Odds ‘n’ Sods: The birth of the Smithers Exploration Group’s annual golf tournament

VANCOUVER – Exploration in northwestern B.C. was firing in 1972, and many explorers used services out of the small community of Smithers, B.C. This group included Nick Carter, who was with the B.C. Department of Mines and Petroleum Resources at the time, and Tom Schroeter, a geologist with Amoco Minerals.

The pair were enjoying a round of golf in town during a much-needed break from exploration work when they hatched a plan to organize a golf tournament to celebrate the end of a busy field season.

“The lure of the event was to involve the community in Smithers so they could understand what exploration was all about and meet the people who were involved,” Schroeter tells The Northern Miner over lunch in a downtown Vancouver pub. “It was open to anybody who wanted to attend, and possibly win some great prizes the local suppliers had donated.”

On the day of the tournament, Schroeter was stuck on a drill job in the Babine swamps and had given up all hope in making the event, when a helicopter landed and the pilot signaled for him to come on board.

He was immediately transported to Smithers where he joined the small group of golfers, which included Carter, Paul Plicka, Gerry Auger, Merv Tew and Jim Gunn.

He notes the nine-hole golf course featured sand greens, known as ‘browns,’ whereby contestants smoothed out their line of putt by using pieces of carpet attached to 2-by-4 handles, and did whatever they had to do to get the ball moving.

 

Schroeter explains that Tew had made a “unique trophy” with an empty bottle of Hennessy cognac flanked by two empty cans of Uncle Ben’s beer perched on top of a wood base. Plicka came in first place, ranked by a modified “Callaway Handicap System,” whereby the person with the lowest net score won.

Word of the tournament quickly spread around the exploration community, and in 1973 the number of golfers increased to 25, among others who attended the “derailment” party at the Devil’s Web — a local hot spot.

While the camaraderie between explorers reached new heights, the future for the industry began to diminish, as the New Democratic Party government took its toll on exploration and mining in the province. Schroeter changed jobs and became the district geologist for northwest B.C. with the B.C. Department of Mines and Petroleum Resources based in Smithers, alongside Carter, who was his boss based in Victoria.

At the time, they recognized that something needed to be done to keep the industry in the northwest parts of the province moving. They decided to form the Smithers Exploration Group (SEX) — later changed to the acronym SEG in 1995 — to help educate the public about mining and exploration for the sustainability and economic well-being of northern communities.

(To this day, the SEG has grown to offer field trips, short courses, conferences and numerable social events. It also publishes an annual exploration and mining directory list, which is considered the gold standard for industry directories in B.C., and can be found at www.smithersexplorationgroup.com).

In 1974, perseverance paid off and the tournament grew to 52 participants, but attendance the next year wasn’t as prolific, as exploration activity in the region waned.

Only 15 “hearty souls” made it to the event, including one geologist who “ambitiously set out to win it all,” Schroeter says.

“We wanted to keep the tournament fun and fair, so we were careful to ensure talented players were handicapped by being placed with ‘boisterous’ teammates that offered plenty of distractions,” he laughs, pointing to the glass of beer beside him. “Later that day, this particular individual was seen strapped to his golf cart and later to a tree outside the clubhouse just to keep him propped up — it was like a scene out of Weekend at Bernie’s. Needless to say, he not only didn’t win, he didn’t even finish!”

He continues that “one of the other contestants lost his pants somewhere along the course, but he was wearing the biggest grin, and that’s what mattered most.”

By 1976, a new pro-mining government was in place in B.C. and the event flourished once more, rising to 30 golfers and a number of spectators. Weaving through the lively crowd was a horse loaded with saddlebags full of “liquid refreshments,” Schroeter adds.

