Junior Tyson Tour: A Look Back At 57 Years Of Junior Golf

Reed On The Greens March 27, 2025
A Look Back At 57 Years Of The Junior Tyson Tour
by Jeffrey Reed, Editor, LondonOntarioSports.com
Above Photo: 2024 Junior Tyson Tour champions, by Jeffrey Reed/LondonOntarioSports.com

I was only 18 years old – the same age as many of the Junior Boys competitors – when I covered my first Junior Tyson Tour event in 1980. Last year, as I reported on the Tyson Tour’s 57th season, I was old enough to be the grandfather of the entire field. Like the game of golf, some things are out of your hands. There’s no denying Father Time of his cruelty, nor do you always have control of a missed three-foot putt.

I don’t remember whom I interviewed in 1980 for a story on AM 1410 CKSL. Father Time took its toll on that radio station, too, when it went silent in 2016. But I do remember interviewing 2003 Masters Tournament champion Mike Weir when he won the Tyson Tour’s Les Thomas Memorial Tournament in 1986 and again in ’87. As the story goes, while hundreds of youngsters dined on hot dogs and Coke at Fanshawe Golf Club post-round, Weir was all alone on the practice green honing skills. I was witness to that event. We all know how that story unfolded.

This season marks my 46th year covering the Tyson Tour (est. 1968) – Canada’s oldest junior golf tour. The Tour is part of what makes London a special sports town. After all, the Eager Beaver Baseball Association is one of Canada’s first Little League baseball organizations, and is London’s first minor sports association.

As author of, EBBA 40 Years of Baseball (1994), and a long-time supporter of the Tyson Tour, it’s easy to see where my sports allegiances rest – baseball and golf. As a youngster growing up in London’s Huron Heights neighbourhood, I played on numerous baseball squads and eventually pitched and coached with the London Majors of the Intercounty Baseball League. While I showed some promise as a junior golfer at Fanshawe Golf Course, baseball was my game back then. It wasn’t until I reached my mid-40s when I began to take golf seriously – and worked tirelessly to achieve a plus-handicap index in my early-50s.

At Fanshawe GC, my regular junior golf partners included brothers Chris and Tim Webb, who became golf lifers – both golf course superintendents of note with the City of London municipal golf system and Sunningdale Golf and Country Club, respectively. My Fanshawe pro was Mike Olizarevitch, who played on the Tyson Tour. Both Tim (2024) and Mike (2011) have captured the London Ontario Golf Heart Award for growing the game and giving back to golf. Weir won, too, in 2014. Read more about the Heart Award here.

As a junior golfer, Jack Nicklaus was my hero. Getting to interview Jack was one of the highlights of my career. Now a cynical scribe, I don’t have golf heroes other than Jack, but of course I have admired the skills, mental toughness and moving-the-needle ability of Tiger Woods. As a former long-time Wilson Golf Staff Advisor, I got to know Golf Hall of Fame inductee Padraig Harrington pretty well and have always admired his insatiable appetite to tinker with his game in order to find another gear. And as it turns out, Harrington and I are distant relatives on my father’s side. Golf is funny that way.

Last year, Chris Kubinski of the City of London presented me with a milestone award for dedicating my life to covering local sports. A big part of that dedication involves local golf. After reporting for The London Free Press for decades, and writing for numerous Canadian golf magazines – all but SCORE Golf now defunct – I launched LondonOntarioGolf.com in 2004. You can now find that website published here – in its entirety – at LondonOntarioSports.com.

No surprise, the most heavily-visited section of this web publication is our Golf section, and junior golf news helps lead the way. After all, junior golfers are the future of this great game.

What you’ll read here is not the definitive history piece on the Tyson Tour. Rather, it’s an inside look at some of the Tour’s history like you’ve never seen before. As with every local group of note, people – in this case, the golfers and the behind-the-scenes organizers – are who make the Tyson Tour a London golf institution. The Tour hasn’t thrived for 57 years by luck alone. Sure, as with every other minor sports group for kids, there have been bumps along the way. But Canada’s oldest junior golf tour has plenty to be proud of, and it has a great story to tell. Here’s a part of that 57-year journey.

1968

The Junior Tyson Tour – Canada’s original junior golf loop – was founded in 1968 as a not-for-profit organization operated by local PGA of Canada professionals. Former London Free Press sports writer, Bev Tyrrell, established the Tyson Tour as, the Tysons Tour. It borrows its name from the Ty in Tyrrell, and the son part from Bev’s twin boys, Tim and Tom.

