Last month, the Golf Canada Foundation debuted its ‘Play Like the Pros’ Charity Challenge and to date the initiative has raised just over $24,085. Teams registered in the ‘Play Like the Pros’ Charity Challenge have the opportunity to play a round at one of Ontario’s most prestigious golf courses in exchange for their commitment to fundraise in support of junior golf through the Golf Canada Foundation.

The ‘Play Like the Pros’ Charity Challenge hosted its first event of the series at The National Golf & Country Club on June 9.

“Our first qualifier event had very positive feedback from the participants,” shared Martin Barnard, CEO of the Golf Canada Foundation. “The National was in pristine shape, there was an exciting playoff finish, and some teams even mentioned it made them want to sign up for another qualifier event this summer.”

The ‘Play Like the Pros’ Charity Challenge continued on June 15 with teams competing at both Öviinbyrd Golf Club (Muskoka, Ont.) and London Hunt and Country Club (London, Ont.).

“We’ve seen a great response from the public in this inaugural year of the event. People are excited at the opportunity to play some of the best and most exclusive clubs in Ontario,” added Barnard. “Not only are teams getting a fantastic playing experience, but more importantly they are also excited at the unique opportunity to contribute to junior golf initiatives across the country. They understand the value of introducing youth to golf and nurturing their passion for the game.”

Funds raised from the ‘Play Like the Pros’ Charity Challenge will assist in growing and developing golf programs which cater to youth of all ages and development stages. At the grassroots level, the Golf in Schools program introduces children to golf through their school’s physical education program. The next step, the CN Future Links program, encourages young golfers to refine their driving, iron play, chipping and putting skills in a competitive but friendly setting. The support from the ‘Play Like the Pros’ Charity Challenge will also focus upon high-performance Canadian juniors through the Junior Golf Development Centres and the National Development Squad.

In addition to supporting junior golf initiatives and playing at Ontario’s best courses, teams are competing for the Challenge’s grand prize: a round at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ont. on Monday, July 27 following the 2015 RBC Canadian Open. The top-five fundraising foursomes as well as the winning teams from each ‘Play Like the Pros’ Charity Challenge event will be awarded the opportunity to truly ‘Play Like the Pros.’ They will experience Glen Abbey in the same conditions as PGA Tour players during this year’s playing of Canada’s National Open Championship from July 20-26. Teams will be tested by the unforgiving rough, Sunday pins and lightning-fast greens.

The current top fundraising team, ‘CPA My Ball in the Woods’, has raised $3,710 towards their goal of $4,000; they will be playing in the upcoming Hamilton Golf and Country tournament on June 23.

The following mini-tournaments remain on schedule for the ‘Play Like the Pros’ Charity Challenge:   

For more information, to pledge a team or to register for the ‘Play Like the Pros’ Charity Challenge, please visit www.playliketheprosgolf.com.

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Wednesday’s second round of stroke-play qualifying produced four Canadians advancing through to match play in the championship flight at the Nashville Golf & Athletic Club.

Headlining the Canucks as one of the low-64 qualifiers is Team Canada’s Naomi Ko of Victoria, B.C. Ko, 17, posted a 2-under 142 (70-72) to finish in third place through two rounds of qualifying.

Joining Ko is fellow Development Squad member Michelle Kim of Surrey, B.C., who posted a 6-over 150 (78-72). Rounding out the four Canadians are two former Team Canada members—Sabrine Garrison of Calgary (77-74—151) and older sister of Michelle, Taylor Kim (78-74—152).

Six other Canadians are in the field in Tennessee, placed in the following flights based on qualifying results:

Second flight

Grace St-Germain (80-78—158)

Josée Doyon (79-80—159)

Fourth flight

Kiersten Klekner-Alt (81-84—165)

Kennedy Bodfield (90-76—166)

Gracie Howie (85-85—170)

Marlies Klekner-Alt (90-81—171)

Click here for qualifying scores

Click here for match play pairings

TOYOTA CITY, Japan – Team Canada’s Men’s Development Squad collectively posted a 1-over 214 in Wednesday’s second round of action to slip three spots into seventh place at the Toyota Junior Golf World Cup.

