Kyle Mulligan just hit a ball from the 18th tee at TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club that landed in Regina.
Mulligan announced his resignation as general manager of TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club late last week to pursue an opportunity to become the new general manager of the Royal Regina Golf Club. His last day with the Estevan course will be Jan. 27.
In order to accept the position at Royal Regina Golf Club, Mulligan has also resigned as an assistant coach with the Estevan Power Dodge Bruins. His last game with the hockey team will be the Bruins home date against the Melfort Mustangs on Jan. 28.
“An opportunity has come to me to further my career as a general manager and as a golf professional and the opportunity was one that I could not pass up,” said Mulligan, who has been the general manager at TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club since December 2014. “Estevan has been a great place for me. I've enjoyed the two seasons that I've been here. The members, the staff and all of the people of Estevan have been tremendous supporters and I can't thank everybody enough for what they've done for me and for my career here in Estevan and I'm going to miss it very much. It's been a very difficult decision and at the end of the day when a lifetime opportunity comes to you I just could not pass it up.”
Ward Tuttle, president of TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club, said Mulligan's resignation came as a surprise to the golf course's board of directors, but they understand the opportunity to move forward in the industry was too good to let pass and they wish him well on his endeavours. He said the board will post a listing for the general manager position with an anticipation that they will receive inquiries shortly.
“The one thing is with Kyle leaving he is going to be quite supportive of trying to assist with us in finding a replacement so that will be helpful as well,” said Tuttle. “But I would say our strategy will be to look to receive applications in the next 14 days to three weeks and hopefully by the time the AGM is held (in late February) we would have if not a pretty good idea of who the successful candidate is then perhaps even them hired by that point.”
Tuttle said a candidate with experience in operating a golf course would obviously present a tremendous benefit, but considering the strong management team they have in place, including head professional Amanda Minchin, food and beverage manager Tracy Tuchscherer and superintendent Bob Currie, a person with a good business skill set who is not as strong in golf would also be of interest.
“The fortunate thing if we had to look at it is basically all buying has been made for the new season, so we've got that side of it done,” he said. “Financially we go into the new year fairly sound so that's good and again we have a strong core team which to Kyle's credit he fostered and kept so I think we go into the season quite strong.”
Chris Lewgood, head coach and general manager of the Estevan Bruins, said Mulligan has been a huge addition to the team this season in terms of the intensity that he brings, his attention to detail and his availability to the club. He said it will be hard to not have him around every day, but they'll work as a committee to pick up the slack.
Tuttle noted Mulligan's major accomplishment with TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club over the past two years was reinvigorating the membership through building a relationship with the members and guests in terms of what they want to see in their golf course. He said they've seen a lot of new faces at the club as a result allowing them to maintain a fairly strong financial balance sheet and cash flow in the operations of the course despite it being a challenging economic time in Estevan and southeast Saskatchewan.
“Working with the staff who were there, the board of directors, I believe we've truly set the table for the TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club to have a tremendous future,” said Mulligan. “We were lucky enough and have worked really hard to achieve the 2015 PGA Saskatchewan Facility of the Year award. In 2016, our head professional Amanda Minchin won the Canadian Junior Leader award and that just goes to credit the things we were doing at the golf club.”