A decade later, in 1978, Tyrrell left London for a sports writing post with The Winnipeg Free Press. In 1972, when Fred Kern was hired as Thames Valley Golf Course’s head golf professional, he began to play a big role in assisting Tyrrell with Tysons Tour operations. Kern would be the Tour’s convenor from 1978 until 2009, two years after his retirement from the City of London municipal golf system.

“I was awed by the beautiful setting,” said Kern upon his first visit to Thames Valley GC. “I thought, what a perfect setting to introduce new golfers to the game.” Said Olizarevitch, “Fred was an excellent teacher who thoroughly enjoyed working with junior golfers and overseeing the Junior Tyson Tour.”

Tyrrell started the Tour in order to provide local junior golfers with a competitive tour and to offer a stage where they could measure their improvement. In its early days, the Tour consisted of a four-event season with the winner decided by stroke average, compared to today’s point system. Now in its 58th year, the Tyson Tour, which has proudly provided junior golfers in Southwestern Ontario with an opportunity to compete in a tournament setting while learning life’s lessons through golf, has awarded more than $100,000 in bursaries since its inception.

Harold Kewley was the Tour’s inaugural champion during the four-event loop at East Park Golf Gardens, Strathroy Country Club, Fanshawe Golf Course and Thames Valley Golf Course.

1981

The Tyson Tour launched the annual Les Thomas Memorial Tournament in 1981 as a tribute to Thomas, a former Golf Ontario director and commissioner of London’s Public Utilities Commission who died that year. Thomas was passionate about developing junior golfers. After all, his son, Ian, who played out of London Hunt and Country Club and competed on the Tyson Tour, was the Canadian Junior Boys champion in 1965 and Ontario Junior Boys champ in ’67.

Golf Ontario named Les its Honorary President in 1977. After his death in ‘81, Les’s wife, Doreen, continued to support the Tyson Tour as an avid fan in the gallery – including at Weir’s wins in 1986 and ’87.

Dan Quinn, who enjoyed a 14-year NHL career, captured the inaugural Les Thomas event in ’81. Later, former City golf director Bill Fox Sr. oversaw a change for the Les Thomas event, which had operated under a match play format. Fox envisioned a championship – without age brackets – over six rounds, including a 36-hole qualifier and four rounds of match play. His reasoning? To offer a better stage for the Tyson Tour’s more elite golfers seeing the eyes of U.S. college recruiters and coaches.

1980s – 1990s

Tyson Tour champions during this era read like a Who’s Who of local golf – visit the juniortysontour.com wall of champs for the names of past winners. Here you’ll recognize junior golfers who would go onto great things not only as amateur and professional golfers, but also as leaders in a myriad of sectors including business and industry. Former Tour competitor Bob Stephan became Major Bob Stephan and led the Snowbirds at hundreds of shows in Canada and the U.S. during the 1990s. Certainly, their time spent on the Tyson Tour helped shape their character.

Ann Marie Kovacs of London became the first Girls Division competitor to win the Tour championship for three consecutive years 1991-93. During her run, she was invincible on the local links. Only Jillian Fryia of London matched that feat with titles from 2017-19. If not for the Tour’s shutdown from 2020-21 during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fryia would most certainly have broken that record. Mackenzie Butzer of Chatham captured three titles in 2010, 2012-13.

2001

Already a two-time winner on the PGA Tour, Mike Weir shone an international spotlight on the Tyson Tour during his guest appearance on Golf Channel’s Golf Talk Live during spring 2001. During his appearance, a Tillsonburg boy called in and asked the Bright’s Grove native if he had ever heard of the Junior Tyson Tour. Of course, Weir praised the Tour and spoke about how he had enjoyed competing – and winning – in the London area, words he has spoken to yours truly on numerous occasions. After the show, Bill Fox Sr. said, “Everybody’s wanting the schedule. He certainly gave us a good boost.” Fox also recounted how he had sent Weir’s $300 bursary cheque for winning the Les Thomas event to Brigham Young University to assist the future Masters Tournament winner with education costs.

2003

Bryan Alexander, Donovan Frazer, Jonathan Grant (Les Thomas winner), Zack Maguire, Lisa Maunu and Mikhial Pasic (Junior Boys) all received $500 bursaries from Tour convenor Dave Findlay, associate golf professional at Highland Country Club. Devan Dodd, who played six years on the Tour and worked in the Highland pro shop for five years, was the first recipient of the Barry Paterson Golf Scholarship Award which presented $1,500 to assist with university studies. That money was raised at the 1st Annual Spark Memorial Golf Tournament at Highland in memory of Barry (Spark) Paterson. Twin brothers Barry and Bruce Paterson both played on the Tyson Tour.

