Some have called Confederation Country Club a little gold mine.
That's because Ray Stout, a former bank manager, his wife Louise and daughter Julie have themselves a bustling little family business.
Nine-hole Confederation, on the outskirts of Sarnia near Wyoming, attracts a minimum of 18,000 golfers every season. It also has 200 members.
"I don't know if I'd say that," Ray Stout says of the gold-mine reference. "Put it this way. I'd rather not sell it. Yes, it is a nice little retirement business."
The Stouts purchased the course in 2000 from Isobel Hall. The timing couldn't have been better. Stout, 59, a life-long banker who received "the golden handshake" in 1994, had been cutting grass at several courses, including Hickory Ridge in London.
He says he has always had a passion for golf, and when he heard through an acquaintance Hall was looking to sell the club in 1999, he jumped.
Isobel Hall and her late husband Irv built and opened Confederation in 1965. Irv Hall passed away in the mid-1970s.
As Stout remembers it, Isobel Hall was working on a deal with Gord Nimo, a well-known Sarnia golf course superintendent who currently operates the Holiday Inn Par 3 course. Stout says that when that deal fell apart, a mutual acquaintance put him in touch with Isobel Hall.
Even as he is nearing 60, Stout just loves the golf business and the hard work.
"I'm the envy of friends," he says. "I have been hanging around golf courses since I was 10 years old and to actually end up living your passion is fantastic.
"Weekly, I easily spend 70 hours here cutting grass and doing whatever needs to be done. I'm here at six in the morning and go home at 10 at night.
"That's not a complaint. I knew that going into this business. I used to work 70 hours a week for a former employee and that was not fun. This is fun."
The work days are typical. If you can't find Stout cutting grass or working on his bunkers, he is moving a pump to help drain standing water or fixing equipment.
While he's doing that, his wife and daughter are just as busy in the clubhouse selling green fees, drinks and flipping burgers.
Confederation is the type of course where the owner has to overlook female golfers showing up in high heels or males wearing their hats backwards.
"I'm a golf traditionalist," says Stout, who as a kid caddied for Marlene Streit back home at Lookout Point Country Club in Fonthill, near Welland. "People come in muscle shirts and that kind of stuff. We try to enforce the dress code but it's much different in 2004 than it was years ago. We appreciate that and turn a blind eye to many things.
"But if you want to wear a halter top, go to the beach."
Confederation's par is 35 and the nine holes measure 2,850 yards from the tips. In the spring, it plays its full length but come summer -- drought season -- the course tends to play hard and fast.
As a result, Stout is thinking about the expense of adding irrigation on some fairways. The tees and greens are watered. The clubhouse, though practical, is small and old and the Stouts have been looking at other clubhouses around the area to come up with ideas to build their own.
Source: London Free Press (Ontario, Canada)