Team Canada’s foursome was led by the St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Qué. product, Étienne Papineau. The 18-year-old carded a 2-under 69 to move up to eighth place individually.

Canada’s second round total was rounded by an even-par 71 from Trevor Ranton of Waterloo, Ont. and a 3-over 74 from Vaughan, Ont., native Tony Gil.

The team’s non-counting score of the day was posted by A.J. Armstrong of St. Albert, Alta., who struggled on the day with a 4-over 75 after opening with a 70 on Tuesday.

As a team, the Canucks currently sit alone in seventh place—where they finished in the tournament last year. With two rounds left to play, the quartet will look to chase down the Norwegians, who carded a remarkable 11-under 202 on Tuesday to take a three-stroke lead over host Japan (-10).

First round co-leader Sweden (-9) goes into Thursday’s third round in third place, ahead of three other teams: Korea (-7), Chile (-6), the United States (-5)—all joining Canada as the seven teams under par for the tournament.

Team Canada is paired up with South Africa and Mexico for the third round at the Chukyo Golf Club’s Ishino Course. Ranton will kick things off for Canadians at 8:40 a.m. JST.

Click here for team scoring.

Click here for individual scoring.

The second stop on the 14^th Canadian Women’s Tour saw rains come and go, but when play resumed following a three-hour delay, Rebecca Lee-Bentham, Seul-Ki Park and Jennifer Greggain took to the course and conquered the wet conditions at Smiths Falls Golf & Country Club to take the lead.

Dark skies and heavy rains clouded the morning and allowed for just the first 10 groups to tee off on-time before unplayable conditions delayed the remainder of the field of 84. The downpour subsided and gave way to brilliant sunshine to mask the wet conditions on the course. Seul-Ki Park opened with a pair of birdies on her first four holes, but the Northbrook, Ill., native couldn’t maintain her quick start. She concluded her round with a bogey on hole 18 to finish at even par.

“My tee shots kind of cost me today, but I was able to make three birdies to even out my three bogeys,” said Park, when asked about her round. “I think if I tighten up a little bit, I can position myself a little bit better. But obviously, it’s not over until the last shot.

Park’s two co-leaders needed time to re-focus following the delay, but settled down as the round progressed. Chilliwack, B.C., product Jennifer Greggain finished the front nine with a bogey to fall to 2-over par, but a pair of birdies on the 13^th and 17^th holes drew her back to even.

Team Canada Young Pro Squad member Rebecca Lee-Bentham needed a moment to gather herself, but quickly regained her form to take a share of the lead. The Toronto native went bogey-free on her final 12 holes and added a trio of birdies, including one on her final hole, to move into the tie for first.

Team Canada’s National Amateur Squad fared well to open the competition. Brittany Marchand of Orangeville, Ont., carded four birdies and sits in a three-way tie for fourth. She and Christina Foster are currently knotted for low amateur honours.

The Henderson sisters, Brooke and Brittany, opened the two-day tournament on their home course with identical 2-over 73 performances. Brooke, the younger of the two, notched birdies on the 1^st and 4^th holes, but succumbed to the difficult course conditions. Sister Brittany found her form and ended her round even across the back nine. The two are part of a six-player tie for seventh alongside National Team member Jennifer Ha of Calgary.

The remaining members of Team Canada – Elizabeth Tong of Thornhill, Ont., and Maddie Szeryk of London, Ont., – finished T13 and T15 respectively to put all six National Team members within the top-15 and within four strokes of the lead.

The purse for the tournament is set at $60,000 with $10,000 going to the champion.  The tournament winner will join Canadian Women’s Tour – Alberta champion Michelle Piyapattra in receiving a prized exemption into the 2015 Canadian Pacific Women’s Open taking place August 17-23 at The Vancouver Golf Club in Coquitlam, B.C.

