Reed On The Greens February 3, 2020
Local Golf Community Celebrates The Gov
by Jeffrey Reed, Editor, LondonOntarioGolf.com
When LondonOntarioGolf.com told Steve Bennett he was the recipient of the 10th annual London Ontario Golf Heart Award for 2020, his face filled with emotions. But 30 seconds later, the Gov, as he is affectionately known by the Canadian golf community, said with great conviction, “I’m not done yet.”
Bennett, 61, responded in a way that not only reflects his ongoing tenure as manager of the City of London’s municipal golf system, but also his passion for growing the game – in particular with junior golfers. The Seaforth, Ont. native said he still has a lot of work to do in order to give back to the game which has already given him a lifetime of memories.
London Ontario Golf Heart Award
Known from coast to coast as Mike Weir’s junior coach at Huron Oaks Golf Club in Bright’s Grove, Ont., Bennett has devoted his entire life to golf, including a myriad of philanthropic endeavours tied to the game. Coupled with his devotion to junior golfers, his work is now being honoured by LondonOntarioGolf.com through the Heart Award.
LondonOntarioGolf.com is proud to add Steve’s name to the list of distinguished winners from the past decade. He’s a champion of junior golf, a consummate golf professional and has been a mentor to scores of associate pros during his illustrious career. And it’s fair to say, he is one of the most beloved members of the Southwestern Ontario golf community.
Established in 2004, LondonOntarioGolf.com first awarded the Heart Award in 2011 to former long-time Fanshawe Golf Club head golf professional Mike Olizarevitch who was instrumental in creating Fanshawe’s Parkside Nine course. It’s one of the only courses in the world where youngsters, the elderly and those who are physically challenged – and even depending on wheelchairs – can enjoy golf, the game of a lifetime.
Other winners include: Fred Kern (2012); Patty Howard (2013); Weir (2014); East Park Golf (2015); Bob Martin (2016); Mike Silver (2017); Lindsey Edmunds (2018); and posthumously in 2019, golf course architect Rene Muylaert. Click here for biographies of all winners.
It’s fitting that Bennett’s name will be engraved beside Weir’s and Silver’s. The 2003 Masters Tournament winner, and the recently retired long-time head golf pro at Highland Country Club in London are two of Bennett’s closest friends on and off the course. His career will be celebrated on May 1 at Highland, details to be announced soon.
When Weir won the 2014 London Ontario Golf Heart Award, he said “With my roots in Southwestern Ontario, it is an honour to be recognized by LondonOntarioGolf.com as the 2014 Heart Award recipient. It is great that the London Ontario Golf Heart Award brings attention to the Heart & Stroke and promotes a healthy active lifestyle. As a PGA Tour professional, fitness and heart health are of the utmost importance. With some of the best golf facilities in the province right in my backyard, as a kid it was easy to walk the course and stay active. The Greater London area is home to many premier courses, which provide a great test for junior and amateur golfers who have the ambition to play on the PGA Tour one day.”
Steve Bennett with Mike Weir at Huron Oaks GC in 1999. Photo: Jeffrey Reed/LondonOntarioGolf.com.
For a youngster from Seaforth, that course was Seaforth Golf and Country Club, now Seaforth Golf Club – still owned and operated by the Doig family and continuing with its strong junior golf program.
“As a kid I was small,” remembered Bennett, “so it was golf for me. I tried team sports, played baseball and they’d throw me in during the ninth inning so I could get a walk – they couldn’t pitch to me because of my size. But I worked at Seaforth G&CC beginning at age 13, and in the winter I worked at the arena.”
Bennett remembers his first round of golf at age 11. “My brother, Kevin, played golf with a buddy. I didn’t have any clubs, except for a putter. I joined them and shot 69 for nine holes – with a putter! And I made a birdie. Right then, I fell in love with the game.”
Kevin won numerous club championships at Seaforth. Steve won the club’s Junior Invitational in 1974 and ’75 – Weir would win in 1983, making the Heart Award the second trophy on which both Bennett’s name and Weir’s name are engraved.
Brothers Rod Doig and Ken Doig Sr. created Seaforth G&CC. “Ken sold windows while Rod looked after the golf course,” said Bennett. Ken Sr.’s daughter, Carolanne, created Seaforth Rain Gear. Ken Jr. spent some time as a PGA Tour caddie. Ian Doig accumulated more than 25 professional wins and also caddied on the PGA Tour. Robyn Doig became the third generation family member to play professionally. And the Seaforth Country Classic at Seaforth GC has become a staple of the local tournament season.
At age 21, Ken Sr. qualified for the 1955 Open Championship. Later, Bennett would take his turn caddying for Ken Sr. when he wasn’t working hard on his own game under the tutelage of Rod Doig.
