HIGH ACHIEVERS: Rideau View Golf Club’s Paul Sherratt leads next wave into OVGA Hall of Fame

By Martin Cleary

When Paul Sherratt was a young pre-teen living in Brantford, ON., his mother was a medical secretary for a local doctor, who enjoyed a regular round of golf in his free time.

One day, Sherratt was asked by his mom if he would like to caddy for the doctor and make a few dollars.

Sherratt was definitely keen about this new adventure. Little did he know, his introduction to golf would be the first step along a career path that he would cherish for more than 50 years.

While being a bag-carrying caddy doesn’t seem to exist on today’s courses like it did decades ago, Sherratt took a lot of steps and made five dollars here and there, when he got the opportunity over two years.

“If he (the doctor) wasn’t playing, I’d go to the course and sit with the other caddies. If I didn’t get beat up by the older boys, I may get a call to caddy,” Sherratt jokingly said in a phone interview this week.

He enjoyed playing the game as a teenager, but never in amateur tournaments. After studying accounting for two years at Mohawk College and spending a year hanging around with a university friend, he decided to look into the golf industry through the PGA of Canada.

The next thing Sherratt knew he was moving to Ottawa/Hull in 1973 to serve as an assistant professional under Tom Mann at the Royal Ottawa Golf Club. Four years later, he was on the move to the Rideau View Golf Club to be an assistant pro under Roger Dagenais.

Sherratt did his job so well he was promoted to Rideau View’s head pro in 1980 and 38 years later he announced his retirement in 2018 from that prestigious role. He was named Rideau View’s pro emeritus the next year.

Five years away from the hustle and bustle of his well-respected career at Rideau View, Sherratt was named last week as part of the fourth class of inductees into the Ottawa Valley Golf Association Hall of Fame.

The other inductees, who will be honoured this year as individuals or in a group depending on their travel schedules, include players Vera Charlebois of the Chaudière Golf Club, Stan Horne and Dwight Reinhart, both of the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club, and Lise Jubinville of the Carleton Golf and Yacht Club and Hylands Golf Club, as well as builders Jeff Bauder and Scott MacLeod of Flagstick Golf Magazine.

“I’ve had a spectacular career. I can’t imagine doing any better,” said a humble Sherratt, who struggled to find the right words about becoming a member of the OVGA Hall of Fame.

“I’m very honoured. I’m not sure how else to say it. It’s nice people thought your career was especially different in some way that it changed the path for people going forward.”

In 2019, Sherratt became only the 35th member of the PGA of Canada Hall of Fame, which was richly deserved based on his long-time commitment to serving the national association in a multitude of ways.

A class A professional, Sherratt was the PGA of Canada president in 1999 and 2000, and a member of the national board of directors for 11 years, including five years as the Ottawa Zone representative. He also was on the Ottawa Zone board for 15 years.

He was appointed by the PGA of Canada to be its representative on the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame Committee and was instrumental in the induction of legend Moe Norman into the hall.

As vice-president of the PGA of Canada in 1995, he wrote the association’s first five-year business plan, identifying critical issues facing the golf industry, determining strategies to improve the group’s viability and introducing action items and time frames.

Sherratt was named the Score club professional of the year on two occasions, was a nine-time Ottawa Zone award winner including five as club pro of the year, and earned the 2005 Jack McLaughlin junior leader of the year award for youth development across Canada.

In the early 1990s, he was part of a team that worked with Ferris State University to introduce the first pro golf management university program in Canada.

On the golf course, he also had his spotlight moments, winning the Ottawa Zone championship in 1984, the zone assistants’ title in 1976, and a variety of one-day, pro-am tournaments. In his first Canadian senior professional championship at age 50, he placed in the top 20.

VERA CHARLEBOIS
Chaudière Golf Club
Emerald Links Golf Club

For four decades (from the 1960s into the 1990s), Vera Charlebois was a dominant figure on the women’s amateur golf scene. Charlebois passed away last August.

She represented Quebec four times at the Canadian senior women’s championship (1982-84 and 1994) and placed third during the individual competition in her final year. On two occasions that qualified her for nationals, she was the Quebec senior women’s champion in 1982 and 1983.

