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LETTER: It’s a labour of love keeping the Port Alice golf course running

‘We North Islanders are indeed fortunate to have two gorgeous golf club’
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Email a letter to the editor to editor@northislandgazette.com.

Dear Editor,

Thank you for publishing a good story about the Port Alice golf course in your July 1 issue as well as the stories in the past few months about Seven Hills, our other lovely course. Both of our north Island courses are beautiful places well – maintained by hard working staff who may not be getting rich – but certainly put their all into their jobs as evidenced by the beautiful little courses they dearly care for. Much of the love for golfing that golfers experience is their quiet and gorgeous walks through nature admiring the flora {and quite often fauna}, that they experience each time they are out.

One of our region’s writers a number of years ago stated about the historic old Port Alice course: “Where Pittsburgh meets Shangri – La!” She was referring of course to the fact that the beautifully treed course with its’ three little creeks complete with waterfalls, water ponds and footbridges, as well as it’s verdant lawns and scenic views, is nestled around an ancient pulp mill now sadly idle. A historic little cemetery is also enshrouded in the trees adjacent. Together, this little oasis in the massive west coast wilderness draws a number of people each year to experience the remnants of an epoch of history – one of B.C.’s oldest forestry town sites and an outlier of Canada’s West Coast pioneers of industrial civilization. A golf course and a cemetery mark our history now, along with a century old worksite being levelled.. The Japanese, Chinese, and English names on the headstones along with Czechs, Hungarians, Norwegians, Germans, natives and dozens of others remind us of a multicultural history that Ottawa seems to know nothing about.

But enough of that, I would like to acknowledge President Tom Mcarthy who was interviewed in the story but readers know little of his, as well as Guy Mitchell and his wife Debbie - who labour to keep the club intact with hours of dedicated service. We North Islanders are indeed fortunate to have two gorgeous golf clubs and we should be sure to voice our thanks to our executives and staff who keep them rolling in both good times and bad.

Bruce Lloyd,

Port Alice

PS On behalf of the groundskeepers I’ve lauded here – They would say one thing of course to each and every golfer as a way to give thanks: “Please replace your damn divots!”

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Tyson Whitney

About the Author: Tyson Whitney

I have been working in the community newspaper business for nearly a decade, all of those years with Black Press Media.
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