Volume 2, Issue 6

Message from the Executive Director Jean-Pierre Beaulieu From School to the Golf Club

A few years ago, Golf Québec adopted a new philosophy targeting a younger clientele by investing primarily in junior programs. This new investment orientation was made possible, among others, through various donations.

These donations, which are crucial to the implementation of programs, are just as vital to support the continuation of our activities. Our results show that Golf Québec’s efforts are fruitful and that golf development is on the right path. The impressive number of elementary and high schools that have registered in the Golf in Schools program, Junior Golf Development Centres identified by Golf Canada, and multiple activities of our Golfmobile truly show the success of our introduction programs.

The results are clear: more children started playing golf and we will soon enjoy observing some of them on our courses. Yet, we should not sit back and become complacent. On the contrary, we must pursue our efforts and keep working towards our goals. With this in mind and for that purpose, Golf Québec has taken its fundraising initiatives to a higher level in the past golf season. Our annual benefit golf tournament was a huge success at the Pinegrove Country Club where over $76,000 was raised. The Birdy for Charity initiative that took place within the Québec City Championship of the Champions’ Tour generated over $40,000 with the help of the Fondation Les Légendes du golf. These donations are all

 

 

reinvested by Golf Québec in development programs. On top of these fundraisers, we also have two financial support programs for young athletes. The first one is presented in collaboration with the Fondation de l’athlète d’excellence du Québec. It will enable us to raise 1 million dollars over a 5-year period. This past September, we were able to launch the program by distributing $68,000 amongst 25 young golfers. The second financial support program, presented in partnership with Alliance Sport-Études and Fondation Desjardins enabled us to award a total of $17,500 shared between 17 young developing athletes. Quite honestly, I am happily impressed with the enthusiasm and generosity of our community. From School to the Golf Club As a continuation of this success, the next golf season will be held under the theme “From School to the Golf Club”. I cannot think of any other theme that would express our deepest motivation in a better way: to build golf’s future.

In this fundraising campaign, Golf Québec will promote its Golf in Schools program as well as other initiatives such as CN Future Links, First Drive, and Golfmobile. Together, they are the four pillars that will enable us to support the development of future participants in the game of golf. One way or another, I suspect that you will be solicited in the coming months. I hope that you will all be as generous as you were during the 2014 golf season. Thank you for this great season!

Rémi Bouchard and Charlie Beaulieu of Golf Canada present Jean-Pierre Beaulieu and Marcel Paul Raymond of Golf Québec with a $25,000 donation from the Golf Canada Foundation.

 

 

Fundraising Campaign $76,642 Raised For Children

A great golf celebration took place on September 29 at the Pinegrove Country Club where many guests of our industry as well as business people participated in the 8th edition of the Québec Golf Federation’s Benefit Tournament. With the help of our numerous participants, donors and partners, a total of $76,642 was raised.

Mr. Marc-André Bérubé and Mr. Sam Donofrio, two former presidents of our host-club, were Co-Honorary Presidents of this 2014 edition held in collaboration with RBC Royal Bank, presenter of the event. All money was raised to support golf development programs targeting children: Golf in Schools, CN Future Links, Golfmobile, and First Drive. Altogether, over $486,000 was collected through the eight editions of this key fundraiser.

“The future clientele of our sport is currently attending school. At first, these young golfers will be playing on shorter courses to eventually graduate to regular golf clubs where they will enjoy spending some time with their parents or friends. One day, we truly hope that they will bring their own children to the golf course. At Golf Québec, we organize this annual golf celebration to ensure that today’s children who are introduced to our sport will become tomorrow’s clientele. This is our heritage to the great game of golf”, explained Marcel Paul Raymond, President of Golf Québec. Already involved in the Canadian golf industry, the Royal Bank is truly committed to support the development of our future golf stars. In 2010, RBC announced its expanded commitment to Canadian golf through a number of long-term initiatives to help further develop and nurture the next generation of golfers. That commitment consists of funding for Canada’s national amateur golf team (Team Canada), and contributing to

 

 

Canada’s national amateur golf championships conducted by our partners at Golf Canada. RBC renews this commitment in Québec by supporting Golf Québec in this major annual fundraiser.

