January 2008 Issue

Home > Members > Publications > The PEGG > January 2008

feature

Tourney Carries on as Tenoves Take their Leave

BY GEORGE LEE
The PEGG

EARLY DAYS — AND FOND FAREWELLS Top photo: Pat and Ron Tenove, P.Eng., accept their farewell gift. In the background clapping is Len Shrimpton, P.Eng., APEGGA Director, Internal Affairs. Bottom photo: the original three, shown in 1984, are, from left, Ron Parker, P.Eng., Darrel Danyluk, P.Eng., and Ron Tenove, P.Eng.

The engineer who’s long been the face and chief schmoozer of the APEGGA Golf Tournament has bowed out. Ron Tenove, P.Eng., his wife, Pat, and their company Tournaments West handed control back to a team of Central Alberta members on Aug. 20, where it all began three decades ago.

With Mr. Tenove in semi-retirement and the couple’s lives firmly transplanted to Metchosin on Vancouver Island, it was time to bring the tournament full circle and return it to its Alberta base, he says.

Back in 1977, Mr. Tenove was one of three strapping young engineers charged with putting on a tournament in conjunction with the APEGGA Annual General Meeting in Red Deer. The executive members of what was then called the Red Deer Branch led provincial peers to the fairways and greens of Lacombe Golf and Country Club for a great day of fun and sport.

“We had just a hoot doing it,” recalls Mr. Tenove. Such a hoot, in fact, that the following year the three of them — Mr. Tenove, Darrel Danyluk, P.Eng., and Ron Parker, P.Eng. — decided to do it all over again. This time they held the tournament in the summer and moved it to the Red Deer Golf and Country Club.

The annual APEGGA Golf Tournament was born.

On Aug. 28, 1978, the inaugural tournament attracted nearly 60 golfers from across the province. A good omen for tournaments to come, Mother Nature smiled by providing cloudless skies and nothing more than a gentle breeze.

It was that kind of late August day again as Mr. Tenove bid farewell last summer to a tournament he holds dear, now with over 140 players signing up year after year. He does note, however, that his wife has taken on most of the responsibility, particularly in recent years.

“I do most of the work, he does most of the socializing,”

Mrs. Tenove quipped at the banquet ending the 30th annual installment.

As the machine became ever more finely tuned, Mr. Tenove found much of his job involved staying connected with sponsors and players. Fun as that role is, it’s also important — because sponsors and players have a large selection of tournaments they can choose to support.

Many of the return players became close friends, almost like family. In fact, Mr. Tenove freely admits the provincial profile he developed at the tournament likely won him the APEGGA presidency in 2002. Mr. Danyluk, too, is a past president.

Says Mr. Danyluk: “I made many friendships with engineers, geoscientists and sponsors from across the province. Many of those people I wouldn’t have gotten to know if it weren’t for the tournament.”

Although he moved from Red Deer in the mid-1980s, Mr. Danyluk remained involved until about 15 years ago. In the early 1980s, Mr. Parker left Red Deer and his involvement ended.

Mr. Tenove left Red Deer as well. But running the tournament stayed with him until 2007.

Camaraderie and corporate team building keep players coming back. Permit holding companies with offices hundreds of miles apart love it. “The tournament has provided a mechanism to get people together,” says Mr. Danyluk.

The tournament fosters bonds, he says, which strengthen the professions and the Association. And the social nature of the sport breaks down the barriers that exist back at the office or out in the field.

“It’s really become a tradition,” says Mr. Danyluk. “I’d say 60 to 70 per cent of the golfers each year are repeat players.”

Mr. Tenove adds that the central location and the great course are part of the allure. The Red Deer club is private, so for many APEGGA golfers the tournament is the only chance they get to play it.

He also points out that the event features real, tournament-style golf, based on handicaps and skill. “I think the golfers appreciate that,” says Mr. Tenove.
APEGGA is a major sponsor and it also donates free PEGG advertising. Support from sponsors has always been critical, for everything from hole prizes to prizes for final results.

Mr. Tenove and Mr. Danyluk both mention the support the tournament receives from Executive Director & Registrar Neil Windsor, P.Eng. “The support under Neil’s leadership of APEGGA has been superb,” says Mr. Danyluk.

As for the new committee’s role, Mr. Tenove says the key tasks are not overly onerous — essentially phone calls, paperwork, and praying for good weather.

Mr. Danyluk has some advice for the new hands. “Change things that need changing. But always remember: it’s just golf,” says Mr. Danyluk.

No worries there. The new committee has no plans to shake things up.

Says Andrew Poole, P.Eng., one of the three new organizers: “Despite the ruminations of Rene Levesque, sometimes the status quo is not a bad thing. This comes to mind as the annual APEGGA Golf Tournament in Red Deer turns a new page.

“Ron and Pat have done an outstanding job running the tournament. We rookies know we’ll have to be busy beavers, maintaining the high standards they’ve set.”

Mr. Poole makes special note of a new relationship with the APEGGA Education Foundation. The organizers are hoping to leverage the goodwill generated at the tournament to raise funds for the foundation and enhance its profile with APEGGA members.

At the 30th anniversary tournament, players donated $1,830 to the foundation, with $1,000 coming from a single APEGGA permit holder, Earth Tech. Extra contests brought in another $960.

Peter Chadwick, P.Eng., also on the new committee, says that the Red Deer Golf and Country Club’s course is the star. “It only gets better with age,” he says. “Each year participants jump at the opportunity to play the old gem on the banks of the Red Deer River.”

The third member of the organizing trio is Mike Damberger, P.Eng., a regular at the APEGGA tourney and this year’s low gross winner. “The prizes are enough to make Bob Barker blush,” he says. “All the golfers, especially those in the returning contingent, enjoy the friendly and sometimes fierce competition. The event is topped off with great food and hospitality from the club.”