Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:07 Elliot Pierre. And we're going to start the show off the same way we start every show off with a moment of gratitude. I know you could be doing a million other things with your time. So the fact that you're spending with us truly does mean the world to me. So thank you on that note, Tanner.
Speaker 1 00:00:22 Oh, she caught me, loves near listen to the next.
Speaker 0 00:00:31 All right. We are back. Today's going to be a great episode because this gentleman was very excited to reach out and come. I met him on the golf course last week. Um, and he was a cool guy to just sit and chat with for a few moments. I did. So as per usual, I don't know the guests that are here. However, this guy's energy, I just love. So I'm excited to have him here as you know, I don't introduce my guests. I let them do that themselves. So on that note, sir, can you please introduce yourself and tell everybody who you are?
Speaker 2 00:00:57 Uh, I'm Kurt Tiesen, uh, just a local of, uh, Fort McMurray, I guess, in here. Most of my life, uh, I run a Facebook group called the Fort McMurray golfers association, a match play tournament with golf and town. I guess I'm just a, all around golf enthusiast. That's awesome, man. Yup. Very
Speaker 0 00:01:15 Cool. So like I know you got your phone out. Do you have certain things you want to get off before I start asking you questions right off the bat. So I'm going to let you just run the
Speaker 2 00:01:24 Mic. What is that? Okay. I got a, just a bunch of random things I'm gonna spew off here. Uh, start off by saying, um, miscon Oz course record is held by, uh, Ryan Kosch with the new design of a score of a 64. Uh, we had a record setting men's night, our first men's night of this season at <inaudible> with 144 golfers, which was a humongous turnout. And, uh, good to see you after everything with COVID and everything. People are certain to come back out. Uh, I was going to talk for a minute about, uh, disc golf. So, uh, my disc golf contact is Todd DuPont. He's on Facebook. Uh, there's another guy, his friend runs a wood Buffalo disc golf association. We have three disc golf courses in town, rotary lion's park and Vista Ridge. Uh, they have a league league night on Thursdays at six 30.
Speaker 2 00:02:17 It's ran by the association and, uh, you can actually buy discs at the gift shop in heritage park where they have, uh, also have the net so that I did not know kind of cool to go try that out. I've never tried it myself, but it's on my agenda of things to do. Uh, besides that I was going to talk, uh, we'll go on attorneys a little bit. Um, think what has their men's open upcoming in the next two weeks? Uh, they also have an RBC scramble, which is the best ball for four year buddies. If you do well there, you can go to provincials in the mountains and if you do well there, you can go to Cape Breton. I think, uh, I think they fly you there and everything. So, uh, a team from McMurray with, uh, Keith McGrath and then wanted a couple of years back.
Speaker 2 00:03:04 Uh, I also run a match, play myself. That's grown to 64 people this year. So we'll be looking to grow without again, uh, maybe not 128 next year. That's taken place at MySQL and I, and, uh, for McMurry golf club, I'd like to get some more people from rotary, you know, that as well, uh, like dimension, the, uh, Justin Slade youth foundation golf tournament that happens in August at <inaudible>. Uh, they haven't been able to put on the tournament due to COVID the last year. So like to put a shout out to them. Um, uh, besides that we have four different golf courses in Fort McMurray, Vista Ridge, a good family course, big cups, uh, a 12 full facility, kinda. I think they're shorter holes, maybe, um, great place to take the family if they're just learning anybody beginner. And even for seasoned veterans, just to have some fun, a rotary park they're getting 18 holes is as of next year, that should be done, uh, construction.
Speaker 2 00:04:03 Uh, you got <inaudible> back up and run into its full, a glory of 18 holes, uh, that just got redesigned and they just pumped a bunch of money into that, including the most expensive golf hole in Canada hole, number six or island green, uh, Fort McMurray golf club is back up to 27 holes with your, uh, the original 18, just opening back up, uh, it's in great shape. I was there on Friday. I could not believe the, uh, the shape of the greens and just the entire shape of that whole golf course was very nice. Um, moving on, I wanted to talk about the miscon, all staff, give them a quick shadow. Uh, Chris McKenzie, I can't say enough about his tournament organizing, uh, just his work around the clubhouse. Uh, Ben Matthews. I wanted to talk about him for a quick minute. There was a, uh, incident on our, uh, miscon a boat a month ago.
