While some golf course owners cry the blues over May flurries, Scott Atkinson is taking a page out of superstar golfer Tiger Woods’ playbook.

He is practising the power of positive thinking, and on this day, it is no small task.

In the boardroom at The Links of GlenEagles, just seven days after purchasing the picturesque layout at Cochrane, Atkinson seats himself with his back to a picture window showcasing an unseasonable view of his prized course blanketed in snow.

And not once during an hour-long interview does the upbeat Atkinson allow himself to focus on a view that could dampen the enthusiasm of even the most eternal of eternal optimists.

Instead, the Calgary entrepreneur, whose family-owned business has owned and operated HeatherGlen Golf Course on the east end of Calgary since 1991, chooses to feast his eyes on the magnificent lush-green wall portraits of GlenEagles flaunting its character and beauty.

1. What was your boyhood dream?

“It was to build houses, and I did that when I first came to Calgary in 1981. Being an entrepreneur, I’m an anomaly. I guess it (entrepreneurism) came from my mom’s roots, because she was from a farming background and there are a lot of entrepreneurs on her side of the family. That’s probably where the seed was sown.”

2. What was your first job?

“Other than paper routes – I had three of them – my first job was renovating a house for my neighbour in North Vancouver when I was 16. I had a bit of background in woodwork, but I just sort of dived into that.”

3. What did your 10-year career as a realtor prior to getting into the golf business teach you?

“What it didn’t teach me was managing people. What it did teach me probably was everything you need to know about running a business, everything from negotiating contracts to setting goals.” 4. So you learned about managing people in your 11 years as owner and general manager of HeatherGlen?

“Yes, and I have the scars to prove it. That was a tremendous challenge. I always assumed people would be as focused and excited about going forward and doing things as I would be. But you have to work very hard to find those people. I assumed that because I wanted to grow and become better, everyone else would want to grow and become better. And it’s even tougher finding those people in a seasonal business because you can only hire so many full-time people.”

5. What trait do you think has had the most to do with your success?

“Perseverance. Absolutely perseverance. This deal (purchase of GlenEagles) was perseverance. Getting through HeatherGlen was perseverance. I don’t consider myself to be that much smarter than anybody else, so it’s perseverance. And also an ability to see your goals, but that’s also about perseverance.”

6. You don’t seem to have a short supply of enthusiasm, do you?

“Yes, I am very enthusiastic and I’m sure its infectious. I’ve probably done whatever I’ve wanted to do every day of my life that I’ve worked. Some days, it’s awfully hard and some months you wish you never did it, but there’s never a day that I’ve wanted to do anything else. If I wanted to do something else, I would do something else.”

7. Who has had the greatest influence on your life?

“Mr. Miller, my woodworking teacher in high school. I don’t know his first name. He’s just Mr. Miller. I spoke to him recently. I think he was the first person outside of my mom to recognize that I had something special, or at least what I considered something special anyways.”

8. Is winning everything?

“No. Surprisingly, it used to be. I would be lying if I said it wasn’t at one time. I don’t like to lose, but as I get older, I have to laugh. Everyone tends to get more conservative as they get older, and I’ve gone the other way. I’d say that, speaking on a political spectrum, I’ve gone from being very, very conservative in my thoughts when I was growing up to being much more centrist or even left of centre. Winning to me is a very right-wing-type attitude, almost an American attitude, where somebody wins and somebody loses. My feeling now is that it’s more of a win-win. This particular transaction (purchase of GlenEagles from the Edmonton Pipe Industry Pension Trust Fund) was a win-win where no party tried to manoeuvre or do anything. It was a situation where both parties wanted to get to a goal.”

9. What motivated you to acquire the GlenEagles course?

“The course itself has a tremendous reputation. It is designed so well for the land. It doesn’t fight the landscape at all. In other words, it’s like it is meant to be here. It follows all our requirements. It’s a fully public facility, which is how we want to operate. The whole setup was so eerily close to how we’d set up HeatherGlen course that it worked for us. I’ll continue to manage both courses. It’s a 45-minute drive between them, and I live between the two courses at Springbank. Our success at HeatherGlen allowed us to do this. At HeatherGlen, we took an 18-hole golf course that had challenges, we addressed those challenges and we expanded to 27 holes in 1999.”

10. What initially attracted you to the golf business?

“I had done everything I could in real estate (as a realtor with Master Realty and Re/Max). It was very good to me. I found success very quickly in real estate. I was always in the top 10 in the city (Calgary).”

11. To what do you attribute your success in real estate sales?

“I’m not an egomaniac. I don’t think I’m bigger or better or stronger. I think it came down to honesty – being honest with myself and being honest with the customer. My advice to a young entrepreneur would be take the longer, harder route of doing things honestly. It will pay off and you’ll feel a lot better about yourself, and you’ll be a better person for it. And society is better for it.”