The PGA Women’s Championship of Canada, the concluding event on the 2015 Canadian Women’s Tour, is set to be hosted at Burlington Golf & Country Club in Burlington, Ont., from July 20-22. In addition to the three winner exemptions, the top two competitors on the Jocelyne Bourassa Order of Merit, who are not otherwise exempt will join the trio at Canada’s National Women’s Open Championship, provided they have played in at least two of the three Tour events.

The five highest ranked players on the Canadian Women’s Tour Order of Merit will also be awarded direct entry into the second stage of LPGA Qualifying School.

The final round of Canadian Women’s Tour – Ontario is slated to get underway at 8 a.m. before the final threesome tees off at 10:10 a.m.

For full results and additional information, please visit the tournament’s official website.

CALGARY – Calgary’s James Love took the win with a tournament total of 7-under 135 for the Alberta Open Championship at Carnmoney Golf & Country Club. Starting the final round in sixth place, Love played a strong game on the second day, allowing him to capture the title.

Love started the front nine strong with a birdie on the first hole, continuing with a double-bogey on the second and a birdie again on the third hole. A remarkable comeback on hole 16 had Love drop 75 yards from the pin after putting it in the water and hit his approach, one bounce into the cup to save par. His five consecutive birdies on holes 9 through 13 contributed to his stellar final round score of 66.

The whirlwind victory was emotional for the 31 year old Love, who recently suffered the loss of his father to cancer. “To win this event is nice,” a teary Love explained, “he was my biggest fan and my best friend.”

As the winner of the 2015 Alberta Open, James Love has earned an exemption into the Mackenzie Tour – PGA Tour Canada’s Syncrude Boreal Open, set to take place June 25th to 28th at Fort McMurray Golf Course.

On the 18th hole, both Tyler Saunders and Dustin Risdon had their chances to win or tie Love at 7 under par. Unfortunately, both were unable to capitalize on the opportunity and could not force a play off.

The 2015 Alberta Open Championship will be remembered for its many highlights. Among those were Alexander Scherer, who scored an albatross on the 18th hole. Scherer couldn’t see how the shot played out initially. “Is it in?” Scherer reflects on the experience, “he said it was in and that’s when my mind was blown. I needed it.”

Over 90 players competed at Carnmoney Golf & Country Club in Dewinton, Alberta. Playing off the championship tees, Carnmoney is designed to challenge experienced golfers. The course played at 6.858 yards, par 71. The support from the host club staff and volunteers was amazing. “They truly make conducting a championship of this caliber possible,” says Jack Lane, Tournament Director.

For the full leaderboard, click here.

When the National Golf in Schools program was launched in selected elementary schools across Canada in 2009, many considered it a fine addition to the phys-ed curriculum. They appreciated the potential longterm ramifications of one of the few phys-ed activities that allows for total family participation away from the school environment. While some questioned whether swinging plastic clubs at foam balls constituted a sport of any cardiovascular significance, the experts knew otherwise. They were aware of the vigorous calorie-burning routine of walking 18 holes—2,000 calories, if you carry your bag, according to a Walker Research Group report commissioned by the World Golf Foundation and Golf 20/20—and that a youth’s blood glucose levels tumble by up to 20 per cent after a round of golf. In addition, an estimated 240 calories per hour are consumed by hitting a bucket of balls on the driving range.

According to a 2012 study by Australia’s Inside- Golf magazine, the typical mid-handicapper walks roughly 80 per cent further than the scorecard yardage on a given day of 18-hole play, which equates to 9.9 kilometres if you were playing from just shy of 6,000 yards.

Developed by Golf Canada in partnership with Physical and Health Education Canada and the PGA of Canada, the Golf in Schools program stresses that active element.

“It’s not a bunch of kids waiting around for someone to hit a putt,” stresses Jeff Thompson, Chief Sport Officer with Golf Canada. “The programs are all activity-based, from speed and agility to coordination and balance.”

