History of the Steinbach Golf Club

The original golf course on the old fairgrounds west of Loewen Windows was built by an energetic group of sportsmen headed by Edwin Regehr starting in 1954. The nine-hole layout was carved out of a piece of flat grass, which doubled as a makeshift airstrip for Steinbach pilots of the day.

Green fees were collected on the honour system in a small metal box mounted on a post beside the first tee. Before teeing off a golfer would lift the lid, sign in, pick up a scorecard and deposit the suggested green fee in the slot provided.

Today’s championship course is a monument to the perseverance of those first golf club members whose course was more functional than fashionable and came very close to being abandoned before the sport had a chance to take off.

Few 20 or so original investors had the time to take an active role in the operation of the course and by 1957 even the most tireless promoter of the game had lost hope.

Regehr pointed out that while Emerson, Carman and Winkler all boasted successful golf courses, Steinbach’s problem was there weren’t enough people willing to do the work. But before shelving the project altogether every potential golfer on a list of 72 were again contacted. A meeting was called, an action plan presented, an executive elected and the rest, as they say, is history.

Edwin Regehr was re-elected president and joining him on the executive were vice president Ernie Neufeld, secretary-treasurer Ralph Taylor and Bob Loewen, Frank Klassen and Richard Kliewer.

All that needed to be done to start playing again in 1957 was to oil the putting surfaces, put up a few new signs and maintain the fairways. A ready corporate sponsor stepped forward to help with the latter when J.R. Friesen and Son agreed to supply a tractor for mowing. This would need to be done about two dozen times during the season and represented the major portion of golf course upkeep costs.

Golfers played on that first course for more than a decade before car dealer A.D. Penner came up with his dream of a first class golf course, which today is a reality.

Today the picturesque Steinbach course crisscrosses a winding creek with the front nine tucked into the back of an upscale housing development and park. The finishing hole is next to the paved airport runway which was very much part of A.D.’s vision. In between the two nines nestles a fashionable and functional timber frame clubhouse boasting a first class restaurant.

The 18-hole layout is a tribute to the men whose names are on a patrons’ plaque on the monumental rock near the first tee. Without their stepping forward and opening up their chequebooks the ambitious vision of the Steinbach Fly-In Golf Course would never have got off the ground.

A.D. rounded up a group of like thinkers and began construction of a golf course in the late 1960s. His idea was to create a course where people could fly in, play a round of golf and then fly out again—-after purchasing a car or two of course. But building a golf course is one thing and running it successfully is another altogether and here it is that the executive and staff (paid and volunteer) come to the fore, year after year.

Today, some 50 years later, television watching and more active leisure pursuits like golf are still competing for equal time with the young crowd.

The original Steinbach golf course appeared with little fan fare in an era when work and not play was the top priority. It was created as a source of pride for a growing community to be enjoyed by a relatively few. Steinbach may have been dubbed the automobile city way back in the 1950’s but today the city is just as well known for its championship golf course and the Mennonite Heritage Village next to it. Both are reminders of the hard work of earlier generations.

That brand new swimming pool next to the golf course and the T.G. Smith arena complex downtown are also helping to make the city a recreation destination rather than just a great place to live.

by Wes Keating