After careful consideration and additional discussion among our Board of Directors and Handicap Committee, Golf Canada will align with all Handicap Rules changes announced by the USGA at the end of last year. This also includes the provision that applies to unaccompanied rounds.

These changes are part of a bigger picture to unify the Handicap rules, and support the possible formation of a World Handicap System, which we wholeheartedly endorse.

BARRIE, Ont. — The Golf Association of Ontario (GAO) and its community partners officially launched the Golf Barrie Community Golf initiative on Jan. 20. The day featured a pair of events, beginning with a stakeholders meeting followed by the official launch.

Barrie was selected as the first Golf Community by the GAO because of its diverse number of private and public course, strong community ties, festivals and events, and its engaged golf industry.

The community golf project aims to get individuals of all ages and backgrounds playing golf and creates a bridge between courses, community partners and golfers. The goal is to bring more people to the game and keep them playing for life. The movement also addresses the national need to develop all stages of the Long Term Athlete Development model.

Wednesday’s event began with a stakeholders meeting at Tangle Creek Golf & Country Club, where the golf club owners finalized the foundation for 2016 activities. The event was well received with members from 23 area courses in attendance.

The event then shifted to the Kenzington Burger Bar where the initiative was officially presented to the public. On hand was City of Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman who talked about the benefits of golf and voiced his support for the project and stated that his office will be available to help make the project a success.

GAO Executive Director Mike Kelly laid out the GAO’s goals for the project and stressed that the association is here for the courses to help them execute it to its maximum potential. “This is a special project that is being done for the first time. Barrie as a community should feel extremely proud that they are pioneering such an initiative.”

GAO Director of Marketing and Communications Kyle McFarlane went on to speak about the project itself. “Golf is more than just a game, it builds character, values and life skills while promoting healthy active living. It builds relationships on and off the course and helps to connect family and friends.”

Emphasized at the event was the Try, Learn and Play aspect of the initiative. Golf Barrie will be present at numerous events in Barrie and Simcoe County, beginning in February to introduce people to the sport, with an emphasis on fun. This can be through opportunities such as Golf in Schools, which the local golf industry has already sponsored 24 local schools, festivals and through current programs like She Swings She Scores/ He Swings He Scores, which brings golf into hockey arenas to introduce minor hockey players to the sport.

The Learn aspect is where the clubs will come in and offer their own programming by matching the individual from a Try initiative with a Learn program at a course near them. The aim is to help people take that next step in golf. Finally, the Play aspect is having those people who have now learned to play the game get out to the courses and play.

To help bridge the events and opportunities in Barrie, Golf Barrie will launch a website that will feature a schedule of events that Golf Barrie will have a presence at to Try golf, a list of Learn opportunities at Barrie courses, a course directory and local golf news. However, that is not the only thing that will be set up. Golf Barrie plans to roll out the Commit to Golf Barrie pledge, which golfers will be able to register for, take the pledge as to how many times they hope to play in 2016, and then be entered in draws for prizes for meeting those goals.

An important aspect of the project is its partnership with Georgian College and its Golf Management Program. The college has already committed one of its classes to be trained to help with the Golf In Schools program. This will allow those students to go to schools, with a certified instructor, to deliver programs. A community Golf Coach certification course has also been planned and spots have already been reserved for Georgian students.

“This partnership is extremely important to us,” said McFarlane. “What we have observed in Barrie is that facilities that don’t offer programs for beginners not because they don’t want to but rather because they don’t have someone on staff all season to teach the programs. By training the instructors and having courses in the area share them, more programs at the Learn level can be offered. By having the students take certification programs, more qualified individuals will be available to teach these programs.”

Georgian College also has a capstone project that will develop a consumer behavior profile for Golf Barrie. The group will identify who the golfers are, what they want out of the local industry and any current barriers. This way Golf Barrie will be able to make adjustments for future initiatives.

In 2016, the Golf Barrie initiative hopes to deliver more than 70 golf awareness event days, host a Family Golf Festival, support and promote Learn programs at golf courses and establish community relations to ensure stability. With these objectives, it is hoped that more than 15,000 people can be exposed to golf.

LIMA, Peru – Four members of Team Canada’s Development Squad are set to play in the 11th edition of the South American Amateur this week from Jan. 21–24 at the Lima Golf Club—a three-time host of the event.

The men’s side will be represented by the duo of Charles-Éric Bélanger (Québec) and Jack Simpson (Aurora, Ont.), while Grace St-Germain (Ottawa) and Hannah Lee (Surrey, B.C.) will tee-it-up on the women’s side. All four Canucks are set to compete in the 72-hole stroke-play event for their first time when competition kicks off Thursday.

In 2015, American Scott Harvey took home the trophy for the men, with Team Canada member Blair Hamilton taking home top-Canadian honours in a tie for twelfth. Sofia Garcia of Paraguay won the women’s title.