Given those innate health benefits, the National Golf in Schools program couldn’t have come at a better time. For the first time in two centuries, the current generation of children may have shorter life expectancies than their parents, reports the New England Journal of Medicine, citing childhood obesity as the main culprit. Statistics Canada reported that between 1985 and 2011, obesity among Canada’s youth tripled. As recent as last year an Active Healthy Kids Canada research paper indicated that while 84 per cent of Canadian kids aged 3-4 are active enough to meet the recommended daily physical activity guidelines “this falls to only 7 per cent at ages 5-11, and only 4 per cent at ages 12-17.”

The report also indicated that just 55 per cent of Canadian schools have a fully implemented policy for daily PE for all students, and that “82 per cent of parents agree that the education system should place more importance on providing quality PE.”

This is not to suggest the Canadian school system is dropping the ball. Diminished budgets have contributed to the steady curtailing of phys-ed classes over the years. Much of the increase in sedentary behaviour among youth can be attributed to the incursion of technology in our daily lives. While an increased emphasis on school-based physical education programs is far from the be-all and end-all antidote for childhood obesity, it is a valuable step nonetheless. That’s not merely with respect to the obvious fi tness element and skills learned in gym class (while helping avoid heart disease and other ailments down the road), but to a youngster’s scholastic and social development as well.

“We have seen the trend that generally the first thing to be cut in schools is a physical education class, although research strongly suggests that engaging youth in physical activity, beyond motor development, helps with concentration in school,” says Dr. Tanya Forneris, an associate professor in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa, which was approached by Golf Canada in 2014 “to help integrate life skills—such as focus, goal setting, perseverance, sportsmanship, respect and honesty—into Golf Canada’s youth programming.

“Sports is a great context to teach these skills, because youth enjoy learning, and they’re motivated,” says Forneris, a PhD in Counselling Psychology and an expert in positive youth development and community programming through sports.

Forneris suggests there is far more potential to school sports than simply building character. “There’s a long line of studies—much of it in the past 15 years or so—that we use to support our core research of positive youth development supporting physiological, social and educational development,” she says.

From the standpoint of enhanced cognitive performance alone, you could fill a computer hard drive with supporting evidence. Among them is a 1999 Maryland research paper by C. Edwin Bencraft. Entitled “The Relationship between Physical Activity, Brain Development and Cognitive Performance,” Bencraft’s work observed four key points: challenging motor tasks before the age of 10 can increase cognitive ability; aerobic exercise improves cognitive functioning by increasing the number of capillaries serving the brain; cross-lateral movements increase the communication ability between the brain’s hemispheres; and physical activity reduces the production of stress chemicals that inhibit cognitive processing.

In other words, active kids generally think quicker, concentrate better and are apt to be less stressed than their non-active classmates. Canadian research includes a six-year Quebec study that found youngsters who received five extra hours of physical activity per week achieved higher marks in academic subjects than students who received the regular regimen.

Even the Canadian Association of Principals supports the concept, noting that children who engage in physical education on a daily basis come to class more ready to learn, and play and interact better with others, according to Straight Talk About Children and Sport, a book commissioned by the Coaching Association of Canada. You can also not underestimate the element of improved self-esteem through accomplishments in school sports.

Better grades, higher expectations, more academically-oriented friends, greater family attachment and more frequent interactions with parents, more restraint in avoiding risky behaviour, even greater involvement in volunteer work—they are also direct byproducts of school-aged sport, notes TrueSport, a youth movement supported by the U. S. Anti-Doping Agency.

But if sport is to be used as a vehicle in instilling such habits and principles—whether it’s a team activity such as hockey or an individual sport like golf—you’ve got to hook them early.

“The research out there now, especially on the girls side, is that if they haven’t tried a sport by the age of 12, the chances of them taking up the sport after that time drops incrementally,” notes Golf Canada’s Thompson.

In fact, according to a 1993 Melpomene Institute for Women’s Health (Minnesota) study, “if a girl does not participate in sport by the age of 10, there is only a 10 per cent chance she will be physically active when she is 25.”

It gets worse at the secondary-school level. Once it becomes an optional subject, enrolment in physical education in Canada tends to decrease significantly, with the decrease more noticeable for adolescent females than males, a myriad of studies observe.

