began with a phone call.
While serving as an adviser to former lieutenant-governor Steven Point, he began thinking about what Indigenous participation in golf could look like if the right structure and support were in place.
He helped establish the BC Aboriginal Golf Association and contacted then-B.C. Golf CEO Kris Jonasson to propose working together. Patrick did not know that the association’s board had passed a resolution the previous evening committing to greater Indigenous participation in the sport.
Patrick went on to join the B.C. Golf board of directors and was elected president in 2016. He is now a past president of the association and founder and chair of the BC Indigenous Golf Association.
Those early conversations eventually helped lead to the BC Indigenous Championship at Nk’Mip Canyon Desert Golf Course.
Organized by BC Golf, the Office of the Lieutenant Governor and the Osoyoos Indian Band, the inaugural championship welcomed 114 golfers representing 80 Nations. The competitors ranged in age from 14 to 80.
The event has continued to grow. It now includes senior and junior divisions, a youth clinic delivered with the Indigenous Sport, Physical Activity and Recreation Council and First Tee – Canada, and an Indigenous Challenge Cup between British Columbia and Ontario.
Patrick will captain Team B.C. at this year’s Challenge Cup at Bear Mountain Golf Resort. The matches will be played during the same week he receives the Order of British Columbia.
His appointment also reflects decades of work outside golf.
Patrick helped facilitate discussions during the Clayoquot Sound conflict and later facilitated the founding meeting of Coastal First Nations. He served as the organization’s board chair for more than 18 years as its member Nations advanced conservation, stewardship and economic initiatives throughout the Great Bear Rainforest.
He also helped negotiate an agreement protecting Indigenous burial sites at Grace Islet on Salt Spring Island.
Patrick’s public service has included roles with the Law Society of British Columbia, the B.C. Provincial Judicial Council and the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry. As chair of the Victoria Foundation, he became the first Indigenous person to lead a community foundation in Canada.
In 2024, he received the King Charles III Coronation Medal for his work advancing reconciliation. Golf Canada congratulates Patrick Kelly on his deserving appointment and his many years of service to the game.