Click here for live scoring.

Official p.r @southamericasgolf @ce_belanger @gracestgermain @lee_hannahh @JackSimpson_4 @TheGolfCanada pic.twitter.com/AH9DelEScV

— ann carroll (@AnnAnncarroll) January 20, 2016

Calgary’s Wes Heffernan has taken a new direction in his golfing career, transitioning from professional competition to high performance coaching.

Heffernan, 38, recorded nine professional victories in his 15-plus years of competition—five Alberta Open titles and four Canadian Tour victories. In 2015, Heffernan played in five Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada events—making the cut three times while adding another finish on the Web.com Tour.

Heffernan played in two majors – the 2001 and 2011 U.S. Opens, making the cut in 2011.

In his time as an amateur, Heffernan was a two-time Canadian Amateur medalist and an Alberta Amateur Champion.

He also represented Canada internationally on both the professional and amateur level, playing in the 2008 and 2007 World Cup as well as the 2000 World Amateur Team Championship in Berlin, Germany.

A candidate for membership with the PGA of Canada, Heffernan brings years of extensive playing experience to the coaching staff at the Calgary Centre—Golf Canada’s flagship facility.

“The Golf Canada Calgary Centre is certainly thrilled to announce Wes Hefferman has joined our team,” said Chad Rusnak, Director of Golf at the Calgary Centre. “Wes is a teaching professional with a long credible track record of success as a player at both the amateur and professional level and is certainly a positive and welcoming addition to our team. We are currently in the early planning stages and look forward to officially announcing Wes’s decision to join our academy team via a media day in February.”

Click here to book a lesson at the Calgary Centre.

When the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame welcomes its 2016 class, a long-time member of Golf Canada’s devoted group of volunteers will be among its five honourees.

Barbara Allan – who has volunteered with Golf Canada in several capacities and on a number of committees – has demonstrated a strong dedication to the game, not only in her home province, but also across the nation. For her commitment and service to golf, she will be inducted in the Hall’s builder category.

The former President of the Golf Association of Ontario works diligently at the club, district and provincial levels and is the Chair of Handicap and Rules at Garrison Golf and Curling Club in Kingston. She has served on the duty roster of officials at each of Canada’s National Open Championships – the RBC Canadian Open and the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open.

In 2014, Golf Canada presented Allan with its Distinguished Service Award in recognition of her tireless efforts and boundless passion in the promotion of Golf. This year, she will once again Chair the Amateur Championships Committee and will act as Tournament Chair for various Golf Canada championships.

Since its first induction class in 1996, the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame has welcomed the area’s most gifted athletes and its most earnest builders to commemorate their contributions to 33 sports and sport-related fields.

With the induction ceremony for its 21st class on May 6 at Our Lady of Fatima Parish Hall, the Hall of Fame’s membership will grow to 163.

Allan will become the 11th member of the Hall to be inducted in the sport of golf, joining:

• Allan Douglas Atkins – 2000 – Builder
• Ronald Brown – 1998 – Athlete
• Katherine Cartwright – 2000 – Athlete/Builder
• Jennifer Ellis – 2015 – Athlete
• Richard H. Green – 1996 – Athlete
• Jim Halliday – 2008 – Athlete
• Robert Londry – 2006 – Athlete/Builder
• Caroline Mitchell – 1996 – Athlete
• Katherine O’Neill – 2006 – Athlete/Builder
• Anne C. Turnbull – 2006 – Athlete/Builder

National Amateur Squad member Hugo Bernard of Mont-St-Hilaire, Que., has officially signed on as a member of the Saint Leo Lions golf team for the 2016 season.

Bernard, a former Quebec Men’s Amateur Champion, joins senior and fellow Canadian Joey Savoie (Montreal) in Saint Leo, Fla., as one of 12 on the Lions’ roster.

The smooth-swinging lefty joins the Lions on the heels of a season that featured Top-5 finishes at all three legs of the Quebec triple crown (Quebec Amateur, Duke of Kent, Alexander of Tunis) and a runner-up finish at the Canadian Amateur.

Bernard and the third-ranked Lions (Div II) are set to kick off competition in 2016 when they take on the field at the Matlock Collegiate Classic from Feb. 8–9.

Click here to view the Saint Leo Lions schedule.

Continued education of certified coaches delivers added benefits to the athlete, the parents, the teaching professionals themselves and ultimately, the future of Canada’s next generation of golfers.

National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) certified coaches belong to a select group that have chosen to pursue the highest education, giving them the knowledge to excel in all areas of coaching golf.

Click the below infographic to download live PDF version with videos.