2005

The first Junior Tyson Tour Alumni gathering July 1-2 was a huge success and, sticking with the theme of the Tyson Tour, dinner including hamburgers and hot dogs. Area golf pro Gil Parkinson arrived at the idea of staging the alumni golf tournament for the Fred Kern Cup. Former Tyson Tour champ John Cowie, who would go on to play a number of instrumental roles with the City’s golf courses, helped organize the day’s events. The alumni tourney raised money for the Tyson Tour which presented $750 scholarships to Les Thomas winner Spencer Berk (who beat his Oaks G&CC pal Blair Cowie in a playoff), Taylor Booth, Samuel Bunting, Junior Boys champ Cowie, Scott Schepens and Meagan Potoschnik.

2006

With a second alumni golf tournament planned, River Road Golf Course assistant golf pro Todd Allen replaced Findlay – who began his new post as Ambassador Club head pro, as Tyson Tour convenor. The fledgling Tour website was revamped as River Road’s Andy Shaw assisted with Tour operations.

The Les Thomas tourney returned to a 36-hole event on July 3-4 with Junior Boys and Juvenile Boys all competing at the same yardage. In recent years, a playoff was held to decide the overall champion, even though competitors in those age brackets were not playing the same courses. Overall on Tour, there was a significant drop in enrollment with about 125 golfers in the field. In recent years, there were about 170 golfers, still short of the 220 target.

2007

Andy Shaw took the reigns as Tyson Tour convenor, a post he would hold until 2016. The much-travelled Shaw – today director of operations at Tarandowah Golfers Club – promised a complete overhaul of the Tour with his grandiose plans which included a registration number of 500 golfers. In the end, that number fell short, and only 160 juniors registered for the Les Thomas tourney.

Without a doubt, Shaw was the most vocal and media-present Tour convenor. In 2007, Shaw said he remembered his playing days on the Tyson Tour as “great fun. Kids play on it today for the same reasons I did. It’s great value, you get to play some good courses, there are prizes, there’s competition and you make a lot of good friends on it.”

The ever-changing Tour website again saw a new design, since parents had expressed their concerns about trying to track updates. “We went through a bit of a rough time last season,” Shaw explained. “The biggest problem was you could have five tournaments in about a week and it was easy to fall behind in posting results. What we’ve got now is players can register for the Tour and download entry forms right away and enter tournaments starting May 1.”

The Les Thomas tourney, now a 36-hole shotgun event, received a new date – August 7-8 – with both rounds played at Fanshawe GC’s two layouts, the Traditional and the Quarry courses. Shaw said the early-July dates had “always conflicted with Canada Day and it’s tougher than ever to get the City courses.” The two-day tourney had also conflicted with an Ontario junior qualifier event.

2008

With Fred Kern retired, Shaw moved to the head pro post at Thames Valley GC during the Tyson Tour’s 40th anniversary season. The Les Thomas tourney returned to a 54-hole event (with no cut) from July 2-4, with 18 holes at each of the City’s three clubs – Fanshawe, River Road and finally Thames Valley GC.

“We wanted to get back to the historic nature of the tournament for our 40th anniversary,” Shaw explained. “Our biggest event will once again be our first (of the season). It’s almost like a PGA Tour event for the kids being it’s 54 holes of stroke play. We’re excited about that and about bringing it back to all three city courses.”

Entry fee for the Les Thomas event was $66. Mitch Sutton, who also captured the Ontario and Canadian Junior Boys titles that year, captured the 54-hole event. In total, there were 14 events on the Tyson Tour in 2008. And, the Tour surpassed $50,000 in scholarships awarded.

2009

A Tyson Tour Wall of Fame was established, with past winners’ names engraved on an annual plaque. The same was created for Les Thomas winners. Said Shaw of the past use of photos rather than plaques, “They were not current and took up a lot of room. We were running out of space, and because we did not have them all, nor current photos, we decided to go with the wall plaques.”

Shaw defined the Tyson Tour in this way: “We’re not trying to make it an elite tour. Ours is a developmental tour. It gives lots of kids the chance to play nicer courses than they normally get a chance to play, and give them their first taste of competition.”

2011

Shaw was on the move again, with his purchase of Dorchester on the Thames. Steve Bennett was named director of the City of London municipal golf system.