Speaker 2 00:04:55 There was a fellow had a bit of a heart issue on old 16, along the river, very scary situation. Uh, they closed the course down and, uh, Ben Matthews came and, uh, he's got, uh, some medical training. Think he's a paramedic. Maybe he's got some training for that anyway. So of course came out and really handled that situation. Um, not enough can be said of open Matthews that day, the way you handle it. Um, besides that, I also want to talk about, uh, Robert Glanville down at the Ford McMurry golf club. He runs the, uh, Robert Glanville golf academy. He, uh, he's the most committed, uh, pro in Fort McMurray without a doubt, no questions asked, uh, I worked with him at Bouschet and, uh, he gave up Bouschet. He went and took a loan, bought himself a $30,000 track man, and just has committed his entire life to a teaching golf, which really amazes me he's uh, had recommend him, if anybody asks me about lessons.
Speaker 2 00:05:57 Robert Glanville was always the first guy that comes to my mind. Uh, talk about some of our sponsors, uh, legacy Dodge, creative doors, United rentals, and we're all Toyota all, uh, sponsoring our men's night down at <inaudible>. Uh, Jr's very important. Uh, the whole golf community takes the, I guess they hold the juniors above everybody else, including themselves. So, uh, here's a couple of stats, 80 sets of Callaway clubs given away to indigenous youth in, uh, Fort McMurray by misconduct in 2015, 29 sets of Callaway golf clubs given to participants of the junior golf club in 2000, 1974, free junior golf memberships order to participate in 2020, 10,000 plus kids taught in our junior program, 5,000 plus kids taught through the weekly golf program. Uh, we had a PGA nomination for junior leader of the year. Um, all right. Or are we K I want you to give a shout out to a couple of the guys that, uh, and these are just a few there's tons.
Speaker 2 00:07:00 Um, I'm not very prepared, but Ken strong, Don Adams, Mike Brown, Chris Mackenzie, Robert Glanville, Jason Vaughn, we see the moat with the juniors constantly. Um, so that's good to see, um, uh, Fort McMurray golf club has the new nine holes, the Fox tail, and nobody's tried that. That's a very unique, uh, experience. Uh, I was going to talk a little bit about how golf is changing. It's much more relaxed out there now for anybody. Who's not doing it a lot and only everybody's listening to music. Uh, there's lots of plenty of outfits out there. Things are a lot more laid back than what they once were. Uh, there's a huge golf community. Uh, like I run the Fort McMurray golfers association. So there's no shortage of people that golf with ever. If you ever looking for somebody to golf with it's as easy as jumping on the Fort McMurray golfers' association and saying, you know, it's Tuesday, I want to golf around two o'clock.
Speaker 2 00:07:57 Anybody want to come with me? And usually I'll have a couple, couple takers. Uh, the golf courses do a ton for charity. I mentioned that Justin Slade youth foundation, uh, just every, every day, it seems like we're doing something new for a different charity. Great to see, uh, all that stuff with the juniors and the charities and everything, the golf community given back. And, uh, the last thing I wanted to talk about was, uh, I just had to mention a Saturday night at miscon hall, we had a pro amateur golf tournament and miscon. I just pulled out all the stops for that one. I've never seen anything like it before in my life. We had a, we had a, the long drive world champion, two time world, long drive champion. Uh, Jamie said, ski come up, uh, for it. And along with, uh, I think 19 other pro, we had about 20 pros up here, 20 teams.
Speaker 2 00:08:50 And, uh, so it was a two day Stableford match up. That was a, it was a handicap match. So anybody of any skill level could have joined and they wouldn't have fun with us and competed. Um, so after the round Saturday, they took us, uh, over to the legacy Dodge field, the baseball stadium, they had a mat set up at home plate and we hit, uh, closest to the pin contest out into center field, uh, which was just absolutely amazing to be kind of playing golf in the baseball stadium. Uh, if that wasn't enough, we had the food truck up in the bleachers who had some great food and some lobster and everything. And, uh, and Chris McKenzie had told me earlier in the day that he had a huge surprise for the horse race. And, uh, he told me he had a live horse and I probably should have believed him when Chris McKenzie says he had something special and planned.
Speaker 2 00:09:42 And, uh, so I was just blown away when the horse came out onto the football field and let us all off to the first tee box following behind it and the golf carts for the horse race, which, uh, if anybody doesn't know what a horse race is, uh, the people who do the best in the tournament and the people who do the worst, get paired up in twosomes. We all go out to the first tee box. You ended up with 50 people on the first tee box, all in a big horseshoe shape, standing around the, a guy about to tee off. And everybody's quiet on the tee, quiet on the tee until the guy gets ready in his back swing. And everyone starts yelling and screaming, throwing beer cans at him. That's awesome. It turns into quite the time. Yeah. And it's, and it's for money.