Left to right: Jean-Pierre Beaulieu, Executive Director of Golf Québec, Sam Donofrio, Co-Honorary President, François Armand, Regional VP of RBC Royal Bank, Marc-André Bérubé, Co-Honorary President, Marcel Paul Raymond, Golf Québec President “We are very proud to team up with Golf Québec as its annual Benefit Golf Tournament is dedicated to supporting young players. For us, this is an important aspect of the investment made by the Royal Bank throughout

the country to support golf participation at all levels. We hope that this partnership with Golf Québec will be a great example and encouragement to

other businesses who would like to support the Federation.” “Golf Québec and RBC share the common goal of getting actively involved with children to promote their participation in the sport and facilitate their presence on our golf courses”, explained Jean-Pierre Beaulieu, Executive

Director of Golf Québec. From School to the Golf Club “Under the theme of “From School to the Golf Club”, this Benefit Tournament was launching a series of fundraising initiatives to be held in the coming year. As part of this fundraising campaign, Golf Québec will promote its Golf in Schools program as well as other initiatives such as CN Future Links, First Drive, and Golfmobile. Together,

 

 

they are the four pillars that will enable us to support the development of future participants in the

game of golf. Our Co-Honorary Presidents, two former presidents of the Pinegrove Country Club, Mr. Marc-André Bérubé and Mr. Sam Donofrio pointed out the involvement of their golf club and its members. “Our club has a great development philosophy. Our team is constantly taking concrete actions to support young players of the region and help them development their golf skills. We are inviting other golf clubs to join us and do the same”, they said.

Golf Québec thanks its partners and donors, including RBC Royal Bank, Golf Canada, Groupe Serdy and Zeste, Location Park Avenue, the Pinegrove Country Club, Ministry of Education, Leisure and Sport, as well as numerous other supporters for their contribution. Souvenir video of the event: http://youtu.be/Url9mxJVm0o Photo album of the event on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152755569082767.1073741895.168062312766&type=3

Many young athletes contributed to the success of this event, including: Noémie Ouellette, Sarah-Ève Rhéaume, Béatrice Grisé, Élizabeth Blier and Valérie Tanguay who conducted fun activities on the course.

 

 

Player Development Our Athletes Benefit From a Major Boost

Golf Québec and the Fondation de l’athlète d'excellence du Québec took the benefit golf tournament of September 29 as an opportunity to reveal the details of their new Golf Québec/FAEQ Scholarships Program targeting the rising stars of golf in Québec.

Mr. Marcel Paul Raymond, Golf Québec President, and Mr. Pierre Dubé, Executive Director of the Fondation de l’athlète d'excellence du Québec, launched the brand new Golf Québec/FAEQ Scholarships Program. For this first edition, they proudly awarded a total of $68,000 in individual scholarships presented to 25 young promising golfers aged from 13 to 19 years old and who are identified as “Espoir”, “Relève” or “Élite” athletes by Golf Québec. This program was created based on the two parties’ common objective to provide better financial support and supervision to golfing students-

athletes while increasing their awareness of how important it is to maintain academic results in parallel to their careers on the greens. The goal of this initiative is to raise one million dollars over a 5-year period. The first instalment of $375,000 paid by Golf Québec will be used to support coaches and training structures in order to render adequate services leading to the development of our young golfers’ full potential. The second instalment of $625,000, raised amongst donors of the private sector, will be used to create the newly announced scholarships program. This year, thanks to generous contributors, an amount of $340,000 was already collected in donations and commitments, which enabled us to support 25 scholarship recipients. Marcel Paul Raymond, Golf Québec President, stressed out how important this partnership is.

 

 

“The Federation’s goal is to contribute directly to the development of young golfers and help them

reach their full potential. The investments made by Golf Québec in training structures will complement the scholarships awarded by the Fondation with the help of generous donors. This will enable us to build the dreams of many young golf athletes.”

