Issue #24: Summer 2009

Short Game Advisor is Long on Experience

by jody jacob

89-year-old golfer Bill McGhee is the latest addition to the UBC Okanagan golf team.

It’s not how old you are, it’s how old you feel. Just ask UBC alumnus Bill McGhee, BA’46, BSF’47, who at age 89 is the newest addition to the UBC Okanagan Heat golf team.

An avid golfer, McGhee – who doesn’t look a day over 70 – offered to volunteer his teaching services as an assistant short-game coach after reading about the newly-formed varsity golf team in a monthly alumni email newsletter last year.

“Firstly, I volunteered because as I grow older and play less I want to keep busy and stay connected to golf,” says McGhee, who is a short-game specialist and former BC Senior champion and World Senior semi-finalist. “I gained lots of tournament experience since I became a senior at age 55, and I think I have something of value to offer the team – I can help them improve their short game, especially putting, and teach them how to behave in tournament play.

“I can also give some guidance on dealing with the pressure of competition – both the pleasant and unpleasant kind. And, sad to say, how to deal with cheaters, which I had to do only twice in all the years I’ve been golfing.”

Raised in the small village of Port Alice on Vancouver Island, McGhee learned to golf when he was 10 years old. Nearly every day he would take his dad’s old wood-shaft clubs and practice for hours, focusing on chipping and putting. McGhee’s boyhood home rested on the edge of a five-hole golf course built in 1927. Golf was made popular in the small pulp-and-paper town – population 1,200 – thanks in part to a couple of Scots with infectious enthusiasm for the game.

In fact, says McGhee, before the golf course was developed in Port Alice the Scots would place cans around the local baseball diamond and play a few rounds of golf. It was one of those same men who taught McGhee a unique and effective grip for putting – a technique he uses to this day, and swears by.

“As a boy, much of my golf was played alone, as the few other young boys in Port Alice were not interested,” says McGhee. “However, when I became a teenager I played a lot with my father and other adults, some of whom gave me some coaching, and all of whom led by example and taught me how to be a gentleman at the game. The fellowships that develop from playing golf with the same people over time are lifelong and priceless.”

It is these same lessons that McGhee hopes to pass along to the young men and women on the UBC Okanagan varsity golf team.

“Golf is more than a sport, it is a culture, and I’m looking forward to sharing what I’ve learned with the young athletes, and helping them develop their game,” he says.

Rob Johnson, the director of Athletics and Recreation at UBC Okanagan, says McGhee’s expert guidance is helping UBC Okanagan offer one of the best student athletic golf programs in the country.

“It’s a great opportunity for our student athletes because with the addition of Bill they have the opportunity to learn from someone who has a true passion for the game, its history and its traditions,” says Johnson. “Bill knows how to compete and has been teaching, coaching and mentoring for many, many years. That kind of experience is invaluable.

“It’s just one more great aspect to the UBC Okanagan golf varsity program, which is emerging as one of the most unique and exciting varsity programs in the country.”

Jody Jacob is an assistant communications coordinator with UBC Okanagan’s Office of Alumni and University Relations.