Speaker 2 00:10:25 So we're all, uh, trying to play well at the same time. This is going on, and it's the most fun you can have golfing. And I, I can't say enough about the, uh, the event on the weekend there at <inaudible>. That's awesome. Um, we also had a, there was a great tournament, uh, thick went on for like they're happening all the time. Uh, they raised a lot of money for the juniors at the one at a liquid on Friday. I know they added a dunk tank, which I myself got into for the good of the juniors. I raised 500 bucks myself. And, uh, I think they raised close to 2000 or somewhere around there, there the other fellow who got dunked. So that's awesome. Always something going on with him. Yeah. Whole golf world. Yeah. So let's put all I had, well,
Speaker 0 00:11:08 I'm going to get you on, that's a lot of information. That's good information to get out there, man. So I'm glad you took your notes cause there's no way I think anybody could remember all of those stats and all those events taking
Speaker 2 00:11:18 Place. That's a lot.
Speaker 0 00:11:21 Now when it comes to golf and yourself, like, obviously you're very passionate about this. Um, you're not connected in any way, shape or form to any golf, uh, club here in town. You go off them all, you promote them all, obviously from what you just ran out. Yep.
Speaker 2 00:11:33 Yep. I'm uh, I'm a been a member we're at miscon offer about 10 years. Um, I started golfing there 10 years ago. I got into a golf tournament, uh, in which I ended up winning really my first year of golf and I just, oh yeah, amazing. I won a nice hefty chunk of cash too. It was nice. 30 grand, the first place team. So wow. Yeah. That a production to golf that really hooked me into golf. You know, at that point, uh, my life, I was doing a lot of other things, maybe not so productive. So all for really, uh, really changed, changed things for me. That's awesome, man. You know, ready and 80, they could either go with the boys or I could be up nice and early Saturday morning to hit the, be the first man out on the fairway, which is that's right. It's a great feeling. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:12:21 So now when it comes to golf, like I know some guys who are just fanatical about it. Yep. How many rounds of golf do you try to get in a day? Are you like, if it's a nice day, you're trying to get 1830, say like what, what are you putting down?
Speaker 2 00:12:33 Uh, I played as many as three rounds in a day. Really? Uh, I know, uh, maybe three candidate, well, I I've done it lots, but one that stands out to me is three Canada DS. I go in Darren green. Uh, I, I used to mind, I think the first round of like the fourth hole and yeah, that was a messy candidate that the third round wasn't a good score and one, no. Yeah. But uh, yeah, I live for it. I can, I get golf from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed. I mean just a, just a good place to go hang out in the sun and you have everything there at the golf course. They got, you know, you've got refreshment stands everywhere who is getting better at these golf. Yeah. Like, uh, the weekend was crazy. I, I missed the Mac island food truck being parked in front of the thing. Cause that thing had some really good food. But uh, yeah. I mean, they got some, you know, used to be able to just get your tuna sandwich, your ham sandwich. And now they got croissant and all kinds of fancy stuff that, you know, there's there's options now. Not just the hot dog anymore. That's exactly it.
Speaker 0 00:13:37 So now when you're golfing in the season, cause I know like this is golf season for you. This is like your primary. This is, this is it. This is it. Yeah. Are you prime? Are you sticking around Fort McMurray or do you like to go to different golf courses around Canada and or the world? Or how does it work for you?
Speaker 2 00:13:51 You don't only if I had unlimited money in my own choices, I'd be all over Alberta every summer. But unfortunately, uh, I tend not to work a whole lot during the summer. That's right. Money's tight. But uh, well, two years ago a guy backed a skid-steer into my truck. Yeah. So I ended up collecting $4,000 for that. Didn't fix the truck. I took the four grand and I went down to there's courses like a slave lake offered. It was 250 bucks. I got two or three nights in a hotel. Oh wow. And a tournament paid for, with some food, three rounds of golf. So you go play these men's opens Westlock, wait court, you know, there's a big group of people from town here that go and they play all these men's opens because there's such a great deal and just a chance to play a different course and nicely played tournament golf too. And challenge yourself as well. Yeah. I wish
Speaker 0 00:14:43 I could remember the name of this golf course, but years ago I was on a conference and they said, Hey, you need to go golfing today. I said, okay, sure. Like whatever, I'll go golfing. No worries. Yep. And uh, I was in Vancouver and they put me on a bus and I just figured like all, we'll go to some golf clubs in Vancouver. Yeah. I get on this bus and there's all these food and drinks and I'm just like, listen, how long did this bus ride be? They're like, oh, it's going to be like an hour plus like where are you taking me? Like all we're going to Whistler. Ooh. And I was just like, what? And they're like, yeah, get on the buses go. So like we got on the bus and we made it to Whistler, man, when I tell you a beautiful golf course, right in the mountains. Yeah. The first hole it was. And I'm not a good golfer by any stretch of the imagination, the first hole, it was something like out of a video game where your tee box is up here. But the golf, uh, like the whole Roy and everything was down here, so you're hitting it and you're just dropping it.