Many in Canada are now considering whether physical education should be mandatory through grade 12. Indeed, given the research, gym class has never looked like a smarter choice.

Part one in this five-part series, Class is in Session, was published in the April edition of Golf Canada Magazine. It can be read here.

TOYOTA CITY, Japan – Team Canada’s Development Squad foursome kicked things off on in style on Tuesday with a collective score of 3-under par to grab a share of fourth place following the first round of the Toyota Junior Golf World Cup.

Canada finished inside the top-five after the opening round at the Chukyo Golf Club’s Ishino Course thanks in part to three 1-under rounds of 70 from Tony Gil (Vaughan, Ont.), Étienne Papineau (St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Qué.) and A.J. Armstrong (St. Albert, Alta.). The team’s fourth member, Trevor Ranton of Waterloo, Ont., posted a 1-over 72 for Canada’s non-counting score of the day.

Collectively, the Canucks posted a 3-under score to sit in a three-way tie with Korea and South Africa. Sweden and host Japan hold a share of the lead at 7-under par, while the Americans trail by two strokes in third place.

Team Canada will hit the tee-box tomorrow morning starting at 8:40 a.m.

Click here for scoring.

Click here for second-round pairing sheet.

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Team’s Canada’s Women’s Development Squad is ramping up to compete in the annual Women’s Western Golf Association Amateur Championship this week from Jun. 15–20 at the Nashville Golf Club.

The Women’s Development Squad will be represented by three members in Tennessee: Grace St-Germain of Ottawa, Naomi Ko of Victoria, B.C. and Michelle Kim of Surrey, B.C.

Ko, the most experienced of the three, finished in 16^th place in last year’s event. The 18-year-old N.C. State commit will look to better her result in 2015, which will follow the tournament’s usual format—two-day stroke-play qualifier, followed by match-play for the low 64.

Team Canada will have their eyes on America’s Mika Liu, who will return to defend her title. The 16-year-old Stanford commit is a familiar foe for the Canucks—she was the gold medalist at last year’s inaugural World Junior Girls Championship in Markham, Ont.

Other Canadians in the field are headlined by former Team Canada members Taylor Kim (sister of Michelle) and Sabrine Garrison of Calgary, along with Kent State standout Josée Doyon of St-Georges-de-Beauce, Qué. Doyon, 22, is coming off a remarkable junior season which saw her earn the Mid-American Conference Golfer of the Year award. She currently sits as the lowest-ranking Canadian in the World Amateur Golf Rankings (WAGR) at No. 42.

Four other fellow countrywomen will also fly the flag in Tennessee: Kennedy Bodfield (St. Catherines, Ont.) Kiersten Klekner-Alt (Ottawa), Marlies Klekner-Alt (Ottawa) and Gracie Howie (Calgary).

The WWGA was founded in 1901 under the sponsorship of the Western Golf Association and is one of the oldest women’s golf organizations in the United States; it is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization established under guidelines set by the Internal Revenue Service. All the dedicated Directors are volunteers paying all their own travel expenses. In June of 2011, the WWGA once again partnered with the Western Golf Association.

Daily scoring updates can be found here.

TOYOTA CITY, Japan – Four members of Team Canada’s Men’s Development Squad are ramping up to compete in the Toyota Junior Golf World Cup next week from June 16–19 at the Chukyo Golf Club (Ishino Course).

Leading the Canucks into battle is 18-year-old Étienne Papineau, who finished in a tie for 15^th in last year’s event to earn low-Canadian honours. The St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Qué., native is riding the momentum of two top-5 finishes in CN Future Links Championships already this summer and will look to continue his strong play in Japan.

Also playing in his second World Junior Boys is Vaughan, Ont., native, Tony Gil. Last year, the 17-year-old University of Houston commit came out with a tie for 37^th place—helping Team Canada finish in seventh overall.

Rounding out the squad are two first-year Development Squad members, A.J. Armstrong of St. Albert, Alta. and Trevor Ranton of Waterloo, Ont. Ranton, 18, won the CN Future Links Pacific in May.

