January 2000 brought us into the New Millennium, back then it sounded so futuristic and scary. Remember the great Y2K scare? The scare consisted of the fear that the entire computer systems were going to fail on New Year’s Eve 1999. This was because computer memory space was pricey then and memory was saved by using two digits for the date instead four. For example, a date representing 1995 would be saved as “95.” Therefore, when the year changed to 2000, the disaster that was anticipated by so many was that the computers would not be able to tell if “00” meant 2000 or 1900. Therefore, people assumed that all of the world’s computers would fail to function. In other words, people saw the new millennium as the apocalypse. But nothing happened and we lived to golf another day.
The new millennium saw a few more changes as we were moving up in the world. Our growth forced us to add GST to our cost, the government have to get their cut don’t they? and needless to say it threw a wrench in our accounting processes which was a bit painful……growth can have it’s disadvantages. We saw the introduction of the popular Swing Maintenance program, an indoor lesson which was taught without the use of the ball. To help us get through the winter doldrums we also planned some TGIFs, we had a dart and pool night at Nottingham’s Pub and virtual golf at the Riverside Club. Other new programs were a one day clinic and course management. Our golf professionals from day one were Tiffany Gordon, Shelley Charlton and her team at Country Hills which included Daniela Pacheco, Scott Bergdahl and Ryan Anderson. We were also lucky to have Blair Shetler, Tracey Boyle, Kirby Lindal, Jay Grabowsky, Tricia Donahue, Sheryl Rowland and Clayton Robb join the team in 2000. In 2001 we saw Tory Cook and Ahren Engelbract come on board and get rave reviews, they weren’t only cute but had nice butts too.
Some moments to remember include, but are not limited to these two amazing accomplishments: Donna Gray got a birdie….not just any birdie……….Gleneagles hole #7, her first shot is in a tree well 80 yards out, she takes a sand wedge and guess what……she puts it in the hole. Mary Cook got a hole in one at Bufallo Run after Golfaround’s season finished, she was there with her son and Marielle Galibois her son unfortunately missed the feat as he had gone back to retrieve a club he had left behind.
Special events in 2000 included our wind-up at Southwood Community centre where ninety of us enjoyed a BBQ/potluck. We also had a great tournament at Beaver Dam, remember the great food the farmers wives cooked? yummy. Also remember how many balls we lost and how grateful we were to Joan Holmes for keeping track of this for us!!!! We also launched our first international golf trip to Laughlin Nevada, which was a huge success with registration of forty great people and was also the harbinger of many more adventures. We ended the 2001 season on a positive note starting yet another first, the Glenmore Inn wind-up dinner. Stay tuned next month for more memories.