CALGARY – Alberta Golf has announced the launch of She Swings She Scores, a program designed to introduce girls aged 6-12 to the sport of golf. She Swings She Scores focuses on girls currently participating in hockey by encouraging them to switch their hockey sticks for golf clubs at local hockey tournaments and community events. The goal of the program is to bring golf directly to girls and provide opportunities for players and teammates to learn the sport together in a fun, safe and developmental environment.

“Our goal over the next four years is to spark an interest in girls to try golf, bringing more of this key demographic into a game for life,” explains Matt Rollins, Executive Director/CEO at Alberta Golf.

Alberta Golf will set up an onsite hitting station and kiosk at hockey tournaments, where girls can try using golf clubs, enter in contests and get free swag. In addition to introducing the girls to golf, the program will educate parents and coaches about the Learn to Golf Field Trip Program.

“This initiative is a model for collaboration and partnership across provincial sport organizations in support of underrepresented and marginalized group’s participation in sport opportunities,” says Aaron Lavorato, Sport Consultant at Alberta Sport Connection. Support for the sport program is provided by Sport Canada and Alberta Sport Connection.

The first She Swings She Scores event will take place at The Olds Sport Complex in Olds on January 15th, 2016. For more information, click here or contact angela@albertagolf.org.

It is an inspired program that has the power to change lives—to send youngsters on a path to golfing stardom or to simply introduce them to a previously unforeseen athletic pursuit; to nurture confidence in a withdrawn individual and to instill the game’s greatest virtues at a key time in a student’s personal growth.

The (GIS) program has signed up more than 2,700 schools representing more than 315,000 students, but there are gaps that need to be filled as the program prepares for its next stage of evolution, the most prominent being with the end user.

For most of the year—and in many cases for years following a program’s initial implementation—equipment and teachers’ manuals sit dormant in gymnasium storage rooms. That’s not to say the responsibility lies entirely with the schools.

“We need more people, which is the answer to many of the challenges we have in growing golf,” explains the Golf Association of Ontario’s Executive Director Mike Kelly. “It’s the missing piece to what will allow programs like CN Future Links or Golf in Schools to take flight, or in growing the sport in general, for that matter—that we don’t have the infrastructure at the community level to support it.”

Within that framework, however, both Kelly and Golf Canada’s Chief Sport Officer Jeff Thompson see a need for volunteers to take the lead within their respective communities.

“The next step is creating relationships with schools and connecting them with local golf facilities,” says Thompson. “But that’s a big job to even expect from provincial associations.”

Consequently, Golf Canada is seeking to leverage the Community Golf Coach training program, which was designed in partnership with the PGA of Canada and the Coaching Association of Canada. “We also need to identify community ambassadors who have an interest and passion to support schools running a GIS program and who can connect to golf facilities,” Thompson adds.

Those community golf coaches can come from non-PGA members, notes Thompson. “Members of golf clubs who might be retired can take the community golf coach training, which arms them with the resources and intelligence to make them comfortable to go into schools and establish a relationship with the facility and the teachers, and help ensure that the roots run deep and that the program will continue over time.” The first of those community ambassadors will be Grant Fraser, founder of the Golf Management Institute of Canada and professor of the Professional Golf Management (PGM) program at Niagara College.

“We’re going to pilot an initiative where he goes to four or flve facilities and talks to them about how he’s planning to create golf communities, linking schools with golf facilities that are keen to get involved,” Thompson explains. “It would be great to have one of him in every 40-kilometre radius!” Fraser, whose third year Niagara College PGM students have conducted annual fundraisers for the past four years, raising an estimated $7,500 in adopting 11 Niagaraarea schools, is a natural and enthusiastic flt.

“My students take pride in helping to grow the game,” he says. “Up until now I’ve been satisfied doing that, but it’s not enough. Going forward, I want to have my students help introduce the program to the schools—to physically go there and help the teacher get the equipment into the hands of the kids.”

Other similarly impassioned individuals can be found throughout the country, from Hughendon Golf Course owner Lee Cooper offering free golf to students aged 13 and under at neighbouring Amisk Public School in rural Alberta, to Chris Veltkamp, founder and director of the Play Golf Junior Tour and athletic coordinator and Phys. Ed. Teacher at St. Mary St. Cecilia in Morrisburg, Ont., who has been providing golf to schools he’s worked in for 10 years, including developing a rudimentary four-hole golf course in a empty lot beside his current school. And there’s P.E.I. Provincial Golf Coach Dallas Desjardins, a legendary Golf in Schools and junior golf supporter, and Wayne Allen, head pro at Blomidon GC in Corner Brook, Nfld., who has recruited 16 schools in Newfoundland and Labrador. The list goes on, but many more—particularly at the community level—need to step forward if Golf Canada’s ambitious plans are to bear fruit.

No one is more passionate about addressing that issue than Kelly, who developed Canada’s first Golf in Schools program in 2001 at Ontario’s Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board.

