History of golf in city
Roger Self teams with Ed Arnold to recount how golf grew as Peterborough grew
Call it a passion, an obsession even, Roger Self has collected snippets of local golf history for 32 years.
Now, with the help of local author Ed Arnold, the 30 storage tubs containing 90 years of newspaper clippings and records are no longer confined to Self’s basement. Instead, they’ve been transformed into Peterborough’s Golf Story, And More.
The 310-page self-published book will have an official launch from 4 to 6 p.m. April 12 at the Kawartha Golf and Country Club on Clonsilla Ave. in the city’s west end.
Self, 70, one of the area’s top amateur golfers in recent decades, knew he was sitting on a lot of history but he didn’t know what to do with it. He and Arnold talked about it during their daily visits to the Peterborough YMCA and he invited Arnold over to take a look.
“Ed said you have a treasure trove of information here and what do you plan on doing with it? I said, I don’t know,” Self recalled. “I collected it because I thought it was important. There is a long history of hockey and lacrosse in this town but the only golf book I knew of was Elwood Jones’s book 20 years ago which was strictly on the Peterborough Golf Club for their 100th anniversary.”
Self wanted to create an archive of facts and figures detailing tournament champions and runner-ups but Arnold saw much more potential.
“Back to the journalist’s brain of mine, I saw stories there,” said Arnold, The Examiner’s retired longtime managing editor. “It was just material sitting in tubs. Something had to be done to get it into the community.”
What they set out to do was tell the story of Peterborough golf from Robert Abbott to Fraser Dunnfield, who still golfs at KGCC at age 100, through to 2016 Canadian junior boys champion Sam Meek.
There is a heavy emphasis on the city’s two oldest courses, Peterborough and Kawartha, with stories of many of the city’s best known golfers including names like Bob Jamieson and John Kindred to Joy Rishor and many others. It details the origin of KGCC, the struggles of women to find equality in male-dominated clubs and pays homage to those who helped grow the game.
“We tie in Peterborough history and how as golf grows Peterborough is growing,” Arnold said. “We had to dig down and find out more about the golfers. There are so many golfers we had to narrow it down to some of the better ones who have grown up in Peterborough. That was a tough one because there are so many.”
It was a journey of discovery for both as they learned the stories behind names they knew without knowing the full story.
“I think local golfers are going to love it,” Self said. “I kind of consider this as a record book of local golf. I loved doing it. I think it’s important and I’m going to continue to do it. I hope when I’m gone someone else continues it so that 20 years from now we’ll have it from 2017 and on. I thank Ed because without him I wouldn’t have got that information out.” Arnold says it’s Self’s baby. “He has quite a collection there, a phenomenal amount of research,” Arnold said. “He has a real passion for golf and a real appreciation and deep respect for the game. It was a fun project because he was so excited about it.”
Research is the most time-consuming part of writing and Arnold said Self had all that done when he entered the picture.
“It was like a writer’s dream,” Arnold said. “I just hope I did it justice.”
They added to the mound of clippings by interviewing nearly 20 people to flesh out the stories.
The book is $25 and will be available at the launch, the KGCC pro shop, Happenstance Books and Yarns in Lakefield, Trent Valley Archives, The
Peterborough Examiner and from Arnold or Self.