Early photo of Steve Bennett. Photo: Seaforth G&CC.
“In Seaforth, I would peddle my bike out to the golf course, and I was there for the day. Rod would give us a ride home at night – throw our bikes in the trunk. That was our day,” Bennett said. “There was no range, so all we did was play golf. And that is all I’ve done during my entire career. And by the time I was 16, I was a scratch golfer, and was very competitive because we always played against the Doigs.
“I was pretty much a self-taught golfer, but Rod helped me,” said Bennett. “I had a Honda grip, very strong – I still do. When we played junior golf, we learned by playing and by feel. Today, it’s so robotic. If I say to someone I play by feel, then they probably don’t know what I’m talking about.”
“Also, sports have changed with kids today. Now baseball is also a winter sport, with indoor workouts. Hockey is a summer sport with camps. But unfortunately, golf is only a summer sport. You can practice, but you can’t play here. It’s not the same. So it’s important that we keep kids active, and get rid of the technology. Let them run around and have fun!”
With an impeccable short game and burning desire to win tournaments his strongest tools, the Gov would eventually win the Greater London Mini Tour overall title for Southwestern Ontario golf pros 15 times between 1985 and 2003, the year Weir won the Masters.
In 1978 at age 20, Bennett aspired to play on the PGA Tour, so he loaded up his 1976 Dodge Dart and drove to Florida to play on the Space Coast Golf Tour mini tour, founded by the late J.C. Goosie, known as the “Father of the mini tours.”
“I was able to get a few sponsors and $1,500. I stayed in a small hotel in Apopka, Fla. across from the golf course. But I really had no plan once I got down there,” said Bennett. “I was just a kid and it was my first time away from home and on my own. I golfed, bought $5 dinners and learned very quickly that it wasn’t for me. And my eyes were opened up to the fact there were a lot better players than me out there.”
So Bennett returned to Seaforth, and enrolled in business classes at nearby Lambton College which had just opened in Sarnia, Ont. two years earlier. That didn’t last long, either.
“I attended classes for six weeks, and played on the golf team, but after six weeks I couldn’t take school. It wasn’t for me. So I got the hell out. I started applying for work at banks, because I like working with numbers,” said Bennett, whose strong accounting skills have served him well as he holds his current post with the City’s muni golf system for an 11th year.
After a few job interviews fell flat, Bennett received a call from Neil Armstrong, an NHL linesman and former pro at Sarnia Golf and Curling Club, today Bennett’s home course. In 1978, Armstrong was a co-owner and head pro at Canterbury Golf Club, now Huron Oaks. Armstrong hired Bennett as assistant pro, and three years later in 1981, when the Armstrong group sold Canterbury for $1.8 million to the Polysar Employees Recreation Centre, Bennett became head golf pro.
Steve Bennett holds clinic at Huron Oaks GC. Photo: Jeffrey Reed/LondonOntarioGolf.com.
“When I was hired, Neil was an NHL linesman, would come to town and give me a list of duties, then off to officiate. I didn’t get to see much of him until hockey was done, but his wife, Marge, was always there,” Bennett said.
Weir, Bennett Friendship Begins
During the early-1980s, Weir discovered a love for golf and established a lasting friendship with the Gov.
“When we moved to Bright’s Grove when I was 11, I was looking for a summer job,” Weir remembered, “so I rode my bike across the street where the Gov was the new pro. He interviewed me for the job – picking the range, cleaning, working in the bag room. And that was my very first job interview, which is cool. From the get go, I had a great rapport with the Gov, and he took me under his wing. We’ve enjoyed a great friendship over the years.”
“I met Mike when he was 11, and he loved the game,” said Bennett. “He didn’t hit it very far. He had a very, very strong grip. He wasn’t very big. But he had buddies to play with, and they were competitive.
“Back then, Mike had a very shut face, and he hooked the ball. He trapped the ball, so he wasn’t square at impact. Remember, at age 23 when I met Mike, I had no formal training about the game of golf, but I always wanted to help. And the two of us made it work.”
Bennett said when Weir was 14, he told him he wanted to play on the PGA Tour. But unlike most kids his age, Weir was relentless in quizzing the Gov about the game and his swing. “He wanted to learn,” said Bennett. “I’d be in the pro shop, he would pop his head in and ask me to take a look at his swing. But the biggest thing I taught him was how to score, because I could score. I don’t care how you hit the ball – along the ground, up in the air, left to right, right to left, you still need to get the ball in the hole. And, I was good with my short game, so we worked on that a lot.”
“Well, he must have done a good job because I was more interested in golf than in working!” said Weir, laughing. “I probably wasn’t the best worker. I spent more time chipping balls back onto the range, and working on my pitching game than doing actual work. But he still gave me shifts, because he recognized that I was passionate about the game. And whenever we had a few free minutes, he would help me with my short game.
