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Article_Jerrett_Layout 1 18-07-19 5:27 PM Page 1
Drums up win in
By Bruce Penton
W hen the sad day finally comes, Jerry
Jerrett will die a happy man.
“My only ambition in life was to win that
tournament,” said Jerrett, now 88, talking
about the annual Clear Lake golf tournament
that’s now known as the Tamarack. “I finally did
it in 1959.”
Jerrett grew up in Brandon but said the Clear
Lake track “was my home course” because his
parents owned a photo store at Wasagaming
and the family spent its summers there. “My life
revolved around that course,” he said.
Jerrett, who plays a few rounds these days at
Wildwood in Winnipeg, played in his first Clear
Lake men’s open at the age of 14. “They had
only men’s and women’s then,” he said, “but
they let juniors play, too. I remember I shot 99
and was in the fifth or sixth flight. The next year,
I shot 89 and was overjoyed. But I played in that
tournament every year and just loved it.”
Jerrett’s strong suit was his accuracy off the
tee and his short game. Long-time Clear Lake
pro Johnnie Lawrence told Jerrett the key to
putting was to use a pendulum stroke on the
greens and it paid off. He shot a medal score of
73 in the 1959 final against Bob Gray, a
Willingdon Cupper from Winnipeg, and won
the match on the 16th hole.
The men’s final was a major event, recalls
Jerrett. Spectators numbering in the hundreds
would follow the championship match and
newspaper coverage of the tournament in
Brandon and Winnipeg treated the Tamarack
as they would a major sports event. “I
remember in the final against Gray, we were on
the 15th green and I looked back and the top
of the hill was just jammed with carts. It was a Jerry Jerrett in 1965 (top), when they analyze the results of the weekly
big deal to win the Tamarack.” and 1966 (bottom).
Jerrett qualified in the the championship
flight a few more times but was unable to nab
a second title.
Lawrence was a major influence on Jerrett’s love for the couple of weeks in August.
game. When the young Jerrett wasn’t playing, he was
caddying for 75 cents a round, or shagging balls for Lawrence my kids to spread my ashes in the creek on 17,” he said. “Then
during his private lessons, staged at the bottom of the I can spend my time laughing at everybody hitting the water.”
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fairway on No 9 with balls flying back toward
the tee. “If one of Johnny’s lessons didn’t show
up, he’d give me the lesson,” said Jerrett.
Shagging balls for the pro was more lucrative,
said Jerrett. It paid 50 cents an hour “and I liked
it better because I didn’t have to carry a bag.”
Jerrett, who was a YMCA director in
Winnipeg and later an employee of Child and
Family Services during his working years, spent
his first 23 years in Brandon. His father was a
professional photographer whose shop was a
downtown staple. He recalls travelling to
Winnipeg with former Brandon pro Bill
Thompson for the Manitoba Open one year
and on the way home, after not scoring very
well, he told Thompson one thing that would
cheer him up would be to win the Kinsmen Car
Draw at the Brandon Summer Fair. “Well,
wouldn’t you know it, we had the radio on and
they announced the winner of the car draw was
Jerry Jerrett of Brandon. That sure brightened
my day.”
Jerrett drove his prize, a 1952 Chevrolet
DeLuxe, for one year, and then sold it for
$2,000.
He was also somewhat of a musician, playing
drums in a band, the Jerry Jerrett Quartet, and
recalls that he was given free admission to
Danceland at Clear Lake if he promised the
doorman he’d sing with that night’s band.
These days, Jerrett says he plays golf only
occasionally and usually shoots in the 90s (not
bad for an 88-year-old) and still hits it straight.
His short game — “a little shaky these days” —
has let him down. He remains close with the
Lawrence family, and talks to Johnnie’s
daughter, Heather (a golf pro, too), every week
PGA Tour event.
Jerrett doesn’t get up to Clear Lake often
anymore, although he hopes to visit the
Lawrences when the family gets together this summer for a
And for eternity, Jerrett will remain in Clear Lake. “I’ve told