Quesnel Golf Club has new local owners who have selected a familiar face to run the facility. Quesnel native Kathy Gook is returning home as general manager and director of golf. She was hired by new owners Joe Hart, Dennis England, and Kit and Gary Collins.
“I know the new owners very well,” said Gook, who has spent the past three years as director of golf at Bighorn Golf Course in Kamloops. “They are local people who have supported the community over the years in so many different areas and now they are doing the same with the golf course.”
Gook is happy to be returning home to a course and community she knows well. She grew up not far from the course and worked there from 2015 to 2018. “It is always nice to come home,” she said. “I know a lot of the golfers there and I look forward to seeing them again and working with everyone again.”
Gook is a highly regarded instructor. She was recently named by the LPGA as one of its top 50 teachers. Gook is looking forward to doing more teaching in Quesnel. “I started the Special Olympics group here and they are all very excited that I’m back,” she said.
“We have 20 to 25 athletes and we are going to get them going again. They haven’t had a tournament for a couple of years so I hope to run another Special Olympic tournament and bring in athletes from Prince George, Williams Lake, and places like that.”
Gook also plans to bring what she calls Operation 36 back to Quesnel Golf Club. It’s a program that Gook says is extremely popular with new golfers, juniors, and even some experienced players. “There are nine different levels that participants go through and their goal is to shoot 36,” Gook said. “So we start 25 yards from the hole and they play nine holes and their goal is to shoot 36 and if they do, they graduate to 50 yards, and then they go to 100 yards.”
Quesnel Golf Club opened in 1959 and has become a fixture in the community. But in recent years, its conditioning suffered and membership has dropped. “I left in 2018 and we had a good 300 members,” Gook said. “I think they have dropped down to around 200, so we want to get that membership group back up again.
“There is a real influx into golf right now and we just want to be able to capture those people. Get them back wanting to be at the golf course and really making it a community asset. We also want to get tournament play back. They haven’t been doing tournaments there recently and I’ve already had three companies contact me regarding tournaments for this year for fundraisers and things like that.”