Quarterbacking Canada’s team is Lead Development Squad Coach, Robert Ratcliffe. The PGA of Canada Class ‘A’ member is entering his third year coaching the event and knows what to expect this week.

“The field in this event is always very strong and ultimately it’s a great test,” said Ratcliffe. “We have prepared well for this event and are confident we can put up some low numbers together as a team.”

Joining Ratcliffe is Toronto native Matthew Wilson, who was appointed as Team Captain. Wilson started his teaching career under the direction of former Team Canada Head Coach, Henry Brunton. He has since become the Director of Instruction at La Rinconada Country Club in Los Gatos, Calif., where he was named to the US Kids Golf Top 50 Teachers list in 2014 for his outstanding work with juniors. Wilson is acting in his first role as a Team Canada captain in an international event.

Canada is one of 15 teams competing in the 72-hole stroke-play event, which follows a four-players-count-three format and is being conducted for the 23^rd time.

Scoring will be available here.

Golf links fathers and sons in many ways.  For comedian Gerry Dee, it’s not surprising his introduction to the game came with a humorous twist involving his dad.  I ask the star and writer/producer of the CBC Series Mr. D, which was just renewed for a fifth season, about his first tee shot and stroll down the fairway.

“It’s a funny story,” he recalls.  “I was 12-years-old and a buddy asked me to play golf at Don Valley Golf Club in Toronto.  I called my dad to ask for his permission.  I said dad, ‘I’ve never been on a golf course and I’ve never tried it, can I go?’ Right away, he said no!”

To understand why a father wouldn’t let his son golf, you need the backstory.  First, Dee’s dad was very strict.  Second, before coming to Canada, the elder Dee was a policeman in his native Scotland.

“There was a very famous serial killer in Scotland named Peter Manual in the late 1950s and my dad was working when he was in the midst of his killing spree,” Dee explains.  “He killed a little boy on a golf course, so my paranoid dad was like, ‘no you can’t go golfing’ because he had this story in his head of this murderer.”

Dee wasn’t about to let his dad’s paranoia about this Scottish lunatic, which was ingrained on his brain, prevent his pre-teen longing to hit the links.  “I hung up the phone, but then I called him right back.  It was probably the first time I ever defied my dad.  I told him I’m going golfing and he was like, ‘what?’ I said, ‘I want to go and I’m going!’ It was the first time I ever remember talking back to my dad and, in so many ways, it turned out to be the greatest thing I ever did.”

The comedian’s golfing debut was not memorable for the score (he shot 136, which included a few mulligans), but he vividly remembers that round.  He was addicted with the sport.  The next year he enrolled into a sponsored program at Bayview Golf & Country Club where he paid just $150.  “My parents didn’t have to be members because they couldn’t aff ord it,” he explains.  “I had five great years at Bayview.  I won the men’s club championship twice – once as a 17-year-old and once when I joined for a year as an adult.”

Dee is lucky to still have his dad around. Today, they joke about that life-changing phone call from 34 years ago.

“Over the years, he’s come to watch me golf a few times,” says Dee.  “Back in 2001, I was trying to qualify for the Ontario Amateur at Toronto’s Donalda Golf Club.  I said, ‘Dad you’ve never seen a tournament, why don’t you come?’ So, he did.  He followed me around the golf course and it was the worst mistake I ever made!  Here is a guy that can’t break 100 and he was yelling at me things like: ‘Why did you do that?  Don’t use that club?  I told you to hit it in the water!’ I was like, ‘I told you to hit it in the water?’ You don’t say that!’

It’s another one of those father/son moments Dee will never forget.  After six holes, he was six over.  What turned out as a fortuitous omen from Mother Nature, there was a thunderstorm and everyone had to run for shelter and wait out the rain.

