Wayne Levy receives  A.G.(Toby)  MacMillan Award from PEIGA President Jean Kelly at 2008 Annual Meeting

2008 A.G. Toby MacMillan Award Citation for Wayne Levy

Wayne Levy started playing golf at age 8 at Brightwood Golf Club in Dartmouth and was a member of a number of courses over the years. His first involvement in any formal way in Administration was way back in Campbellton NB, about 40 years ago when he served for 2 years on both the match and Handicap and greens committees.

From there he spent a lot of time in travelling in jobs that didn’t allow much golf time until he ended up in Dartmouth where he belonged to Hartlen Point where he helped the Pro, Gerry MacMillan on the Junior Committee assisting with Junior clinics and running tournaments. His career then took him to Bathurst, N.B. where he served on the Board of Gowan Brae for 3 years as Match and Handicap Chairman, a member of the Green’s Committee and was also Club Captain for 2 years.

He then moved back to Halifax for a couple of years where he was on the road for his employer and then to Charlottetown almost 19 years ago when he first joined Belvedere. He can’t remember how many years ago it was when he approached by the PEIGA about the Bank sponsoring the PEI Amateur and Men’s Teams. An arrangement was concluded that remained in place for many years until after he retired. Our nominee was sorry to see this sponsorship stop but was glad to have been able to launch it.

Some years ago, Belvedere President Elaine Noonan approached him about serving on the Board at Belvedere which he did for two years and was then asked by the next President, Roddie Willis if he would offer as Vice-President which he did and after 2 years in that role, assumed the Presidency for two, what he calls,  “eventful years”. These years included  both hurricane Juan damage and the issue of the compaction layer in the greens at Belvedere on notably holes #’s 7 &13.

Just over two years ago, incoming PEIGA Executive Director Don Chandler met him in the local Superstore and mentioned an upcoming course rating seminar and asked him if he would be interested in taking the course and helping out the PEIGA in the area of course ratings.

After thinking about it, he agreed and then found out that the course was being conducted by Bill MacMillan who he had known way back in Hartlen Point days.

The PEIGA  at the time didn’t have anyone to head up Course Rating and, according to Don, Bill suggested that he approach our nominee to take on the Chairmanship of Course Ratings which he agreed to do.

A few years ago, things weren’t in very good shape in the area of Course Ratings but in the last couple of years with the co-operation of very committed teams of raters, they have been able to bring course ratings 100% up to date, establish an ongoing schedule of ratings to meet RCGA guidelines, implement proper record keeping and database procedures including multiple back-ups, and correct many outstanding errors/omissions  in the RCGA database.

Wayne also accepted the challenge and very capably performed the role of serving as non-playing Captain of the PEIGA Men’s Amateur Team the last two years in Saskatoon and Lethbridge.  In 2008, he was asked by Golf Digest to become one of their Course Rating Panellists, another volunteer position he now holds.

Wayne Levy is indeed a worthy recipient of the 2008 A. G, (Toby) MacMillan Award which is presented to the achiever of the year in recognition of outstanding individual contribution to golf on Prince Edward Island!

Wayne is now joining the 2009 Executive of the PEIGA to help continue his work in course ratings and to also assist in having all PEI clubs join the RCGA Network to provide on-line handicap and scoring capability to their members.