Kelly’s plan of attack involves creating new zones within Ontario, the purpose of each to grow local participation. “Each zone will be a combination of all of the partners in Ontario: the GAO, Golf Canada, the National Golf Course Owners Association, the PGA of Ontario, Ontario Golf Course Superintendents and Canadian Society of Club Managers. Golf Barrie is going to be the pilot. Now we have to recruit more people like Grant, who are passionate about Golf in Schools, can get out into the community and talk to the teacher once a month and be part of the program and give teachers reasons to do it.”

Making the game more visible and accessible is key to the plan, Kelly says. “Part of the challenge is that you don’t see golf anywhere but at a golf course. There’s a fear of what’s ‘over there.’ We need to make it part of community events. Golf in Schools is a ‘try’ activity. Then we can move it to the ‘learn’ side of things. If we can get people to play golf, they’re going to enjoy it and get hooked.”

Pay for Play

Funding the program is also a continuing focus. Currently, two-thirds of all new GIS participating schools are the result of ‘adoptions,’ whereby an individual or corporation donates to bring the program to the school. Golf Canada is consequently actively pushing further support by including it in corporate sponsorships. One example is the PGA Champions Tour’s Shaw Charity Classic, which, since its inaugural event in 2013, has made an annual $5,000 Golf in Schools donation to Alberta Golf. The association has, in turn, divided the funds into $300 parcels and donated them to multiple schools throughout the province.

Another high-proflle supporter is PGA TOUR player Graham DeLaet, who has adopted 37 Saskatchewan schools, including four in his hometown of Weyburn, through funds raised by the 2013 Graham DeLaet Charity Golf Classic, an event conducted in conjunction with Golf Saskatchewan. The contribution pushed the GIS program participation to more than 70 per cent of the province’s schools.

Golf Canada is making additional strides to explore the potential of the program. “This year we piloted an initiative around a Golf in Schools pass to 23 facilities around the country (who had made connections with schools),” says Thompson. “Those facilities can give the passes to kids to come back to their driving range to receive a free bucket of balls. The feedback we received has been positive— that those kids are not returning alone but bringing an adult or their brothers or sisters.

“And with the new Life Skills curriculum and intermediate schools program, two significant layers have been added this year,” Thompson notes. “Next year we will put together an evaluation process to see how the Life Skills curriculum is resonating with the schools.”As Kelly and Thompson point out, if the foundation can be improved and a community infrastructure added, the sky is the limit for Golf in Schools, not to mention other developmental programs. “We have more to offer families than any other sport,” says Kelly. “What we’re talking about is a massive change that will take time, but we need to start doing something. We can’t just sit and wait for people to come through the door.”

To learn more about Golf in Schools, visit www.golfinschools.ca.

UXBRIDGE — The Golf Association of Ontario (GAO) is pleased to announce the hiring of Andrew Moss to fill the newly created role of High Performance Director. Moss joins the GAO’s Sport Department after High Performance Manager Mary Ann Hayward’s retirement announcement and former Director Mike Kelly’s move to the role of Executive Director.

“I am thrilled to be joining the GAO at this important time for golf,” said Moss. “With the upcoming Olympic Games, and the great pool of talent we have in Ontario, there is a fantastic opportunity to grow the participation in our sport, and see more and more golfers come through our clubs, and through our high performance pathways.”

Moss brings 25 years of experience to the GAO as a coach, provincial and national sport administrator, consultant and most recently, Lead of High Performance Athlete Development at the Canadian Sport Institute Ontario (CSIO). At the CSIO, Moss was responsible for overseeing a portfolio of National and Provincial high performance programs with some of Canada’s top Olympic sports, such as Rowing, Athletics, Swimming, Cycling, and Figure Skating.

Having started out as a swimmer, golfer and sailor in Kingston, Moss pursued a coaching passion over a 15-year career. Following retirement from coaching, he moved to sport administration as Program Director at Swim BC, and Director of Domestic Operations with Swimming Canada. In both roles, Andrew oversaw the development and implementation of athlete, coaching, and club development programs, along with implementation of online performance tracking systems.

“We received an incredible amount of interest for this new position and following a very thorough process, we are thrilled to welcome Andrew to our team,” said Kelly.  “His background in sport, passion for golf and experience at the renowned Canadian Sport Institute Ontario will be a massive benefit to Ontario athletes, PGA of Canada coaches and clubs.”

“I appreciate the confidence Mike Kelly has shown in me, and I am confident that the unique experience I bring will help build on the great work done by Mary Ann Hayward and the GAO team over the past six and a half years,” added Moss. “I’m excited to help shape a great future for our high performance programs, and the other exciting initiatives underway at the GAO, Golf Canada and the Government of Ontario.”

Moss will begin the new role February 1, 2016.