By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf

“Now it is going to be time for Tim to play some golf.” 

That’s Tim Tait describing his impending retirement after more than 31 years as director of golf at Marine Drive Golf Club. Tait, who joined Marine Drive in March of 1991, is retiring effective Nov. 30 and at the club’s recent 100th anniversary gala dinner he was presented with a life membership in recognition of his service with the club.

He’ll be leaving with some great memories of a club filled with players whose passion for the game matched his own.

“I am a passionate guy about the things I do as well, so it kind of felt like a really nice fit with the membership here,” Tait says.

“They gave me lots of motivation because you just see how much people admire the game and love the game and you want to be able to offer them the same passion for service and coaching, teaching, whatever. They are a motivating group. It has really helped me match their passion for the game.”

Tait grew up in Saskatoon and moved west to work for Jack McLaughlin at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club. He got his first job as a head pro in Calgary at the Elks Club (now Winston Golf Club) when he was 28. Three years later he joined Marine Drive and knew pretty much right away that he never wanted to leave. So he didn’t.

His second year at Marine Drive was especially eventful. In the early fall of 1992, Marine Drive co-hosted the World Amateur Team Championships, whose competitors included the likes of Annika Sorenstam and David Duval. A month or so before that event, the golf shop burned down.

“It was the night of the first round of our club championship, so the second round didn’t happen because all the clubs were smouldering outside the shop at 3 in the morning,” Tait says. “The heat had melted them.”

Tait is looking forward to playing much more golf than he has in recent years. “Most people think that’s the main thing you do is play golf,” he says of the life of a head pro.

“You end up spending so much more time doing administrative things and teaching. You just don’t have that spare four or five hours to get out there and practice. I don’t know what you’d call lots of golf, but I will certainly be playing more than I have played in the last 25 or 30 years. It is going to be fun.”

PLAYOFF BOUND: He wasn’t quite hanging by his fingernails, but it was close. Abbotsford’s Nick Taylor made the cut at the Wyndham Championship and despite a rocky weekend hung on to his spot inside the top 125 on the Fed Ex Cup points list to qualify for the playoffs. Taylor tied for 81st at the Wyndham, the final regular season event of the 2021-22 PGA TOUR season, and dropped two spots to finish 123rd on the points list. 

He will have a spot in the first playoff event — this week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis — along with fellow Abbotsford resident Adam Hadwin (No. 50) and Surrey’s Adam Svensson (No. 90). Merritt’s Roger Sloan missed the cut at the Wyndham and finished 167th on the points list. He’ll have to play the three-event Korn Ferry Tour Finals in the hopes of earning one of the 25 PGA TOUR cards that will be up for grabs. The KFT Finals feature the top 75 players from the Korn Ferry Tour points list and the players finishing 126th to 200th on the FedEx Cup points list.

ONE AND DONE: The Korn Ferry Tour completes its regular season at this week’s Pinnacle Bank Championship in Omaha, Neb. Vancouver’s Stuart Macdonald will need a huge week to secure status for next year. He enters the Pinnacle Bank Championship at No. 116 and must move inside the top 75 to avoid a trip to qualifying school this fall.

HEADING WEST: Lawren Rowe of Squamish was the top B.C. finisher at the Quebec Open on the PGA Tour Canada circuit. Rowe tied for 40th at four-under par, 12 shots behind winner Ryan Gerard of Raleigh, N.C.. Jared du Toit of Kimberley was 68th at five-over, while Richmond’s Chris Crisologo was 69th at six-over. After a week off, PGA Tour Canada heads west for the Manitoba Open, which goes Aug. 18-21 at Southwood Golf & Country Club in Winnipeg.

CHAMBERS CAST: Fourteen Canadians, including five British Columbians, are in the field for this week’s U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship at Chambers Bay near Tacoma, Wash. West Vancouver’s Jennifer Gu, Coco Pei of Surrey, Euna Han of Burnaby, Surrey’s Angela Arora and Tiffany Kong of Vancouver are the British Columbians who qualified to play in the event.

NORTHERN EXPOSURE: Fraserview’s Ilirian Zalli, the 2018 B.C. Junior Boys champion, beat Scott Kerr of Marine Drive in a playoff to win the Vancouver’s Golf Tour’s Bold Promotions Lakepoint Pro-am in Fort St. John. Zalli and Kerr finished the 36-hole event at six-under par. Zalli earned $5,000 for the win, while Kerr took home $3,000. Brett Webster of Ledgeview, Zach Anderson of Nanaimo and Steven Lucuyer of Seymour Creek tied for third at five-under and each made $2,066.

CONVINCING WIN: B.C. Junior Girls champion Luna Lu of Burnaby won an American Junior Golf Association event in Detroit in impressive fashion. Lu finished the 54-hole UHY Detroit Junior at Forest Lake at three-under par and beat the field by five shots. Yeji Kwon, the new Canadian Junior Girls champion from Port Coquitlam, was fifth at eight-over par.

NEW ADDITION: MindTRAK Golf, the mindset training and coaching system designed by former PGA TOUR winner Richard Zokol, has added Dr. Raymond Prior to its team as psychology performance adviser. He joins coaching advisor Sean Foley and playing advisor Zokol as members of MindTRAK’s performance team. 

Prior’s clients include professional, collegiate and Olympic athletes as well as non-athletic performers including Grammy, Emmy and Tony award winners. “We are delighted to have someone as renowned as Dr. Prior join the MindTRAK Golf Performance Team,” Zokol says. “Raymond’s ground-breaking work and expertise in the field of performance psychology will be an invaluable voice as we continue to fulfil our mission.”