Speaker 2 00:15:40 They call that the elevated tee box, man. They actually have some in Alberta, like, uh, even go to smoky lake nine hole course there some elevation a little bit. Anyway, you can find some at, uh, Fort McMurray golf club on the Foxdale. Now I don't know if you've played a, their new nine. No, I haven't. Their new nine has everybody likes to say 16 at <inaudible> the most scenic guy runs right along the river. But the view from the top of, uh, I think it's number four at Foxdale might be number three, you play this straight up hill. Yeah. Ought gotta be, I don't know how many feet up, but you get right to the top of it. You're basically on the top of golf course hill looking over the river and everything is nice. And yeah. So once you're done in that green, you drive over to the next tee box and it's a elevated tee box and you drive down the hill, which is nice because you can drive a great big bomb and it flies a bit further and doesn't roll once it lands, it usually stops where it is. Right? Yeah. So it, it adds a different element to the game. Like I play miscon Allah and we don't have a lot of elevation there. No, but there's a lot of other challenges. So there's lots of challenges. Yeah. Every course offers something different. That's why that's the beautiful thing about golf and golf courses and from the cheapest, most ill maintained ones. That's just a flat field too. It's to your most pristine courses with these elevated tee boxes and elevated greens. And there's a little something on it. No,
Speaker 0 00:17:05 No doubt. Okay. Well we're part of the show now or Tanner has his segment. Cool. I don't know if you've seen the show before. I know you have, it's called the Mac city minute. So this is Tanner segment. He's going to hit you up with some questions. Best of luck to you, man. Cool.
Speaker 3 00:17:19 All right. Question number one, if you could golf at one course, what course would that be?
Speaker 2 00:17:26 Obviously Augusta, Augusta national, uh, holding the masters. They don't, they don't just let anybody golf there. Um, I know a couple of people who have through, uh, through having a lot of money, I guess, or connections and whatnot, but, uh, I guess more realistically, um, one that I will probably play in the future is, uh, Cabot cliffs and, uh, Nova Scotia. I just, all our, uh, a lot of our pros up here from Nova Scotia and keep pumping the place up. That's where they go for the final, that RBC scramble. And uh, yeah, I just keep hearing it's number one in Canada. So
Speaker 3 00:18:04 Question number two. What is your favorite tournament to play in Fort McMurray? Oh,
Speaker 2 00:18:10 Uh, I'm not going to go too far into the details, but my favorite one hands down, every golfer, every serious golfers favorite tournament in Fort McMurray is a fall classic
Speaker 3 00:18:21 Question. Number three. What is your go-to snack? When out on the course?
Speaker 2 00:18:26 Ooh, my go-to snack. Uh, all those Clif bars have been pretty good that, uh, Chris McKenzie likes to serve up, but, uh, I would have to say probably just the hot dog at the turn
Speaker 3 00:18:39 Question. Number four. What is your book? Best golf moment. You remember?
Speaker 2 00:18:45 Oh, hands down. Uh, went in the fall classic. My first year of golfing, I went to a play off. So, uh, first of all, we had about a four, four foot putt to win $30,000. Me. I got paired up with the club pro that your called party. And uh, another guy Andre Rodriguez said, nah, all three of us, miss foot pipe, which for me first year. Okay. Second guy, uh, the pro uh, during a really feel bad, we get to the next hole. And uh, one of the teams got eliminated their early drunk. By the time we got the off go and everything, but get in the second hole, the other team puts it right on the pin. They're tapping and we're on the other side of the green and I'll never forget the putt. Andrea Rodriguez made, it was about 50 feet and out of a three breaks in it. And he jarred it for, you know, this clutch pressure situate, a hundred people standing around watching. And my first year golf and I'm shaking like a leaf and that pot got us to the par five on the next hole for the playoff or we, uh, we Eagle or birdied it to win it. And that's hands down my favorite moment ever on the golf course, I ripped off my shirt and I was running around the green and
Speaker 0 00:19:49 I didn't know a lot about the etiquette thing back then, or they
Speaker 2 00:19:52 Didn't really care. Anyway, I still kind of don't. So one thing about me, like when I go off, I try to, I don't know. I try to loosen up a bit these days and like music on, you know, and, and, and a little different than the traditional, what people think about golf and everybody's stuffy. And a lot of people get worried about, you know, keeping pace with the group behind them. And I think it scares a lot of people away from golf, but it's, uh, the most relaxed place you can be in the world, I think. And
Speaker 3 00:20:20 Your final question, how does disc golf compared to regular golf for you?