“At the time, my dad was around 70 and there was a two-hour rain delay,” Dee recalls.  “So, my dad said he was going to go home.  After he left, I went birdie-birdie, and then made par on the remaining holes to make the cut.  It was the only Ontario Amateur I ever made.  I got home and my dad said, ‘I don’t know how you did that as you were terrible when I was with you!’ It was funny, but I have a lot of great memories of golf with my dad and I’m thankful for that.”

Over the years, Dee has also taken his dad golfing a few times.  The comedian laughs that, despite the disparity between their ages and their handicap factors – Dee consistently shoots in the 70s and his dad is lucky to break 100 – his father still tries to give him lessons on the course.

“My sister took up golf and she’s better than him too,” Dee adds.  “It’s just a dad being a dad.  He can’t beat me, but that’s just the nature of being a dad.  I’m the same way with my kids.  It’s just nice to get out on the course with him.”

Today, Dee is a father of three children and enjoys sharing his love of the game with his son and two daughters.  “I knew what golf did for me as a kid, so as a dad I’ve exposed my daughters and my son already to the game,” he says.  “We are fortunate that I can afford to join a golf club now.  My daughters have already taken lessons.  I think the discipline, the manners, the rules, and the etiquette, and everything that is instilled in golf is the best thing for kids that a dad can teach their kids in a sport and I’ve seen that already.”

What else is it about golf, besides these generational ties and memorable family moments, does Dee love about the sport?  It’s mainly about the valuable life lessons golf teaches.

“I’m very competitive and what I love is there is a score in golf,” he explains.  “I think that is why so many kids cheat and take mulligans because you want to improve that score.  When you get to a point where you realize you are just cheating yourself by moving your ball, that’s when you become a real golfer.”

Golf is also addictive.  “You play well one day and the next you balloon,” Dee adds.  “I remember a day when I was 16 where I hit 16 greens in regulation.  I don’t remember what I was doing and I’ve never done that again in my whole life.  There is something in golf that always pulls you back—that one good hole that makes you go, ‘Ah I think I’ve got it!’”

Does his chosen career as a comedian suit golf I wonder, asking whether it helps to have a good sense of humor when you are golfing?  “I think it helps you to forget because in comedy you can have a bad show or a bad audience and you need to have a short memory,” Dee says.  “Golf is no different. You can’t three-putt a hole and think about it for the next 10 holes.  You have to have a short memory and just take the good with the bad; it’s the same with the entertainment business.”

Over the years, Dee’s profession has allowed him to play some of the world’s best courses, including Augusta National where he teed it up the day after Adam Scott won the Green Jacket in 2013.

“I forget how lucky I was,” he says recalling this experience.  “I wish I had taken more pictures of me standing on various bridges, by that plaque, etc. I went as a sports reporter and I remember talking to Bob Weeks and saying, ‘I recall there is a draw for the media to play the course and if you win, you get to play the course.  He said, ‘Ha!  I’ve been here 17 years and never been drawn once.’

“So, I flew home on Friday, but I had put my name in the draw,” he continues. “I called at 7 a.m. on Sunday morning and talked to the woman at Augusta to check if my name had been drawn and she said, ‘Yes!  You tee off tomorrow!’ So, I got on a plane, made a connection and I drove there.”

Dee played the front tees in a foursome that included a Quebec reporter, Japanese reporter and Irish reporter.  “The pins were still where the Sunday pins were,” he recalls. “It was my first round of the year and I shot 82 with a quadruple bogey!  I treated it like my own little Masters.”

When he’s not touring the country performing live, or filming Mr. D out on the East Coast in the summer, you’ll find the comedian teeing it up at The National. “It’s the toughest course I’ve ever played,” he says.  “I’ve played Kiawah Island, played Oakmont and played Augusta, but from the back tees I’ve never played a harder course and a lot of guys on the PGA TOUR that have played it will tell you that too.”

Other golf highlights for Dee include doing an event once with Moe Norman, interviewing Gary Player and seeing Jack Nicklaus at the Masters.

“There are so many great things golf has done for me,” he concludes.  “It’s the greatest sport out there.  I love hockey, but if I had to pick a sport for my kids I would pick golf any day over hockey for so many reasons … it’s been so good to me.”