Some would think that holding a fundraiser for a golf course seems a bit odd.
Not a fundraiser at a golf course – those happen all the time and make perfect sense – but a fundraiser for the course itself.
But for the members, patrons and volunteers at Quadra Golf, there’s nothing odd about it whatsoever.
Quadra Island Golf Club isn’t what most people think of when they hear the term “golf club.” It’s run as a not-for-profit by a volunteer board of directors and maintained, to a large extent, by the people of Quadra Island themselves.
“For a lot of people,” says Jackson Holmes, who sits on the board of directors for the course, “it’s just that they know if they want to keep a course on Quadra instead of going over to Campbell River all day – because it’s an all-day thing to go to Campbell River to play golf – we have to put the work in to keep it.
“We also have a big tourist base on the Island,” Holmes continues, “and so we cooperate with all the resorts so they can tell people about us, and run the shuttle to and from the resorts and the ferries, so we have to keep the course in good shape so that those people like it, and go and tell their friends that if they’re ever out this way, to come play it, because it’s worth it.”
And all that work takes money – even if the ones doing it are donating their time – so they need fundraisers. The Rod Clark Memorial Golf Tournament is Quadra Golf’s largest fundraiser every year, and the club couldn’t have asked for a nicer day to host it than last Saturday, according to head professional and general manager Jason Tchir.
“I think it went really well,” Tchir says. “I’ve been having a lot of people giving positive feedback – some are saying it could have been the best one ever. We kind of lucked out with the weather on the day, and we ran some new activities on the 9th hole that people really enjoyed, and overall, it was just a lot of fun.”
Tchir and his fiancee Danielle were to have been married the day before the event, but they put those plans on hold when Tchir took over the reigns of Quadra Golf earlier this year, and the volunteers and board members thanked them for their efforts by putting on an impromptu, unofficial wedding celebration during the after-round events.
“That was really something else,” Tchir says. “Those guys didn’t have to do that, we’re happy to be here to be a part of what they’re doing.”
Campbell River resident Brian McCabe lived over on Quadra for over 40 years, but made the trip over for the tournament, as he does every year.
He says he never thought he would see the day when there was finally a golf course operating on the Island.
“We heard talk about it for years and years. April Point was going to put one in, and then so and so was going to put one in, and then finally it came together once I’d left,” he says with a laugh. “But I come back every Wednesday for Men’s Night and I come to all these tournaments. I love it.”
Tchir says it’s still too early to tell how much the tournament brought in for the club, but he’s pretty sure it will turn out to have been a record.
“I have to still do a final tally, but I would say it’s probably around $5,000 that we raised for the course, which is really going to help,” Tchir says. “I can’t speak to what, specifically it’s going to go towards, but sufficed to say, it will be used well.”