“The night before the tournament we went to the hotel, which had strippers at the time. There was a performing lady there called ‘Venus Angel,’ and we all joked that it would be neat if we invited her to be the ‘queen of the golf day.’ A few minutes later, an older gentleman in our group got up and said he was going to go ask her, but we didn’t think much of it. The next day, I was the first to arrive at the course when I see a car coming down the road. As they got closer I could see the older gentleman behind the wheel, on his far side is Venus Angel, and wedged in between them — could you imagine — is his wife. It was just hilarious,” he says.

Schroeter recalls another participant in 1977 who flew to Smithers in a plane he rented in Vancouver, which had a huge shark jaw painted on the front. He buzzed the crowd before the game started and eventually took his place as one of the contestants.

One of his teammates arrived late — he had been out staking claims down by Houston, a “nice molybdenum target,” Schroeter adds, but never finished the staking because “he wanted to come back early and play some golf.”

“Wayne and his crew were toting their golf clubs still dressed in their cruiser vests, with red claim tags hanging out of their pockets,” he says. “But the real story began after the game when we were walking together to the nightclub. Out of nowhere two patrol cars convened upon us and said they were taking us to the station for interrogation.”

The officers suspected the group had vandalized a school bus, which happened to be in the same vicinity where they were walking.

“Wayne insisted they record every claim tag number in their pocket because they had to go back the next morning and stake the rest of the claims,” he says. “After we proved we were harmless, we finally left the station at 2 a.m. So Wayne couldn’t resist naming one of the claim groups ‘Jailbird.’”

In 1982, J.T. Thomas Drilling hosted a champagne breakfast for participants and other locals, which Schroeter says got everyone “geared up for the day.” (This annual event continued until 2001, when Hy-Tech Drilling took over hosting the event.)

The same year, Bob Karrer created a new trophy for the annual golf tournament, made out of various pieces of drilling equipment that included a drill bit and wrench, mounted on a steel base.

“It took 38 hours of welding to create this masterpiece, and it certainly caught the attention of everyone, including staff and members of the golf club,” he recalls.

The original tournament winner trophy, Schroeter says, provided a “fitting award” to honour the late Gerry Auger, given to the participant “who had the most fun.”

In the late-1980s, exploration was booming and attendance at the event flourished. Prizes were offered under a number of categories, including relapse recovery, loudest participant, best costume, “too” much fun and whoever had the longest club throw.

In 1995, a brand new clubhouse greeted the participants, including miners from the new high-grade gold-silver Eskay Creek mine. The clubhouse offered a dry reprieve the following year, which happened to be held on one of the coldest and wettest days they had seen in quite some time.

“It was our largest turnout, with 95 people,” he says. “The new, warm and dry clubhouse was certainly appreciated that year. Many prizes were awarded and everyone nailed it at karaoke.”

Schroeter says that aside from weather, nature had other ways of dealing “unexpected” challenges to contestants.

“There was a cheeky fox who kept stealing golf balls one year,” he says. “He would hunch down near the green, run out, grab the ball and take off. Lord knows why,” he laughs. “The crows were known to steal the golf balls, but this fox posed a whole new problem.”

In 2012, the Joyce Warren Memorial Award was instituted to recognize her contributions and commitment to ensuring a successful golf tournament.

Schroeter explains that Warren was an integral part of the exploration business, providing expediting services for companies in the north since the mid-1970s.

The initial recipients of this award were Schroeter and Carter in recognition of their dedication, enthusiasm, energy and high spirits in making the annual tournament a success.

Schroeter says that between 1972 and 2015, over 2,500 people have participated in the golf tournaments, with another 650 people attending the festivities. He notes that anyone involved or interested in mining in B.C. can still participate in this mid-September event hosted by the SEG in Smithers.

In April 1973, April 1974 and May 1992, the mining communities of Victoria, Kamloops (hosted by Kamloops Exploration Group) and Vancouver (hosted by the Association of Mineral Exploration B.C.) initiated golf days for the same purposes as the Smithers’ tournament.

— Written with the assistance of Tom Schroeter and Nick Carter.