There are many exciting changes for the Edmonton Golfaround 2020 season.

For those of you who have golfed at JR’s it has been sold and is now called Meadowview.  I’ve been told that  the new owners are planning on putting a lot of work into the course and are excited for the new year, we look forward to playing here this season.

Last year I played at Edmonton Springs with a few other members and am happy to report that we have now included this course as part of our schedule for our Evening League and Day League.  This 18 hole course situated in the west end has challenging holes with water in play, and a quaint clubhouse for socialization later.

If you have played Trestle Creek and loved it – It is now on our regular schedule for Monday August 10 Day League!  It is a little bit of a drive, but it is a beautiful course with an outstanding rate and great clubhouse.  You don’t want to miss this one.

Since Golfaround is also about the socialization, food, and drink – here is some news to make many of our members happy!  The City of Edmonton has hired a new restaurant group to handle the food services for the following courses:  Riverside, Rundle Park and Victoria.   The Robert Spenser Hospitality Group serves two well known restaurants, Workshop Eatery and Woodshed Burgers and looking forward to highlighting  local ingredients.  Personally I can hardly wait – as I typically love to eat a meal after golf!  Edmonton Coordinator Lyn Propp

Calgary Golf Show BMO Centre Hall B

March 21 & 22

Edmonton Golf Show Expo Centre, Hall H

April  4 & 5

Baby it’s cold outside!!!  There is a mountain of snow on the ground and a couple of months for winter activities, but Spring is coming.  Are you sick of snow, blizzards and shoveling your driveway? Get out of the cold to experience a taste of the spring that is on its way by visiting the Golf Show this month, it will lift your spirits. The March & April  Golf Shows   kick off the golf season for us and many avid golfers.

Reasons to attend:

Sharpen your skills by getting a bit of instruction, attending informational seminars or participating in hands-on lessons or skills clinics.

Visit the Clearance Center to purchase golf equipment and apparel,  the discounts alone make it well worth the trip.

Check out the “stay & play” packages and new destinations to travel to to golf.

Take a test drive trying out a club before you buy. An area is available for golfers to test the latest equipment from an assortment of manufacturers.

Enter contests where you win prizes, I am not sure what they will have to test our skills this year but there always something.

Win prizes and giveaways by registering to win door prizes & drawings.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful
But the dome is so delightful
And since there’s no place for grub
To the pub, to the pub, great grub

The North Dome, Eaglequest at Fox Hollow, is having a new heating system installed.  This is something badly needed especially when it is as cold as it was in January. Because of this we have been meeting at the South dome, The National Golf Academy, for all of January and the last two weeks of February. The North Dome heating system should be replaced by the end of February, so our plan is to go to the north in March.
We are restricted to 20 people at the South dome and believe it or not each week so far we have had a full slate as well as a waiting list. I am sure our neighbors must wonder when they see us going to our cars with golf clubs when it is 30 below zero and colder.
We also found a place in very close proximity to the Dome for food following our practice. The Dog and Duck established in 1992, an original English pub which is a locally owned, family business. This find was thanks to Bev Blair and what a find it is.
They offer 16 different beers on tap and are known for pouring the best Guinness in town as attested by some of the Ireland group. Our waitress MaryAnne is great and John does a terrific  job pouring our beverages. Not sure who the chef is but the food has been very good and there are lots of excellent choices.

Here we are in 2020 a new decade and 23 years since the inception of Golfaround Inc. Back in 1997 Golfaround wasn’t incorporated and looking back we had many a chuckle about how we did things then and now.
Up until 2014 the registration process was not an e-commerce process as it is now. We did have a website where you could download the form and utilizing the lesson and league data on the site you would manually complete the form, indicate if you were paying by check or credit card and if a credit card you would include your number. We would receive the completed form by mail, fax or in person. We then would have to complete credit card deposit slips for each transaction and phone this into a  processing company. Checks would be recorded, batched and taken to the bank….all very labor intensive. In addition back then only about 35% were online so we also had to provide hard copy for those without internet. These folk also would phone in their league requests vs doing it by e-mail, today there is not one person without e-mail and many send in their choices using their smart phones.
While we are talking about phones, think about it, in 1998 cell phones were still a rareity and today everyone has a cell phone and some have smart watchs that they use to communicate. I must be dating myself but once when I was teeing off I noticed one of the gals talking to her wrist and she informed me her friend had arrived and was at the range. Twenty years later it’s obvious how much our world has changed.
The internet has transformed virtually every aspect of our lives from the way we communicate to how we consume news, research and navigate. Remember when we used a paper map to find where we were going? We also used to have written directions to all the golf courses, now we hyperlink the golf courses on the schedule to the websites for directions. Just last season one of the beginners had forgotten her phone at home and she told us she had quite the challenge using her paper map to get to where she was playing. With step-by-step directions on Google Maps we don’t have worry any more.
I think all our workplaces were a lot less tech orientated, where before, all of our communication took place over our landline or in person, today the phone hardly rings and most of our communication takes place on-line.
Once upon a time pictures actually had to be taken to a centre to be developed (unless you were lucky enough to have a Polaroid), and couldn’t be uploaded on a screen. Nor checked right away to see if a retake was in order–what you snapped was what you got. Now we regularly take selfies (with or without the stick), and have various duck faces to help set the mood.
It was great fun thinking about how we used to do things and I must admit some things I could not really recall with total accuracy. All in all we feel we have come a long way in 23 years and can be proud of how we have evolved.
So here’s to another decade and more changes I am sure….lifetime learning is what it is and we love the challenge.