Speaker 2 00:20:26 I've never tried this golf. I've uh, I'm wanting to, uh, Todd Dupaul. One of my buddies is very involved in it. He's, he's not the guy who runs the disc golf association, but he seems to be like, number two, he's another guy like me. Who's just passionate about it. He's uh, he keeps a disc golf, handicap. He, he plays in disc golf. Tournament's all over Alberta. It's like, uh, yeah, we got an app for golf to keep our handicap or, uh, scores in and everything. And uh, so today, which is kinda neat. So I'm looking to get out right away, but, uh, I don't think anything could ever compare to golf for me. It's just the most beautiful thing in the world. I got a question about this. So this tournament,
Speaker 0 00:21:07 This fall classic there's, there's big money on the go. Yeah. There's like, money's up for grabs here, but the money up. Why are people drinking when there's that kind of money up for grabs? Like, if <inaudible>
Speaker 2 00:21:18 There's stories about that, but there's, there's been some times like, because part of golf is, uh, he played the tournament Saturday, go have some drinks on Saturday night, usually the horse races, this type of stuff. And then Sunday morning gotta wake up and perform and that's right. And uh, yeah, there's been times where guys haven't shown up the next morning on time. I've been late. I've been, uh, I've been some horror stories, but for me, like last year I was broke, man. So I showed up, I was two, two hours early hitting. I put putting green that's right. I was looking to make some money in. There you go. That's my thing. Like, I am that casual
Speaker 0 00:21:51 Golfer. Like the best part of the golfing to me is the adult beverages. I like, I'm the best guy to go golfing with in regards to like, I'm good enough that I can kind of hit the ball. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:22:02 I'm positive. I'm going to pump you up. Yep.
Speaker 0 00:22:05 But I'm never going to beat you. Yeah. So I'm just surfing. And so I'm like, yeah, let's have some drinks. Let's have some
Speaker 2 00:22:12 Fun with it. Yeah. That's the whole, a lot of people forget that a lot of people focus on the scorecard and I've seen, and me, myself, I've been guilty of it. Lots getting bent out of shape, getting in arguments with people like in golf, builds the character. It, you know, you argue with your golf buddy. Uh you're you could be best friends forever, man. You get older on the golf person. Frustration. Yeah. Especially the guys who put a lot into it, like myself who were there every day and you put in, if you don't get out of it, sometimes what you put into it, it can, it can be humiliating. It can be. And it, it brings Zoe man, it brings out some emotions and it's, it's, it's just a beautiful thing.
Speaker 0 00:22:48 If I was on, if I was playing in this tournament, I, I, there's no way I would ever do it. I'm not, I'm not good at all. It's handicapped, man. There was money on that and there was money on the line. Listen, I'm putting down the adult beverages and I'm like, I'm
Speaker 2 00:23:01 Zoned in the thing is the adult beverages can sometime loosen me up a little bit. Get rid of those nerves. You know, like playing golf is I'm, I'm struggling with it right now. I can go out any day of the week and shoot in the seventies. But yeah, tournament's man, it's been a, it's been tough for me.
Speaker 0 00:23:16 I got a question for you in regards to that. Do you meditate? No, dude. We're going to talk off air about this. It's going to really help your golf game. It could. Yeah. I really like we'll talk. Listen, I know Tanner is going to be like, oh gosh, here I go. Here. He goes again with his meditation nonsense. It's a game changer. Oh, for sure. Anyways, I know we have gone over the time a little bit. That's okay, dude. Thank you for coming in. Thanks for reaching out. Thanks for having me. I know you had a lot of things to like list off today and we that before the show, but I would definitely love for you to come back again. So you and I can like have a chat and we can get to know a little bit more about, about yourself and about your passion. Cause it's you're a cool dude. So, um, please, please, please come back again. Now.
Speaker 2 00:23:58 Anybody who is interested in golf and formic Marie too, feel free to hit up the Fort McMurray golfers association, all kinds of information on there. Like you can ask any question you want to ask. There we go to gloves. Anything you want message me. You ever want to go for a tee time? I'm always around. There you go,
Speaker 0 00:24:14 Man. Thank you very much. Awesome. All right. Form with Maria with Buffalo, that's been another episode of the Mac city morning show. Thank you very much for tuning in. Hopefully you're having a great day and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.
Speaker 4 00:24:44 Talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
