4 long-time Golf Canada contributors obtain the group’s highest volunteer honour
Golf Canada is happy to nominate speedy previous president David McCarthy together with Diane Barabé, Robert Laing and Teri Yamada (posthumously) as Honorary Life Governors for the excellent contributions to the group as long-time volunteers.
“On behalf of the Honorary Life Governors Choice Committee, we’re happy to welcome 4 people whose unimaginable contributions have made a long-lasting legacy on each the sport of golf and on Golf Canada,” stated Roland Deveau, Chair, Honorary Life Governors Choice Panel. “David, Diane, Rob and Teri are actually deserving of this prestigious honour, and we thank them for his or her dedication to the sport and to Golf Canada.”
The appointment of a person as an Honorary Life Governor is the best honour which will be bestowed upon Golf Canada volunteers. All Previous Presidents of Golf Canada together with the previous Canadian Girls Golf Affiliation are Honorary Life Governors.
In 2020, a change to Golf Canada’s by-laws permitted people who usually are not previous presidents to be named as Honorary Life Governors. Since then, Golf Canada has welcomed Barb Allen and Jim Clark (2022), Mike Richards and Pat Thompson (2023) and Doug Roxburgh (2024) as Honorary Life Governors.
Honorary Life Governors have a person vote at Golf Canada’s Annual and Particular Normal Conferences. The choice panel will contemplate the general service file of these nominated together with native, regional, nationwide and worldwide service with prime consideration for service to Golf Canada. As well as, size and degree of service are additionally considered.
David McCarthy – Toronto, Ont.
David McCarthy most just lately served two consecutive phrases as president of Golf Canada (2023 and 2024). He has been a volunteer with Golf Canada for greater than 20 years throughout varied committees, councils, and championships. McCarthy joined Golf Canada’s Board of Administrators in 2018 after having beforehand served on the Governors Council from 2014 to 2018.
As well as, McCarthy sat on the Governance and Skilled Championships Committees and was the Chair of the Audit and Threat Administration Committee. He was the Golf Canada Match Chair for the 2019 and 2022 RBC Canadian Open and was the Match Chair for the 2017 Males’s Canadian Beginner Championship. McCarthy has been a starter for quite a few RBC Canadian Opens and the CPKC Ladies’s Open in addition to a starter and scorer for quite a few newbie championships and USGA Qualifiers. He has additionally supplied authorized counsel to Golf Canada and the Golf Canada Basis for over a decade.
McCarthy is a member of the Donalda Golf & Nation Membership, the St. Andrews Golf Membership, and the Royal & Historic Golf Membership of St Andrews.
Diane Barabé – Granby, Que.
Diane Barabé has been an lively volunteer with Golf Canada since 1997 and her involvement with the previous Canadian Girls Golf Affiliation (CLGA) dates to the early 1990’s. Notably, Barabé has served in important governance roles with Golf Canada, together with as the primary girl to behave as Chair of Golf Canada’s Guidelines and Beginner Standing Committee and function Canada’s consultant on the Joint Guidelines of Golf Committee. Sitting with representatives of the Royal and Historic (R&A) and the USA Golf Affiliation (USGA), this worldwide physique is liable for governing the principles of golf for the world.
She was concerned as Captain of the Jap Township part of the CLGA from 1994 to 2001 and later turned Chair of the CLGA Guidelines Committee (Quebec department) in 2003 – 2004, and chair of the Guidelines Committee of Golf Quebec, after the merger with the lads’s part (2008 to 2011). She has served on the Golf Canada Guidelines and Beginner Standing Committee for nearly 20 years, together with because the Chair from 2017 to 2020. She has participated as a referee at numerous nationwide and worldwide occasions, together with the U.S. Open (males’s and ladies’s) – the Masters, the Open Championship, the PLAYERS Championship, and the World Beginner. Her data, expertise and dedication allowed her to develop shut hyperlinks on behalf of Canada with golf associations all through the world, notably the R&A, the USGA, the PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour.
All through her tenure on the Golf Canada Guidelines and Beginner Standing Committee, she was very lively in selling guidelines schooling each on the nationwide and provincial degree. Barabé continues to be lively instructing guidelines workshops and at referee faculties. She has been Chair of Golf Canada’s Guidelines Translation sub-committee for the final a number of years and has been a driving pressure in translating the Guidelines of Golf and the Official Information, a major process which requires numerous hours yearly. She additionally served on Golf Canada’s Governors Council for a number of years and whereas she continues lively involvement with Golf Canada, she has come full circle as president of the Jap Township regional golf affiliation of Golf Quebec, the place all of it started some 30 years in the past.
Robert (Rob) Laing – West Vancouver, British Columbia:
Rob Laing has served Golf Canada for greater than twenty years throughout varied volunteer capacities. Along with being a member of varied committees (a number of of which he has chaired), Laing has fulfilled vital governance roles, together with as a member of Golf Canada’s Governors Council and the previous RCGA Board of Governors.
Laing has additionally represented Golf Canada internationally. First, as Chair of Beginner Standing Committee from 2010 to 2014, he represented Canada on the R&A Beginner Standing Committee. Together with associated conferences of the R&A and USGA Joint Guidelines of Beginner Standing Committee, he performed an vital position with the worldwide physique which governs and units the Guidelines of Beginner Standing for the golf world.
Laing is an achieved newbie golfer and was Non-Taking part in Captain for Canada on the 2010 World Junior Championship. Along with chairing varied Golf Canada nationwide championships, Laing additionally acted as Chair of the RBC Canadian Open (2011) and Co-chair of the CPKC Ladies’s Canadian Open (2012).
Teri Yamada – Collingwood, Ontario (posthumously):
Certainly one of Canadian golf’s main voices in agronomy, turfgrass and environmental analysis, Teri Yamada served the Canadian golf business for practically 40 years, together with the previous 16 years as proprietor of TY Environmental Strategic Ltd. supporting golf programs’ use of science to reduce their environmental influence. She was a number one voice within the agronomic and enterprise evaluation of golf course operations and specialised in authorities relations, business communication and decoding advanced scientific data.
Yamada spent 18 years with the Royal Canadian Golf Affiliation (now Golf Canada) throughout a number of senior management roles. She served because the affiliation’s match agronomist for Nationwide Open and Beginner Championships, working with host golf equipment and their superintendents to arrange and situation golf programs internet hosting all nationwide championships.
Yamada returned to Golf Canada as a volunteer in 2021, serving three years a member of the Governance Committee, two years as a member of the Governors Council (2022-2023) and two years on the Human Assets Committee. In 2023, she joined Golf Canada’s Board of Administrators changing into one of many few people to have served the affiliation in each a workers and Board of Administrators capability. She was additionally one in all three Canadian ladies members of The Royal and Historic Golf Membership in St Andrews, Scotland.
Yamada handed away peacefully on January 8, 2025, after a short sickness and that is the primary posthumous honour bestowed by the Honorary Life Governor Choice Panel.