“And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been” Rainer Maria Rilke

Wishing everyone a healthy, happy, and successful 2020

The website has been updated with 2020 program information and existing members can start registering January 1, 2020. Please note registration opens to new members February 1.  Beginners who are ready to move to the “intermediate” league are given the opportunity before we accept new members February 1, so you need to register in January. Lessons will run in Calgary  in February and March and need to be signed up for in early January. Click here for details.

• Swing Improvement Conditioning (Feb)
• Short Game Clinics (Feb)
• Indoor Level I Beginner (Mar)
• Indoor Level II (Mar)

At this special time of year, we give thanks to our members who have made our jobs easier and our lives more fulfilling. Thank you for being you. We also appreciate the relationships we have in the golf community and thank them for their support. Merry Christmas everyone.

2020 is the start of a new decade and new decades mean new opportunities. When we look at the last decade of Golfaround we recognize that we have come a long way but looking to the future we know that we have to keep on getting better. We have been working hard this fall to identify the opportunities in our future, which is also your future and we have some additions that we are sure will be well received. For the past ten years we have provided our members with a wide range of golfing opportunities and we are not done yet, look forward to some great additions in 2020.

We will once again practice in both the north & south locations starting  in the north on January 9 at the Eaglequest Golf Dome.  Our plan is to alternate between the north and south venues so January 16 we will be at the National Golf Academy (NGA) golf dome in the south. This is great way to practice in the off season and to stay connected through the winter.  Watch for an e-mail early in January that will include a schedule and some more details. The Edmonton ladies will see something from Lyn in January.

Just back home from our 19 day Golfaround Ireland trip and boy was it great. Accolades to Swing Golf Ireland for putting together a fantastic itinerary and we were so pleased with our coach driver/tour guide Chris. He was fantastic, such a delight, just the right combination of fun, humor and skill, in addition he was extremely knowledgeable and provided us with a mix of folklore, history and facts. Throughout our 19 days we visited breathtaking and wild seascapes, centuries old castles, marvelous little villages, emerald landscapes and of course some amazing golf courses.
First stop Dublin where we were introduced to Guinness and Gaelic football, we were able to join the locals to watch the final game for the All Ireland Senior Club Football championship between the Dubs, Dublin, and Kerry, Chis’s favorite. This city is filled with history and with its seamless blend of classic visitor sights, excellent social scene which of course included several pubs and the natural playgrounds of Dublin Bay, this laidback city was an adventure in itself. Golf at St Anne’s Golf Club introduced us to “links” golf and also to the friendly folk of Ireland. It was their ladies league that day and I can’t tell you how many of these gals took the time to chat and offer their assistance, what wonderful people. Chris told us that “links” means the place between the sea and land and whose characteristics include being built on sandy soil along a coastline. Links courses are buffeted by strong winds that require deep bunkers to prevent the sand from blowing away. They are also completely or largely treeless. Our first experience was a bit windy but warm and everyone enjoyed.
Kinsale, the home of Old Head Golf Course was our next stop and we can’t believe how lucky we were to have a picture perfect day for experiencing the most spectacular golf course ever. We have played some beautiful courses but the scenery and views at Old Head stand head and shoulders above any course we have ever played, another checkmark on Kristy’s bucket list.
Killarney offered us more beautiful scenery as we explored parts of the Ring of Kerry and rode in a jaunting car through Killarney National Park. We also stopped at Ladies View, the queen really missed out the day she didn’t go with her ladies in waiting to see this. It is untouched incredible nature that offers wonderful views of the lakes. Pictures just can’t do it justice. Golf here at Dooks and Killeen was lovely with no weather issues, how lucky we have been.
Dromoland (pronounced Drumolen) was a magical place, a once in a lifetime experience. This magical castle offered absolute luxury and service. We had a beautifully appointed suite overlooking the courtyard and it had a fabulous bathroom with a de-fogging mirror. The staff were wonderful and the dining room was lovely with white linen cloths and silver service.. This is what I imagine it would be like if the Queen invited you to stay at Windsor Castle. The golf course was also beautiful located on the estate, we did experience a little Irish mist but it wasn’t cold. We sure hated to leave it was great being a royalty for a couple of days.
On our way to Westport our driver Chris took us on the Taggert Ferry which crosses the Shannon estuary. We then traveled along The Kilkee Cliffs, a remote and wild stretch of stunning coastline in County Clare. You really feel in harmony with nature here, the scenery was outstanding. Our golf in Eniscrone was also a little wild the wind was at gale force I am sure. However, what a golf course, absolutely fantastic and thoroughly enjoyable despite the wind. This is links golf on steroids, giant sand dunes with narrow undulating fairways and immaculate greens.This place is not easy by any means and I am sure many of us had a so so score, but it was an amazing experience and we had lots of laughs.
Belfast, our last destination, offered more history, more pubs, more scenic opportunities and a last round of golf for some of us. The Royal Belfast Golf Club was founded in 1881, and is Ireland’s oldest golf club and there are panoramic views across Belfast Lough from this delightful park course.
Back to Dublin for most of us to get our direct flight back to reality, an amazing adventure with great people, amazing weather and memories to last a lifetime. We are truly blessed.