One task which sprang from the introduction of Gender Equity was converting the Bylaws to reflect the changes. The urgency of the task led to its accomplishment in the usual way – adding patches to the existing pages of Bylaws.

 

In 2007 the Board, under President Bob Doell, commissioned revisions “to bring brevity and clarity to the current Bylaws and eliminate any confusion caused by redundant, outdated or conflicting language.”

 

The Board asked the Club’s Honorary Solicitor, Alan Emery Q.C., a former President of the Board, to undertake the mammoth job of rewriting them. Emery’s methodology, as he explained at a Special General Meeting in January 2008, was “to clean up the patchwork of Bylaws that had evolved over the last 50 years and reduce the number of regulations in the Bylaws which he felt should best be left to the Board of the Day.” 

 

After much constructive input from many Members, the final decision to adopt the new Bylaws was postponed until April to allow consideration of this input. Mr. Emery made changes to his draft which satisfied the Members and the resolution to adopt the new Bylaws was passed unanimously.

No single family has contributed more to the Victoria Golf Club than the Todd Family, and it is a fitting honour that the Clubhouse Conference Room now bears the family name.

The ‘dynasty’ began with Charles Todd in 1895 who negotiated the rental of the land to the east of Beach Drive with the Pemberton family. From that moment on, he played a vital role in seeing that the golf course would never be subject to subdivision for housing, even purchasing the land himself and renting it to the Golf Club.

“For many years Charles Todd and Fred Pemberton made themselves responsible for the beautification of the golf links. They, and several others, had donated shrubs and trees. Todd was an exceptionally generous member and presented the Club with many items including the periscope that used to be at the 13th hole when it was a blind drive to the hole, stormograph, the weather vane on top of the flagpole and an expensive combination radio-gramophone for inside the Clubhouse.”

Charles Todd’s son, Ernie, continued his father’s generosity to the Club, but along rather different lines. He supported the Club Pro Phil Taylor in his frequent searches for leading professionals to come and play at Victoria, often supplying a purse of $3,000 - $5,000. Many of these matches raised money during W.W.II for charitable causes like the Red Cross or the Great Ormond Street Hospital. In 1935 he donated the two granite pillars through which every vehicle entering the Club’s main car park from Beach Drive must pass. Nearly 75 years later, two security gates, will connect the two pillars at night.

 

Jack Todd was Ernie’s son and a strong enough golfer to play in the B.C. Amateur Championship which was held at VGC in 1939. He had inherited his father’s interest in trees and bushes suitable for the windy conditions of the links, and in 1943 became a member of a new committee responsible for beautification of the course. Colonel Parker, the Club Secretary, recalled:

Of more recent years, Jack Todd has given many trees and bushes and has helped the Committee in placing them to best advantage. It is thanks to his interest and experience that the Austrian Black Pine has been found to be the most suitable tree to flourish in the difficult climatic conditions of salt and wind so prevalent on the Links.

Jack’s sister, Marjorie, was a very fine golfer and one of the first lady power hitters at VGC. In 1935, she partnered the home Pro Phil Taylor in their 2-up victory over Joyce Wethered and the Colwood Pro. She played as an amateur in championships all over North America, and at Tampa Bay in 1949 met “Babe” Zaharias  and persuaded her to come to play at Victoria. Marjorie was a regular competitor in the Totem Pole Tournaments in Alberta, and represented B.C. several times on the Inter-Provincial Team.

Jack’s wife, Margaret (Sutcliffe) Todd was another “incredibly powerful hitter” and her list of golfing achievements shows her clearly as one of the leading amateur lady golfers of her era:

From Macan’s: 14 times VGC Ladies Champion

 

1940 to 1974	11 times Victoria City & District Champion 7 times Jasper Totem Pole Champion 8 times B.C. Inter-Provincial Ladies Team Member (including winning the Cup for B.C. in 1955)
1947 & 1948	B.C. Ladies Champion
1975 & 1976	B.C. Senior Ladies Champion
1976 & 1977	Canadian Senior Ladies Champion
1980 & 1982	Victoria & District Senior Ladies Champion 8 times B.C. Senior Inter-Provincial Team Member
1974	Inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame
1997	Inducted into the Victoria Sports Hall of Fame
2001	Inducted into the B.C. Golf Hall of Fame
2007	Received University of Victoria Sports Award for her life-long contribution to many areas of golf.
2008	Inducted into Univ. of Victoria Athletics Hall of Fame

 

Derek Todd, a close relative and contemporary of Jack’s, has also been a stalwart supporter of the VGC. His copious diaries have recorded Club events which have happened in his lifetime, and his prodigious memory has supplied many stories with corroborative detail.

 

That one family should have contributed their collective talents to one golf club over more than a century is remarkable. The Victoria Golf Club wishes to acknowledge its good fortune in having such generous and talented people as Members.

The Victoria Golf Club has always been sympathetic towards fundraising requests for the use of the course, particularly during the the two World Wars. It is a tricky tightrope for the Board to walk, balancing its desire to help others with its responsibility to Members who expect to be able to use the course as usual. With the enormous increase in charitable fundraising over the past quarter century the Board adopted a policy of limiting the number of charities it would support, but would try very hard to assist them each year. In 2009 these are the VGC Ladies’ Charity Tournament to benefit the Victoria Women’s Transition House and the Men’s Rotary Conquer Cancer Classic. The latter is a competition using the courses at Victoria, Uplands, Gorge Vale and Royal Colwood, with each club taking its turn to host the evening meal.

 

Occasionally, a “Special Event” will occur, as happened in 2003 and 2004. The three Courtnall brothers, Russ, Geoff and Bruce – all Members of the club, and well-known for their professional hockey careers – organised two weekend tournaments which raised $2.1 million for a mental health research centre. Wayne Gretzky, Pamela Anderson, Kid Rock and Keifer Sutherland led dozens of hockey and ‘show biz’ stars in what became known as The Courtnall Celebrity Classic.

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