Her Canadian Ladies Golf Association – Ottawa District resume is truly impressive. Charlebois was a four-time women’s champion (1970, 1975, 1976 and 1980) as well as a six-time senior women’s winner (1981, 1982, 1984, 1985 and 1992 with Chaudière and 1995 with Emerald Links). She also captured the Chaudière women’s club championship 22 times between 1967 and 1994.

When she put her clubs aside, Charlebois sat on executive committees at Chaudière and with the CLGA-Ottawa District and ended her golf career as a United States Golf Teachers’ Federation professional at Emerald Links, instructing, inspiring and mentoring golfers. Born in Smiths Falls, ON., she is a member of the town’s hall of fame.

STAN HORNE
Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club

Regarded as one of Canada’s first homebred and outstanding professional golfers, Stan Horne was a fierce competitor across Canada and throughout North America.

He was a touring pro for the Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club and captured the CPGA (now PGA of Canada) men’s championship for three consecutive years (1936-38) and was runner-up twice (1939 and 1941).

During his professional years at the Hunt Club and the Islesmere Golf Club (29 years), he worked with and inspired 33 assistant pros.

LISE JUBINVILLE
Carleton Golf and Yacht Club
Hylands Golf Club
Canadian Golf and Country Club

Team sports were Lise Jubinville’s focus when she lived in Winnipeg, whether it was softball, ringette, hockey or broomball. But for the past 21 years in Ottawa, she has etched a serious amateur career in golf, which is the only individual sport she has played.

Since 2003, Jubinville has won 17 individual championships as well as 20 team victories, including 19 of those with Brenda Pilon. Her resume also shows she has won club championships at Carleton, Hylands and Canadian golf clubs and has been the OVGA women’s Order of Merit winner for the past five years.

Her 2023 season was a classic as she won five titles – the OVGA city and district match-play, the OVGA Cup, the OVGA four-ball, the OVGA mixed alternate shot and the Ottawa Sun Scramble. She has captured five OVGA city and district medal championships, four OVGA city and district match-play titles and 13 Ottawa Sun Scramble competitions.

“Her calm and laid back demeanour helps keep my emotions in check and brings out the best in my game, allowing me to focus on the task at hand,” Pilon said in the OVGA press release. “Given her length off the tee, this usually means hitting a wedge into the green or sinking a putt.”

DWIGHT REINHART
Ottawa Hunt and Golf Club

After serving as the head professional at the Pine Falls Golf Club in Pine Falls, MB., Dwight Reinhart moved to the Ottawa Valley in 2000, took a similar role with the Renfrew Golf Club and started to make a name for himself.

He won the PGA of Ottawa Zone championship in 2000 and 2001. But he left the golf industry in 2005 to work as a sales representative outside of the golf industry.

When he regained his amateur status in 2007, he used his talented shot making to represent Quebec seven times at the Canadian mid-amateur championship and once at the national men’s amateur championship. In 2017, he was part of the winning Quebec team at the Canadian mid-amateur championship.

Reinhart is familiar with seeing his name at the top of the scoreboard, winning 11 OVGA, six Golf Quebec and five open championships between 2010 and 2023. Last season, he won the OVGA masters and city and district medal championships.

JEFF BAUDER and SCOTT MacLEOD
Flagstick Golf Magazine

For the past 28 years, Flagstick Golf Magazine has been the voice of golf news in Ottawa and the Ottawa Valley and has become well respected across Canada.

Jeff Bauder and Scott MacLeod have been the driving forces behind the magazine. Bauder is the founder of Bauder Media Group and the Flagstick publisher, while MacLeod is the associate publisher and editorial director.

Flagstick magazine not only has provided its readers with a wide variety of news items, but also has published stories about local golf figures, travel, equipment and instruction.

Bauder made the Ottawa Business Journal 40 Under 40 list of young entrepreneurs in 2010, is an honorary director of the PGA of Ottawa and has donated many championship trophies and awards to the OVGA and PGA of Ottawa.

MacLeod is a writer for Flagstick magazine, the Ontario Golf Digest and their associated social media platforms. In 2022, he won the Lorne Rubenstein Award for his journalistic efforts. A PGA of Canada class A professional, he is a vice-president of the Golf Journalists Association of Canada and a Golf Ontario volunteer committee member.