Here's a picture of Emerald Hills Golf Club (near Stouffville Ontario) taken on Monday September 29. What a beautiful day it was! And of course, a great day to golf at this fabulous course.
It was the annual "Pro Executive Day In Support of the Hulbert Memorial Fund" (aka "The Hulbert Memorial"), hosted by the PGA of Ontario. I've blogged about this event before - it's a fundraiser for the PGAO Benevolent Fund.
Sadly, this year there were only nine (nine!) teams participating. When I first played "The Hulbert" back in 1998, there was a waiting list. In those days, it was played at the Board of Trade Club (now The Country Club) in Woodbridge: 36 holes, and all 36 holes were filled. We brought a jacket and tie for dinner. It was a BIG deal!
So it's unfortunate to see it shrink to the point of, well, almost nothing.
Certainly, events sometimes "run their course", but this is such a great tournament, and an important one for the PGAO, that it shouldn't be mothballed. There was a short discussion at the end of the day, about putting forth some ideas on revitalizing the Hulbert. The format has always been a 4-person scramble, with each team consisting of a club Pro, a manager, and executives from a club's membership. I was thinking of presenting the idea of a ProAm with the "Shamble" format. Any ideas?
