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“When I was six or seven… my mom
would drop me off at the course at 8

in the morning and pick me up at dark.
We’d play 36 or 54 holes.”

and chip and putt, or make up some long holes — like from
the fifth tee to the eighth green, for instance — when
things were quiet. Then I worked for Johnnie all through
my university days.”
In 1974, when McDiarmid was 20, he won the Grey
Owl, the other major tournament at Clear Lake, “but the
Tamarack was always a demon for me,” he said.
He played in his first men’s Tamarack at the age of 16
and, not surprisingly given his knowledge of the course,
qualified in the championship flight. “My first match was
against Barry MacKenzie of Winnipeg, one of the biggest
names in golf in Manitoba, an amateur champ and a
Willingdon Cupper.”
MacKenzie beat him that year, and Jack remembers an
early sequence of matches the following year, when he
was 17 and qualified in the third flight. “I played Bill
Davidson of Brandon in the first round (and won) and
then I had to play my dad.”
Those father-vs. son, mother vs. daughter, brother vs.
brother matches are not an unusual occurrence at a
Jack McDiarmid circa 1988 (above) and in 1979 (below).
family event like the Tamarack, but Jack recalls the
anxiety in taking on his father. “He beat me,” said Jack,
without a hint of regret in his voice.
McDiarmid reclaimed a spot in the championship flight
four years ago at the age of 60, an accomplishment of
which he was proud. Realistically, though, he had little
chance of championship success, he said. “I remember
Grant Coulter and I were in the same foursome playing a
couple of young guys in their mid-20s and on the fifth
hole, I busted a drive and was about 200 yards out. Grant
had about 195 left. Great drives. But the young guys we
were playing had about 150 or 160 left. It’s a different
game.”
During his prime, a 68 or 69 — four or three under par
— would be the pinnacle for the
Tamarack’s best amateurs, said McDiarmid. “Now they
(big-hitting young players) shoot 65 or 66 as a matter of
course.”
With his competitive fires still burning, McDiarmid said
he has acquiesced and will play in the Champion Men’s
division this year for the first time. At age 64, he has
nothing to be ashamed of. He’ll find himself up against
players he battled 20 and 30 years ago. The competition
will be keen and the stories will be old, perhaps, but the
laughs and the good times will be as genuine as ever.
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