12. What are your plans for GlenEagles?

“This is a really, really special place. It’s a gorgeous property. Number one is to improve the clubhouse, and we need a hitting area where you can warm up because there’s no driving range. Our real goal is to have a very successful operation. The basics of both our courses are the same. This is a special high-end course where you pay more to play ($70 per round), and HeatherGlen is right in the middle of the road ($42-$47 per round), where we want it to be. Our motto there is, ‘where golf is fun.’ ”

13. How would you characterize the state of the golf course industry in Calgary?

“It’s stable right now. In Calgary, there’s room every second year for a new golf course.”

14. What’s the key to marketing a golf course?

“I think you have to determine who your golfers should be. It took me a few years to come to that (realization). I learned that from the National Golf Course Owners Association. Before I got involved with that organization (in his current role as Canadian president of the association), I was on an island. In any corner of North America, we face the same challenges. Once you determine that, I find it very important to put the structure in place and then advertise it later. I’m big on doing it before talking up a storm. I think it’s very important that you determine what promise you want to make, keep it and then market that. That’s probably the root of all successful businesses.”

15. What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from operating HeatherGlen?

“Don’t make a decision until you’re absolutely certain. When I look back, whenever anything went wrong, you went in thinking you knew what you wanted to achieve with a decision. But, when you make a wrong decision, to change it around is like moving the Titanic.

“You’re not quick and nimble. That goes to whether it’s staffing or programs or whatever. I still struggle with that today. Usually, it’s not laziness. It’s just that you didn’t have enough time.”

16. What’s your outlook for the golf course industry?

“For golf to flourish, it will be about people coming out and having a really good time, whether it’s for business or someone out with their buddies. The amount of service we give to the customers is night and day from when I started in the business, and I see that trend continuing. People need to come out and enjoy themselves, and waiting on the tee box is not part of enjoyment. How you greet people at the counter is so important now. The level of service has to be so much greater, and it has to be friendly. If we can do all that, then the golf industry will do well by itself. I also see more young players playing. Golf is cool right now. Tiger Woods is a revolutionary figure in making it that way. For his age, he has been under fire, and he hasn’t mis-stepped.”

17. How important is the issue of pace of play?

“If everybody gets together and does it right, you’re able to do that well. Every single day, you have to concentrate on that. GlenEagles is every 10 minutes (teeoff), and there was talk it was going to nine minutes here. I nixed that. It’ll stay at 10. On busy days, I lose 10 per cent of my business doing that. So why does a business person do that? That, to me, is long-term thinking.”

18. What’s your favourite course of those you’ve played?

“I’d probably say the best would be Pinehurst No. 2 (the North Carolina course that is a U.S. Open site). And GlenEagles. I’ll put them as a tie.”

19. What do you see in your life’s crystal ball?

“I actually honestly believe I’m just starting. But I’m not necessarily on a capitalist or materialistic binge here. I used to think when I was 30 that there was nothing more to do because I was successful quite quickly. Now, I see millions of ideas out there. There’ll be more twists and turns. I never see myself retiring. I have some very, very private ideas. I don’t even think I’ve told my wife (Rosemary) about them.”

20. Can you talk about one of those ideas?

“Some of them may be considered kooky, even in a business mag. But I don’t think they’re kooky. I’m actually really an environmentalist at heart. I have dreams, very pleasant ones, of doing things to help the environment. I’m very concerned about it, and I feel an obligation to do more. Otherwise, life is good. I’ve been married 17 years, and our family gets along great. I like coming to work in the morning, and I like going home at night. So I’ve got them both covered.”

IN PROFILE: Scott Atkinson
* Born/raised/age: Vancouver, 43.

* Title: Owner/general manager, Calgary and area golf courses – The Links of GlenEagles and HeatherGlen.

* Education: British Columbia Institute of Technology, building technology certificate.

* Family: Wife Rosemary, children Andrea and Alexander.

* Career: Atkinson has owned and operated HeatherGlen Golf Course since 1991 and recently acquired GlenEagles at Cochrane from the Edmonton Pipe Industry Pension Trust Fund for an undisclosed price. Prior to embarking on the golf-course business, Atkinson spent 10 years as a realtor in Calgary with Master Realty and Re/Max Realty. He is president of the National Golf Course Owners Association, Canada.

* Favourites: Passions – “20-mile disappearing walks,” reading; Celebrity – Tiger Woods; Movie – Tin Men; Book – The World According To Garp; City Outside Calgary – “It’s still Calgary.”

GOLF COURSE FACTS

* The Links of GlenEagles: An 18-hole public course at Cochrane (100 GlenEagles Drive); Head Pro, Bill Nicholl; Phone/Fax: 403-932-1100, 932-6284; Website, www.gleneaglesgolf.com

* HeatherGlen Golf Course: A 27-hole public course at Glenmore Trail and 101st St. S.E.; Head Pro, Slade King;

* Phone/Fax: 403-236-4653, 236-0974.