Lorimer out at ClubLink; MacLean's strange golf reference; new Pro:Files mag and Merch Show

Former ClubLink sales and marketing VP Charles Lorimer

I saw a tweet last night from Bob Weeks that suggested Charles Lorimer, the longstanding marketing and sales director, is out at ClubLink Corp. It wasn’t clear what the circumstances surrounding his departure are — and a ClubLink spokesman would only confirm that after 16 years Lorimer is gone. The spokesman says Lorimer is being replaced by Patrick Seward of Morguard, Rai Sahi’s real estate company. If this is to be believed, Seward worked directly for ClubLink baron Rai Sahi in business development. Doesn’t look like he has any direct golf experience, whereas Lorimer was a PGA of Canada pro. There are a lot of interesting rumblings around ClubLink these days — including a source that says the company has been contacting other private clubs about the potential of entering into management contracts (as opposed to lease and acquisitions, which it has done in the past.) In a tough golf market, I’m sure Sahi is up to something.

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Maclean’s magazine slammed two golf-related projects in a story entitled “99 stupid things the government spent your money on.” No.5 was this: “Sand trap: The City of Windsor spent $1 million to rebuild sand traps at the Roseland Golf and Curling Club, which the city owns.” Hard to imagine reworking a golf course’s bunkers ends up on a list of bad expenditures — especially since Roseland has long served as a cash cow for the city of Windsor. Like any cash cow, it needs capital improvements every so often. The city hired architect Paul Albanese to do the work — and there’s rumour a tournament will be heading to the course. For a better look at the project, check out this CBC story. Regardless, I’m betting the government pissed away significantly more money on some project that is far more ridiculous than Roseland’s bunkers. No one would in Canada would say, for instance, that building a new hockey arena was wasteful — even if it was.

Maclean’s also referenced the City of London’s River Road debacle. But in that case the city should have cut the money-losing course lose. 

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It’ll be a magazine most of you will never see. The PGA of Canada is launching Pro:Files — a magazine aimed at the PGA’s 3,800 members — and yours truly is editing it. It’ll be a hard trade magazine, discussing sales, marketing and best practices in a very competitive industry. The digital magazine won’t be seen by the public though — given the insider nature, it’ll only be available to PGA members. But I guarantee it’ll be good…

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I’m off to Orlando for a couple of days for my first PGA Merchandise show — mainly for Pro:Files, but also to do some freelance work. I’ll be sitting in on presentations by Scotty Cameron, Bob Vokey, Mark King of TaylorMade and others. I’ll be reporting back over the couple of days I’m down — though the whole thing already seems a bit overwhelming. It has been a number of years since I did a big trade show — I covered Comdex a couple of times when I was with the National Post — and I’m quite excited and a bit trepidatious, but at least I’ll be out of the Toronto rain and get to play some golf while I’m south.