“And as a young kid playing at Huron Oaks, it was great having the opportunity to play with the Gov,” Weir said. “He was such a good player, a great short-game player with a great wedge game – that is what I learned the most from him. Without a doubt, that rubbed off on me.”
Mike Weir joins Steve Bennett for clinic at Huron Oaks GC. Photo: Jeffrey Reed/LondonOntarioGolf.com.
When a 16-year-old Weir won the Junior Tyson Tour’s annual Les Thomas Memorial Tournament at Fanshawe Golf Club in 1986, he remained on the practice green honing his stroke while 100 kids remained in the clubhouse eating hot dogs and drinking Cokes. Said Bennett, who now oversees the Tyson Tour, “That’s Mike to a tee.”
Just as Weir said he learned the importance of a deft short game from Bennett, the 2003 Masters Tournament winner said he also learned that a strong work ethic is imperative to being a champion.
“I remember when the Gov shot 61 at Huron Oaks. I was just a kid, 13 or 14, and thought that was an ungodly number to shoot. So I learned from that. You must have a competitive fire within you to go that low. And whenever I had the chance to play with him, I did. Some of the other juniors were older than me, and I got the chance to play with them, too, just because I was competitive and it forced me to keep up with them.”
Weir won the 1986 Canadian Juvenile Championship, 1988 Ontario Junior Championship, and the 1990 and 1992 Ontario Amateur Championship.
“By the time I was 16, I was shooting some low numbers and started to be competitive with the Gov. I beat him once in a while, too – not very often, though. But we had a nice little friendly competition thing going on. And today we still give each other the needle.”
Champion Of Junior Golf
Ever since Bennett took a young Weir under his wings, he had a soft spot for junior girls and boys playing the game for which he had a passion. And according to Weir, that is another trait which has rubbed off on him: remember your roots and grow the game.
Steve Bennett (far right) talks golf with (L-R) LondonOntarioGolf.com editor Jeffrey Reed, Ontario Golf Hall of Fame member Patty Howard, and Mike Weir’s mother, Rowie. Photo: LondonOntarioGolf.com.
“Without a doubt, the Gov has always cared deeply about junior golfers – and it wasn’t just me, it was all of the juniors at Huron Oaks. He really did spend a lot of time with us all. If he had a break between teaching lessons, then he would come over and ask how we were doing. He was genuinely interested in our games. I remember when we would get back from a junior tournament – five or six of us – he was interested in how all of us did, not just me.”
“I’ve always enjoyed working with kids, and I enjoyed working with Mike as a junior, but remember: I was only doing what a golf pro should be doing,” said Bennett. “I was only doing my job. And I would hope that any PGA of Canada pro would do the same. Spend time with the kids, because once you do that, then you start to build a relationship and you earn their trust. They are the future of the game. Let them set their own sights on where they want to go in life and dream as high as they can dream.”
Bennett has never charged a dime for giving junior golfers lessons. He said, “If they were willing to work hard and put in the time, then I would do the same. I never force myself on them, but even today at Sarnia G&CC, I’ll go play with the kids.”
In 1993, Bennett left Huron Oaks to take the post of head golf professional at Sarnia G&CC. He returned to Huron Oaks in 2004, one year after Weir captured the Masters. With new local ownership in 2003, and Bennett back on board the next year, he and his wife, Wendy, took over as co-chairs of the long-running Mike Weir-Dino Ciccarelli Golf Classic which for more than a decade raised thousands of dollars for local youth groups and activities.
Today, Wendy is administrator of the Mike Weir Foundation. This year, the foundation established Chip-In Challenge for Mental Health, a fundraising campaign collecting money for an Access Open Minds site in Sarnia for 11- to 25-year-olds. Huron Oaks hosted the Par 3 Challenge for Mental Health last summer. Wendy and Mike’s brother, Jim, were instrumental in planning and staging the fundraiser for mental health.
Steve Bennett with master craftsman Bob Vokey. Photo courtesy Titleist.
Steve Bennett, too, has always given back to his community through his association with Weir, including the Mike Weir Miracle Golf Drive for Kids which launched at London’s Sunningdale Golf and Country Club in 2007, and with an endless amount of charity golf tournaments, including the long-time charity pro-am at Sarnia G&CC.
The Gov and Weir have shared endless memories over the years. For 20 years, Bennett has acted as the cook for Weir and his family and friends during Masters week when they stay at a house Weir rents for the crew. “It’s awesome,” said Weir. “Everybody loves it, looks forward to the Gov meals. He’ll have a Mexican night, and all of the things he enjoys cooking for us.”
