Western Ontario Golf Superintendent's Association

WOGSA 2025

Welcome to the WOGSA for 2025. Hard to believe its almost the middle of April, this cold, wet spring has certainly slowed down the yearly race to get courses open ASAP, although as always the Masters will ramp up golfers excitement to get back out on the links. I am certainly thankful our area missed the devastating ice storm that wreaked havoc on many parts of Ontario earlier this spring, it is hard enough cleaning up after a normal winter let alone dealing with the damage ice can do. Our schedule is set and I am personally very excited as we have a great lineup again this year. Our event last season co-hosted with the Greater London and area Golf Superintendents Association was such a success we have decided to once again partner with GLAGS for our first event of the season at Craigowan. From there we are back to the Hamilton area for a return trip to Hidden Lake and then to Guelph for I think our first visit to Guelph Country Club. Our season concludes with a special trip to Lookout Point and our friend Aldo Bortolon’s retirement party.

The hard working Board of Directors of the WOGSA which consists of Trevor Hunter, Angelo Capannelli, Gavin Kellogg (also retiring this year), James Raynor, Dan Sliasas, and Paul Powers didn’t even find time to get together for our annual state of the Association meeting, who knew everyone would be so busy in the winter! But as they always say if somethings not broke, don’t fix it, kind of the words to live by for this Association. The WOGSA mandate is to keep our meetings relaxed, fun to attend, and most importantly affordable for all our members. This continues to be challenging in today’s times with the cost of almost everything rising and venues becoming very difficult to come by. We as a group are feeling a bit more of a pinch, but we are as determined as ever to try and give our members the best value for their money.

Areas we will continue to focus on moving forward include:

• The annual WOGSA membership fee will be waived for the year, we will price our meetings fairly to cover all costs, and put a few dollars towards the Association.
• The square deposit method for accepting credit card payments will be available at all events.
• At most events, we will award closest to the pins and several cash draw prizes or a skins game (a $5.00 draw prize or skins entry fee will be included in the cost of the day) Any donated prizes or leftover cash from the event will be awarded by draw prizes.
• We will continue to contribute scholarship awards to several key industry institutions.
• Our primary goal as always is to run affordable, relaxed and informative golf events for our Members and Guests to gather, network, and hopefully learn a bit in the process.

Let me take a moment to thank our generous event hosts in 2024 which included Jim Nicholls at Port Colborne CC, Dan Lavis and Zack Robertson at Tarandowah Golfers Club, Jim Dimitriw at Lowville GC, and Hartley Gibb at Usshers Creek GC, your commitment and support of the WOGSA is greatly appreciated.

The WOGSA lineup for 2025:

• Wednesday June 4th – Craigowan Golf & Country Club – host Jerry Richard (co-hosted with GLAGS)
• Thursday July 10th – Hidden Lake Golf Club – host Steve Sibbald
• Monday August 18th – Guelph Country Club – host Paul Brown
• Monday October 6th – Lookout Point Golf Club – host Aldo Bortolon (Billy Glashan Memorial Tournament and Aldos retirement party)

Lastly our one important reminder, PLEASE CONFIRM YOUR REGISTRATION FOR AN EVENT, IF YOU NEED TO CANCEL, PLEASE CALL OR EMAILTO CONFIRM. In these busy times it is extremely important to our host clubs and to the Association to have accurate numbers for our events. Clubs charge the Association for the numbers given at registration so if you sign up and don’t show up, the Association is still on the hook for your fee for the day. It is getting increasingly harder to get onto courses so the easier we can make it for our hosts, the better. If you need to update your contact info please do so and return it to us so we have all your current information. As always if you know of someone who may be a potential member, please forward our info to them. We look forward to seeing you at a WOGSA event this year.

For the WOGSA,
John Taylor - President