Mr. Claude Chagnon, President of the Fondation de l’athlète d’excellence du Québec, declared: “For many years, the Fondation was trying to provide more support to golfing students-athletes. Now, this goal is made possible through this partnership with Golf Québec. We believe that the personalized structure developed by

the Fondation as well as the connexions that were made with the private sectors, combined to the expertise and vision of Golf Québec, will make a significant difference in the careers of our young Québec golfers. The commitment of our donors is amazing and we are confidant to reach our financial goals by the end of the year.” During the special presentation, all

recipients were invited to receive their scholarships from Mr. Raymond and Mr. Dubé. They have all expressed their gratitude towards Golf Québec and the FAEQ and explained the growing financial challenges that they must face to support their sport development.

 

 

Two types of scholarships were created. The first one, based on Academic Excellence, was implemented to highlight the outstanding academic and sport performances of our athletes. The second is a Support to Academic and Sport Performances and it was

created to help them combine their sport activities and studies; an important challenge for many high caliber students-athletes.

Recipients of the 2014 Golf Québec/FAEQ Scholarships Program ESPOIR CATEGORY – 10 scholarships of $2,000

First name Last name Golf Club Age School

Academic Excellence Scholarships

Élizabeth Blier La Vallée du Richelieu 14 Collège Trinité

Laurent Desmarchais Cowansville 13 De Mortagne

Andy Dubuc St-Jean 14 Joséphine-Dandurand

Megan Macgregor Golfeuse publique 13 De l’Île

Olivier Ménard Whitlock Golf & Country Club 14 De Mortagne

Sarah-Ève Rhéaume Royal Québec 14 Académie Saint-Louis

Frédéric Rousseau Royal Québec 13 Académie Saint-Louis

Support to Academic and Sport Performances Scholarships

Béatrice Grisé La Vallée du Richelieu 14 De Mortagne

Philippe Guité La Vallée du Richelieu 14 De Mortagne

Louis-Alexandre Jobin Royal Québec 14 Académie Saint-Louis

Videos of the event http://www.faeq.com/index.php/communications-et-evenements/galerie-video-2/itemlist/category/306-golf-québec-faeq-2014 Photo album of the event http://www.faeq.com/index.php/communications-et-evenements/galerie-photos/faeq-2014 About the FAEQ: http://www.faeq.com/index.php/fondation

 

 

RELÈVE CATEGORY – 12 scholarships of $3,000

First name Last name Golf Club Age School

Academic Excellence Scholarships

Charles-Éric Bélanger Royal Québec 15 Académie Saint-Louis

Céleste Dao Summerlea 13 Chêne-Bleu

Océane Jacques Royal Québec 17 Collège Champlain – St.Lawrence

Maxime Laoun Laval-sur-le-Lac 18 Collège André-Grasset

Éric Marshall Ottawa Hunt & Golf Club 18 Université d’Ottawa

Félix Normand Beloeil 16 De Mortagne

Noémie Paré Victoriaville 17 Secondaire à distance

Charles-David Trépanier Royal Québec 17 Collège Champlain St.Lawrence

Support to Academic and Sport Performances Scholarships

Étienne Brault Laval-sur-le-Lac 18 Cégep André-Laurendeau

Sun Kim St-Raphaël 16 Chêne-Bleu

Noémie Ouellette Royal Québec 17 Collège Champlain – St.Lawrence

Étienne Papineau St-Jean & Cowansville 18 Collège Champlain – St.Lawrence

ÉLITE CATEGORY – 3 scholarships of $4,000 First name Last name Golf Club Age School

Academic Excellence Scholarships

Kurtis Campbell Whitlock Golf & Country Club 19 Université Lincoln Memorial

Annie Lacombe Le Blainvillier 17 Collège Vanier

Valérie Tanguay St-Hyacinthe 19 Collège Champlain – St.Lawrence

 

 

On the course A Successful Golf Introduction at Pinegrove

Following a well-established tradition in its annual benefit golf tournament, Golf Québec conducted a golf introduction clinic for children attending a school located in the same area as our host club.

As a result, some forty children of École Vision in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu took part in various workshops organized by Golf Québec in collaboration with the professional team of the Pinegrove Country Club. This activity was a great opportunity for many students to discover golf for the first time and drive some balls. For a few of them, it was the ideal timing to practice their chipping, putting, and full swing. “This is very important for Golf Québec to leave a concrete heritage to the host region and club where our benefit golf tournament is held. We hope that the children and their schools will have a vivid memory of our visit. At the same time, we can establish specific and durable links between a school and a golf club”,

mentioned Jean-Pierre Beaulieu, Executive Director. The Pinegrove Country Club has a very nice philosophy to develop their future clientele. Concrete actions are taken to help young golfers of the region pursue their sport development. In fact, many high caliber competitors were already supported through the various initiatives implemented at the club.

