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To hear Bill McDougall claim he didn’t want to experience a stroke was so out of character.
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Since following his grandmother on to the Wetaskiwin Golf Club at the age of four, the game became a part of his delightful persona.
“I fell in love with the game and still am,” said McDougall. “There were four of us kids and we had the golf course all to ourselves all day. It was great.”
He excelled. As a golf teacher.
Cancer sliced into his throat and then he had his left side paralyzed five years ago by a stroke.
“My apartment manager got into my place and told me he thought I was having a stroke,” McDougall.
“I said ‘No way. I’m not taking a stroke.’”
Everyone thought his teaching days — where he instructed close to 100,000 students — were over. Everyone, that is, except McDougall.
“I watch golf all day,” the 78-year-old said from his extended care center room where a raised TV is at the foot of his bed.
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“I need to do something. It only takes me five minutes to eat because I’m tube-fed now. I’ve never been able to sleep well — a few hours a night — so I watch The Golf Channel.
“I’m always thinking of new ways to hit the golf ball well.”
And that he did, carding a best-ever 68 at a Vancouver golf course “many years ago.”
But it was the thrill of teaching — to make players better — is what gives McDougall the accomplished feeling of raising his golf hat after an eagle on the 18th green.
“I love to see people really get in the game. And when they start loving the game they are not happy when they don’t play well. They feel like they wasted their day.
“So I try to put a smile on their face with a better golf swing.”
His work garnered him national acclaim. The PGA of Canada named him 1997 Teacher of The Year and he is only one of two Alberta golf pros to have the distinction of Master Professional from the PGA of Canada.
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A few months ago McDougall started using a power wheelchair. It gave him more independent mobility… and the chance to teach again.
“I don’t need to stand there and hit golf balls,” he said sternly. “What good would that do anybody?”
Two weeks ago McDougall called his old friend Kevin Hogan, head professional at Victoria Golf Course. “I’m ready to teach,” said McDougall. “Get me a plate.”
He now takes a wheelchair cab down to Victoria and teaches for eight hours, twice a week.
Word got out that the guy known as Billy Mac is back on the job. He teaches from his power chair.
“I have about eight students now, but I’d like a few more.” For further information call 780-993-3630.
“I love it,” he said, taking a thoughtful pause. “You know, I’m lucky to be alive.
“The guy upstairs was looking down on me.”
(To listen to the full McDougall interview please visit https://www.spreaker.com/episode/50908368)
