Members of the Pitt Meadows Golf Club are celebrating their organization’s 50th anniversary this summer.
Pitt Meadows is a member-owned club that opened in 1963, on a site that was formerly the old Greybrook Farm.
The Maple Ridge Golf and Country Club had been operating a nine-hole course in Maple Ridge for 36 years, and the Pitt Meadows site gave them a full-length course that was designed to “appeal to the average golfer while putting the pro player on his mettle.”
It has lived up to that, with an active local membership, and providing a setting for competitive events, such as the recent B.C. Golf Women’s Amateur.
The scenic course, with the Golden Ears mountains as a backdrop, serviced by a 25,000 square foot clubhouse, has been a great asset to the community, both for recreation and as an attraction.
The club attracts some high-level golf celebrities. Dave Stockton Senior and Junior have both visited the club for each of the past two years. The former is a golf guru, who coaches the likes of Rory McIlroy, won 16 PGA tournaments including two majors, and in 2011 wrote a guide to putting called “unconscious putting” which has been a hot seller. They have been nominated as honorary members of the Pitt Meadows Golf Club for their clinics and work there.
Former Major League Baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, one of the celebrity owners of Pebble Beach along with Arnold Palmer and Clint Eastwood, also shot a round at Pitt Meadows in July.
“We have some exciting things happen here,” noted club pro Neil Roberts.
Membership director Laurie Shong said the club is best known for the good times had by the members.
“It’s the best membership course in the Lower Mainland,” said Shong, noting there are 150 players who show up for men’s nights every Wednesday. There are 28 men’s nights, 28 sponsors who come back every year, and numerous prices for longest drives, closest to pins and three different handicap categories. It’s always a good time, said Shong.
“Our membership just has really good camaraderie.”
Neil Roberts is excited about the work being done on the driving range. It will be raised about four feet overall, leveled, sloped toward the golfer so they can better see their shot, and there will be more target areas. He said it’s a big project for the club, will be professionally done, and should be ready for next June.
A brochure from the 1963 opening billed it “A Superior Course at a Reasonable Cost.”
The club has had an initiation fee of $7,500, but marks its 50th birthday with a promotion gift to prospective golfers – a new initiation fee of $1,963. In two weeks since the promotion started, 20 golfers have already signed up. The plan is to cap the number at 50 golfers, so the promotion may not be around much longer. The initiation fee, combined with monthly dues of $300, will allow a member as much golf as he or she can book.