This might just be the only time of year that golfers see Canada Geese V’ing overhead and don’t have the urge to aim an imaginary shotgun at the flock.
Spring brings gentler dispositions.
“Welcome back old foes. We’ll look for your calling cards on the greens.”
Whenever I see geese near a golf course, I think of this story:
The year was 1986 and a young PGA pro named Brian Sanderson was early in a career that would span more than twenty years with BOYNE. Brian had been receiving complaints from guests about the geese that had decided to call the 18th hole of the Alpine Course home. Brian took the matter to BOYNE’s founder and owner Everett Kircher.
Mr. Kircher was many things and nothing if not complex. He was a business force, inventor, avid outdoorsman, jet pilot, philanthropist and (his favorite title) a great fly-fisherman. He is also credited with starting the golf boom in Northern Michigan.
His solution was as quick as it was simple.
“If we want to get rid of those geese we just have to shoot one. The rest will get the message and that will be the last of it.”
This was a logical response from a no-nonsense man who had hunted the world over. Visitors to BOYNE will still find many of his exotic trophies decorating the walls of the resorts. There was one hitch that no one would have expected.
Mr. Kircher had a conflicted relationship with these Canada Geese.
Mr. K instructed Sanderson to meet him at the course early the next morning. Morning came and Sanderson drove a golf cart out to Mr.K’s car. They loaded a shotgun and the two began to drive out to #18. As they drove there Sanderson noticed Mr. K had grown quiet.
“He dropped his chin to his chest the way Everett always did when he was deep in thought.”
“I just can’t do it…” Everett said. “I re-introduced these geese to this area in 1949. There are two families at the resort here. For 40 years they have been coming back. I can tell the two groups apart. Did you know that they stay together for life? I still recognize some of these individual geese year after year...In a funny way, it's like they're family.”
They sat in the cart and reflected on the flock in the early morning light. After a short time they turned around and got on with their days. Brian would have to think of other ways to thwart the geese.
Those two flocks of geese continue to return to Boyne Mountain. From time to time you might even catch a few straggling on #18 Alpine. Like us, they can thank Mr. Everett Kircher for creating something worth returning to again and again.
It's seven days till Tee Day. Gather your flock and get here.
-JJ