Children of École Vision in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu had the opportunity to discover golf through various workshops Souvenir video of the event: http://youtu.be/Url9mxJVm0o Photo album on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152755569082767.1073741895.168062312766&type=3

 

 

Junior Development CN Future Links Adopts 15 Schools

As part of a clinic conducted at Golf Dorval, Golf Québec and Golf Canada announced that CN was adopting 15 local schools from the Montreal region to deliver the game of golf to local students.

More than 60 students from École Marguerite-Bourgeoys in Pointe-Claire, Qué. celebrated with a one-day field trip event on Wednesday October 8th at Golf Dorval, receiving lessons in putting, chipping and driving from Operations Manager, Jean-Guy Côté. “Our school was very proud to benefit from the Golf in Schools program with the support of CN, Golf Québec, and Golf Canada,” said Marc Duguay, Phys. Ed. Teacher at École Marguerite-Bourgeoys. “This was an amazing opportunity to teach our students the great health and security values of golf.” As part of their ongoing commitment to junior golf, CN has adopted more than 100 schools in various markets across the country into the Golf in Schools program since 2013.

“CN is proud to support the future of the game and the health and well-being of our children by introducing the next generation of golfers to the game,” said Claude Mongeau, CN President and Chief Executive Officer. “We believe that Golf Canada’s vision to grow the sport aligns well with our corporate values to promote the health and wellness of children in communities across Canada. “Golf and its inherent values are good for our children and we are pleased to be bringing Canada’s national junior golf

 

 

program to communities across Canada.” CN has been a driving force in Canadian junior golf since becoming title sponsor CN Future Links in 2006. This marks the third group of schools adopted by CN as part of the CN Future Links Community Tour, which consists of three community festivals each year, intended to share the health and wellness values of golf. Montreal’s tour stop took place earlier this summer during the 2014 RBC Canadian Open at the Royal Montreal Golf Club. Saskatoon and Sarnia received visits earlier in the year. Each Community Tour event engages community youth and festival attendees in various golf activities as well as rail safety tips from CN Police.

Québec sets the example Since the program was launched in 2009, Golf Québec acted as a leader on the national scene and led the way by implementing the program in over 500 elementary and high schools. “We are very proud of the work we have accomplished up to now. We have reached a new crucial stage in which we must facilitate access to the golf club to all these children who were introduced to the game at school. They need to get out there to practice and play”, specifies Jean-Pierre Beaulieu, Executive Director of Golf Québec.

 

 

Current CN Future Links programming includes the ‘Learn to Play’ program as well as mobile clinics, the Junior Skills

Challenge, PGA Jr. League, Girls Club and the CN Future Links Championships. As part of its investment in Canadian junior golf, CN is also a proud supporter of Golf in Schools. New programming as part of the investment in youth golf will include CN Future Links School Adoption Program and CN Future Links Field Trip Program.

Last year alone, CN Future Links junior golf activities were conducted at 431 golf facilities with more than 7,000 juniors registered in the Learn to Play program. In addition, 160 golf facilities took part in the Junior Skills Challenge while more than 67,000

youngsters participated in more than 1,800 mobile golf clinics across the country. Since 2006 more than 1 million children have been introduced to golf through the CN Future Links program. For Golf Canada CEO Scott Simmons, CN’s commitment to junior golf reinforces the shared values of health, wellness and safety to junior enthusiasts across Canada. “I can’t say enough what it means to Canadian golf that CN has aligned their brand and their corporate values

with Canada’s national junior golf program,” said

Simmons. “Together with CN as well as our partners at the PGA of Canada and the provincial golf associations, the CN Future Links program is introducing children in communities across Canada to a sport they can enjoy for a lifetime.”

About CN Future Links: http://www.premierselanscn.com/ Photo album of the event on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152776033217767.1073741896.168062312766&type=3