GOLF FAN GOES SHOPPING WITH PRO
As an aspiring young golf pro, Logan McLean’s dream is to eventually be knocking on the door of the PGA Tour.
On Tuesday, the tour came knocking on his door.
And when the 13-year-old answered at his Country Hills home, there stood longtime PGA pro Billy Andrade with a simple request.
“Hi, I’m Billy,” said the threetime PGA Champions Tour winner, in town for the Shaw Charity Classic, which begins Friday at Canyon Meadows Golf & Country Club.
“And I was wondering if you wanted to do some back-toschool shopping with me.”
The wide-eyed youngster quickly agreed and promptly jumped into a courtesy car headed to Southcentre Mall, where Andrade and McLean spent almost $1,000 at Sport Chek followed by a haircut at Tommy Gun’s.
As the ads suggest, these guys are good.
“I’m in shock — this is amazing,” said the Grade 8 student at Ascension of Our Lord School, who spent most of the drive steering the conversation with Andrade around school, golf, college football and his ultimate hero, Rocco Mediate.
“I didn’t know it was coming at all. What a nice thing to do.”
The dreamy afternoon came about after Logan’s father, Stephen, wrote a heartfelt thank-you letter to tournament organizers for putting on an event that captivated his son’s attention for four years. A mild interest in the sport turned into an obsession after the inaugural tournament at Canyon Meadows ended with the champion, Mediate, sharing an impactful meeting with McLean on the 18th green.
While McLean spent the following three years meeting and getting autographs from the majority of players in the field, he and Mediate reconvene every year. On Wednesday and Thursday, he’ll caddy for his idol.
It’s all part of the wonderful impact on children Clay Riddell and his Patron Group envisioned when they brought world-class golf to Calgary.
“This tournament has had a huge impact on him,” said McLean’s mother, Tara, genuinely moved by Andrade’s efforts.
“He’s infatuated with it. His room is a shrine to it. The players have all been so gracious to him over the years, but this is just over the top — a great opportunity he’ll remember forever.”
Andrade seemed to thoroughly enjoy the experience, offering all sorts of humour and options in the store, including a push for the youngster to buy Skechers, which happens to be a shirt sponsor of Andrade’s. To no avail. Nikes it was. “To be able to put a smile on a kid’s face like this at our age is pretty cool,” said a smiling Andrade, 53, who won four times on the PGA Tour and runs a children’s charity with Brad Faxon.
"To be able to hang out with him for a few hours was really nice. His parents are great — they’ve done a great job with him, as he’s a really good kid who loves golf. This is easy — this is a day off for us.
“To have a tourney where we are impacting kids’ lives and developing friendships is what makes our tour pretty cool to be able to do this.”
That concept isn’t lost on tournament media director Chris Dornan, who pieced together the adventure, complete with $500 matched by the mall.
“This tourney benefits 156 charities across the province and that steals the headlines, but I think the key is how much it impacts kids right across this community that we don’t even know,” said Dornan of a tournament that has raised almost $14 million.
“We found out about Logan from a grateful parent, and there’s thousands of those stories. I just wanted this kid to have an experience of a lifetime he will talk about for a lifetime. It’s not about PR or pushing brand — it’s about giving this kid a positive experience, and he’s going to want to play golf tomorrow. There’s nothing more gratifying than leveraging an athlete to put a smile on a kid’s face. It’s an easy thing we can do to change a kid’s life.”
Running from shot to shot as part of his 10-hour days at the event, McLean quickly developed a passion for the game he shares with his father while playing at Country Hills, where he joined as a junior this year. His best score is 103. “Canada is an amazing country for golf — people here just love it,” Andrade said. “To have all these young kids who’ve grown up like Mike Weir and Graham DeLaet and Adam Hadwin did, who are products of the PGA Tour, and having the Canadian Opens ... and now we have the Shaw Charity Classic for young kids to come out and watch. They might be the next Weir.”
And it’s a day like the one McLean experienced that might help open that door.
SHAW QUALIFYING
Tommy Tolles fired a new course-record 64 Tuesday to earn one of the final four spots in this year’s Shaw Charity Classic field.
“I got off to a really good start, eight-under through 13, so I just kind of put it in cruise control for the last few holes. It’s always nice to be one of the qualifiers and be able to represent a tournament like the Shaw Charity Classic. We get a little, and we give, so it’s pretty neat. There’s not a lot of tournaments that are like this,” Tolles said.
Guy Boros also put his name on the tee sheet for the fifth annual Shaw Charity Classic after posting a 65.
“I played pretty good, I’ve been playing better the last couple weeks so, you know, I was kind of looking forward to playing,” Boros said. “I three-putted the second hole, and I said ‘uh-oh,’ but I made a lot of birdies after that. I played in the Shaw Classic two years ago, and I really enjoy the course, so I’m looking forward to going back and playing well.”
Steve Jurgensen and Mike Grob earned the final two spots after making par on the first playoff hole following rounds of 68.
There were 27 players in Tuesday’s final qualification round conducted by the Alberta PGA.