The Grateful Golfer

The Golf Historical Society of Canada (GHSC) is heading on its northern swing in just a few weeks. This annual trek up north is in its 7th year. It grows a little bit each time and is great opportunity for none hickory players to come out and play around with 100 year old clubs. It is great fun and I can hardly wait for the opportunity to chat with old friends, make new friends and to play a few…

Today was an awesome day on the golf course. My long time friend, Blair, and I played one of the few rounds of the year at his home course of Osprey Links Golf Course in Callander, Ontario, Canada. It is a unique course with a links style front nine and a ‘cut through the forest’ back nine. I was my home course for many years and now it is a gem I like to play a few times a year. Interestingly,…

Well, we are in mid season up north and it is time to take stock of our golf games. If you are playing better this year than last, then congrats and keep going. If you are struggling a bit…..well, keeping working at your game. With such a short golf season, it is a challenge for most players to balance the life, work, golf thing in order to satisfy all aspects of their lives. Personally, I am…

The types of golf balls being offered to all golfers is ridiculous. The marketing campaign is definitely enticing to the uninformed and I have to admit that I fell into the trap myself. With dozens of manufacturers, it is a challenge to separate the wheat from the chaff with respect to the ball that works best for your game. Recently, I conducted an impromptu experiment where I used a distance,…

There is a plethora of golf tips out there that will help any player lower their golf score. Depending on your skill level, these tips can be helpful or not so much. Additionally, it is a challenge to find any tips that span the spectrum of abilities so that the information provided can help you progress your game. Well, today I found a video that does just that! I think there will be something…

Today started off amazingly on the golf course. The Mattawa Golf and Ski Resort is in great shape, the sun was shining, the bugs were almost non-existent and my playing partner was fantastic. Overall, my round started off great and I was playing very well on the front nine. Actually, Blair and I were both playing great until we hit the back nine and the wheels fell off. There seems to be no rhyme…

Every golfer I know works on their golf swing. They try different aspects or make small changes in order to gain the advantage they need to lower their golf score. Well, I am no different. Over the past six months of playing (about a year due to our winter layoff) I have tried to change my golf swing. I can honestly tell you that it my efforts have not produced the changes expected, so it is time…

Golf is a wild game that requires every player to adjust their game to combat the different course conditions. If you are like me, weather watching is a sport unto itself because of the impact it has on our golf game. I have played in torrential rain, scorching heat, snow and all types of weather in between. Regardless of the conditions, I play my game as best as possible without hesitation. It…

30 years ago. How time flies! I have the best Dad in the world! I am sure this statement is being lauded around the world again and again. Of course, we think our father was the greatest because of the positive impact he had on our lives, but really, my Dad was the best. Unfortunately, our time together was far too short and over the past 25 years, I sure could have used some of his sage wisdom…

It is a challenge to figure out it our golf game is moving to the next level. One of the key goals is to find out what drives you to improve your game. I have played golf for over 50 years and I still try to find a way to lower my score each spring. This year is no different and I think I have found the area to which I want to focus. I am going to work on my mental game in the area of hitting off…

If you have read some of my previous posts, you will start to see a bit of a trend going on. For the first time, I attended the Ottawa Hickory Open Championship. Organized by Chris Hawes, the Hickory Open Championship is in its third year and has grown to 50 players across 4 divisions. The championship uses the Stableford system of scoring in order to eliminate the high hole errors most hickory…

If you missed the Ottawa Hickory Golf Challenge on 5 Jun 2026, then you missed an amazing time. Organized by Chris Hawes, this event provided 124 golfers an opportunity to step back in time and play golf like many of the greats from the past. Chris hosts an amazing opportunity for any level of golfer to experience golf with hickory shafted golf clubs. There were many golfers who embraced this…

Golf is a funny game because no matter how hard I try, it seems my swing changes from day to day. Okay, that is a bit dramatic, however I have noticed that I do have a tendency to swing differently from time to time. This ‘hiccup’ is most prevalent with my hickory sticks as I am working on my early season game. I am fairly confident that every golfer has this challenge and often seeks remedies to…

My first official golf practice is in the books. A couple of days ago I went to my local golf course, Mattawa Golf and Ski Resort, to avail myself of their practice green. The course is not open until this weekend, but the practice area was open for members. It was my first time this year to practice off of grass and I decide to add a little twist that I will talk about later. Overall, I…

There are so many proclamations about how easy it is to fix any part of our golf game that I thought I would jump on the bandwagon. Working/fixing our golf game is easy depending on the starting point. If you are new to the game or have played for a long time, the progress and success of your development will change. Using myself as an example, changes to my game, with a tremendous amount of…

It is official. Yesterday, I played my first full round of golf in 2026. It was a round of the goods, bads and the uglies! Osprey Links was dry and very playable. The temperatures hovered around 7° C (45° F) and there was a slight wind making it even colder. Overall, the conditions were expected and the results of my round were also expected. I did not play very well, but for the first round of…

Today, I played my first round of golf of the 2026 golf season. It happens to coincide with World Hickory Golf Day. It usually happens that this momentous day happens around the start of my golf season every year. Sometimes, it is sooner and others later. I thought I would bring my hickory sticks to my old haunt of Osprey Links Golf Course. As the course open this weekend, the course was in good…