For years, there had been chatter about cheating on the Tyson Tour – after all, kids will be kids. And as Shaw said one year prior, “Ours is a developmental tour.” Now, Tour organizers decided to crack down on fudged scores, as well as poor behavior – on and off the golf course. A Code of Conduct was established and it was mandatory for golfers to sign the document during registration. But the Tour fell short of placing its desired minimum of six on-course marshals at each event, and therein lied part of the problem.

“I don’t think cheating is any worse than it has been the past 25 years but we want to take a stance to let kids know it’s not going to be tolerated,” Shaw explained. “Players not adhering to the code of conduct fact possible penalties, disqualification or suspension.”

In addition, the junior golfers were schooled on proper golf attire and on of-course etiquette – for example, not wearing hats while in the pro shop nor clubhouse.

“We want kids to be more aware of how the game is meant to be played. It’s a game of honour and integrity so we want to teach that to the kids. There will be no referees out there. The volunteers (marshals) will be there to help kids if there’s an issue or a ruling needs to be made on the course,” Shaw added.

There were 15 events on Tour that summer, with the top three junior boys, top two juvenile boys and top female golfer receiving $1,000 education bursaries.

2012

Times are everchanging, so the Tyson Tour focused on a more realistic target for its 2012 field. With 500 youngsters on its radar in recent years, this year the Tour set a goal for registering between 120-144 junior golfers at each of its 14 events. In 2011, many of the events saw very weak turnouts. Registration fee for each event was lowered to $40.

“Even though participation was up last year, some of the events really did not meet capacity. It’s tough to hold a shotgun for 35 to 40 kids, so we decided it was in everyone’s best interest to lower the number of events with the goal of maximizing capacity,” Shaw explained.

“As always, we have some really outstanding golf courses hosting us again this summer. The ‘Big Ten’ as we like to call it include seven private clubs and were the Tour’s most popular events last year. We had great support from those operators. They gave up their course for a half day in the interest of junior golf and I’ve written each one expressing our appreciation, and why this happening.

“The problem is there are more tours out there now, which means a lot more options for kids to pick and choose where they play,” Shaw added. “The economy is also still affecting us. We’re trying to keep the Tyson Tour an affordable tour – a tour for kids to learn on and grow with and get tournament experience. It still has a great reputation. The Tour has been around since 1968 and it still looks good on a resume to be a champion.”

New this year: trophies were awarded to top finishers at each event. All registered players received a sleeve of Titleist Pro VI golf balls prior to their opening tee time. Although limited in its effort, the GAO helping officiate, and volunteers – again, not nearly meeting a Tour target number – assisted with pace of play, etiquette and administrative duties.

2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2016
Story, Tyson Tour Prepares For 2016 Season – click here

2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2018
Story, Attracting Junior Girls To Tyson Tour A Tough Task – click here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2019
Story, History Made At Tyson Tour Championship – click here

2020
Story, Tyson Tour Faces Uphill Battle In Growing The Game – click here
Story, Tyson Tour Eyes Strong Comeback Following Pandemic – click here

2022
Story, Tyson Tour Faces Challenging Times While Crowning New Champions – click here

2023
Story, Big Changes Coming For 2024 Junior Tyson Tour – click here
Story, Junior Tyson Tour Crown 2023 Champions – click here

2024
Story, Tyson Tour Launches Tees Up 57th Season – click here
Story, Ben Hudson Wins Les Thomas Memorial Tournament – click here
Story, Junior Tyson Tour Crowns 2024 Champions – click here

2025
Season Preview – click here

Here are some links to more recent stories focusing on the Junior Tyson Tour:
July 2, 2018 – Feature, Tyson Tour Legend Mackenzie Butzer
October 30, 2022 – Feature, Andrea Lai
August 24, 2024 – Feature, Ben Hudson and Logan Woodiwiss
September 28, 2024 – Feature, Tyson Tour Alumnus Ben Landers
October 6, 2024 – Feature, Tyson Tour’s Ben Hudson
October 10, 2024 – Feature, Tyson Tour’s Hunter Talbot
February 13, 2025 – Junior Tyson Tour members named to Golf Ontario Next Wave Development Program
March 18, 2025 – Profile, Tyson Tour alumnus Mitch Sutton

For even more stories and photos focusing on Canada’s oldest junior golf tour, search here at LondonOntarioSports.com – key words Junior Tyson Tour.

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LondonOntarioSports.com publisher and editor Jeffrey Reed is one of Canada’s leading golf journalists, with roots dating back to 1980. A three-time author and much sought-after public speaker, Reed has captured multiple writing awards from the Golf Journalists Association of Canada. He’s the senior member of the Southwestern Ontario sports media, with work in radio, TV, print and new media. Contact him at jeff@londonontariosports.com.