In 2015, on the Sunday before Masters week, the Gov played 18 holes with Weir at Augusta National and demonstrated all of the traits he passed onto a young Weir. He shot 80 from the tournament tees and made birdies at par-5 No. 15 Firethorn, and par-3 No. 16 Redbud.
“Loving the game as he does, he was really appreciative, but he wasn’t in awe of Augusta National because he’s been there so much,” Weir explained. “It wasn’t like he didn’t know the course. But he was really excited to be able to play. He enjoyed himself, had fun, and of course his short game was great. He made some nice putts. But he was the same old Gov. I think he even had his (ever-present) cigar in his mouth.”
Bennett recalls a cool moment shared just by the two of them. In November 2001, Weir won the season-ending Tour Championship by defeating Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia and David Toms on the first extra hole, rolling in a five-foot putt to claim the $900,000 winner’s cheque and his third victory on the PGA Tour.
“I remember sitting in the locker room at the Champions Golf Club in Houston, and we had a little moment together when it wasn’t too busy. That was nice,” Weir recalled.
“Sitting in the Champions locker room all alone, Mike looked at me and said, ‘Not bad, the two of us coming from Huron Oaks, eh?’ I got chills,” said Bennett. “When I look back at it, I’ve played with (Jack) Nicklaus, I’ve shot 61, but seeing Mike win the green jacket was truly the pinnacle of my golfing life.”
New Chapters
In 2010, another chapter of Bennett’s golf career began when he accepted the job of managing the City of London’s muni golf system. As with every golf course owner, the City deals with dollars and cents just as much as fairways and greens. Even today, the City again focuses on its future as a golf course owner, with the future of River Road Golf Club again in jeopardy.
But when Bennett took charge, he did what many thought would be impossible: he helped save River Road, and changed the way the public looked at the muni links.
Steve Bennett with the Greater London Mini Tour trophy. Photo: Jeffrey Reed/LondonOntarioGolf.com.
“Working for the City is like giving a golf lesson: it’s about communicating well. When I first came here, people would say, for example, ‘I am a member of Thames Valley Golf Club.’ So we had to change their philosophy and say, no, you are a member of the City of London municipal golf course system. You can play here, but you can also play at Fanshawe Golf Club and River Road. Now people have bought into that,” said Bennett.
In 2016, the Gov further invested himself in the future of the game, taking over as convenor of the Tyson Tour, where Weir competed and won events in 1986 and ’87. Like the municipal golf system, the Tyson Tour, too, was struggling – this time with dwindling entries. But for the past four years, the Tour has seen a resurgence – not with the same numbers of the junior loop’s heyday in the 1970s and ‘80s, but with solid participation and strong community and sponsor support.
“I’m an advocate of junior golf and trying to promote it to the point where all clubs, public or private, should get involved in growing the game and allow the kids to try competitive golf. And that’s really what the Tyson Tour is about,” Bennett said.
“But golf really does teach you life’s lessons and helps you become a better person. That’s one of the reasons we launched the Pee Wee division in 2016. Golfers ages 7 to 11 can try competitive golf at Thames Valley’s Hickory 9 course, play in the time allotted, keep score, hand in a scorecard and familiarize themselves with golf etiquette and the rules of golf.”
A member of Team Titleist for the past 24 years, Bennett said he still has a lot of work to do in order to grow the game of golf. He enjoys time with wife Wendy, son Blake, 26, and daughter Amy, 24. And he’s still as passionate about golf today as he was when he played his first round of golf at age 11 when he navigated nine holes with nothing but a putter.
“A golf club is like a small village,” Bennett explained. “You get to know people on a day-to-day basis, and you try to make their day at the club an enjoyable experience. There’s also merchandising, which I love. But I only do what a golf pro is supposed to do. So it’s very humbling that I would even be considered for the Heart Award.”
Bennett does have a lot to offer golf during the final stage of his career, and he’s far from sinking that last putt. But on May 1, the local golf community will have an opportunity to gather and celebrate the already storied career of the Gov – a risk/reward golfer with masterful short game, champion of junior golf, and mentor and friend to Canada’s 2003 Masters Tournament champion.
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Jeffrey Reed has written about golf in London and Southwestern Ontario since 1980. Publisher and editor of LondonOntarioGolf.com (est. 2004), and LondonOntarioSports.com (est. 2015), Reed is a multiple writing award winner from the Golf Journalists Association of Canada, and a three time author. He’s following his 2018 book, The Canadian Seniors’ Golf Association, Celebrating 100 Years of Seniors Golf 1918-2018, with a biography of Sandy Somerville, Canada’s Golfer of the Half Century 1900-1950. Reach him at jeff@londonontariogolf.com.
