Throughout his nearly 30-year tenure as head of British Columbia Golf, Kris Jonasson has never been a big believer in the status quo.
Jonasson was always thinking about how he could improve things, how he could make the game more welcoming and accessible...
Jonasson’s close friend, John Bodenhamer, puts it best. “I think more than anything Kris to me has been a creative thinker, a change agent,” says Bodenhamer, now chief championships officer with the United States Golf Association.
“He has never been afraid to be innovative and do things that lead. I have always admired that. He has thought outside the box on so many occasions.”
Prior to joining the USGA in 2011, Bodenhamer served as executive director of the Washington State Golf Association and the Pacific Northwest Golf Association, and he got to know Jonasson well. “I think Kris is committed to those who play golf and those that want to play golf but need access. He has always tried to find ways to do that.
"Also, he is approachable, he is a people person, he can seem quiet, but once you get to know Kris you just feel very comfortable in his presence and he is just someone who listens really, really well and will also look to find solutions. At heart, he is just a very positive person who has driven a lot of change.”
A big change is coming for Jonasson, who is retiring later this year. Matthew Steinbach, a former coach of Simon Fraser University’s golf teams and a past British Columbia Golf staffer, has been hired as his successor.
Jonasson’s contributions to the game have been recognized by the B.C. Golf Hall of Fame. He has been selected to enter the Hall of Fame this fall as the first inductee in the new ‘builder’ category.
image credit Bryan Outram/BC Golf
A Few Years Back Kris Jonasson Chatted With BC Golf Museum & Hall Of Fame Curator Mike Riste - Now Kris Is In The BC Golf Hall of Fame
Jonasson joined British Columbia Golf as its executive director in 1996. “I started April 1, 1996, so officially I am the longest running April Fool’s joke in Canadian golf administration,” he says with a chuckle.
Jonasson has a banking background, but also spent time working as a rules official with the old Canadian Tour. “At that time I was spending my summers as an official with the Canadian Tour which gave me an opportunity to travel across Canada and I saw the state that Canadian golf was in at the time, which I didn’t think was great,” Jonasson says.
“And then the position with British Columbia Golf came up and I think initially they hired me because of my expertise with the rules, but actually it was my banking background and entrepreneurial spirit that really proved valuable and set me up for whatever success I’ve had.”
Jonasson had to weather some turbulent times in his early days as he went through the laborious and acrimonious process of merging the men’s and women’s provincial golf associations. “I identified very early that needed to happen,” he says. “It took eight years and quite honestly it required certain people to either retire or pass on because there was a rather entrenched group against it. It was a difficult time.”
Under Jonasson’s stewardship, British Columbia Golf spread its wings when it came to locating its provincial championships. For many years, the majority of its events were held in the Greater Vancouver and Victoria areas. Jonasson took championships to places like Dawson Creek, Fort St. John, Prince George, Golden, Williams Lake and Campbell River.
Vancouver’s Doug Roxburgh, the 13-time B.C. Amateur champion, initially wasn’t sure if he liked the idea of having to hit the road so often. But Roxburgh quickly became a convert and for many years he and his wife Lorna often plan their summer travels around the tournaments he plans to play.
“I think that is one of the best things that has happened with British Columbia Golf events, moving them around the province, getting to see different areas and regions and things like that,” Roxburgh says. “It turns out the golf courses are very good all over the province. The members and staff and owners all go out of their way to make it a good event. It’s been tremendous to see different parts of the province and play all these different golf courses. I think that has been a real positive influence that Kris instituted.”
One of the most significant changes made under Jonasson’s stewardship came in the boardroom. Jonasson wanted B.C. Golf’s board of directors to better reflect the diversity of the community it served. “I am proud of the changes that we have made in the development of more of a properly organized sport association,” he says. “We have got an excellent board of directors. There’s a good mix of people that know and understand golf and people who know and understand business.”
Back in 2016, the B.C. Golf board of directors got the attention of the USGA, which was holding a symposium in Vancouver. During that meeting, the B.C. Golf board was called up on stage as an example of diversity in action. At that time, the 12-member board included members of the Indo-Canadian, Korean and First Nations communities and an equal number of men and women.
image courtesy USGA
BC Golf 2016 Board Members From L-R: Patrick Kelly, Helen Jung, Jolly Dahliwal, Michelle Collens & Kris Jonasson
“I think Kris prides himself on being someone who really welcomes everybody to the game, wants to grow the game in a way that is welcoming to everybody, whether that is those traditionalists who play, more girls and women, to people of colour, to people with disabilities,” says Bodenhamer.
Two recent additions to the British Columbia Golf championship calendar are the B.C. All-Abilities Championship and the B.C. Indigenous Championship.
The latter came about thanks to a cold-call made nearly 15 years ago to Jonasson by Patrick Kelly, who was in the process of forming an Indigenous Golf Association. The two met later that same day for lunch and became fast friends. Kelly was later named to the board of B.C. Golf and went on to serve two one-year terms as a president.
“Patrick walked into my office 15 years ago and said I want to start an Indigenous Golf Association and I said, well fine, I am prepared to help you. But I recognized at the time we were taking step one of what would be a multi-generational project, it wasn’t going to happen overnight. The same thing with the All-Abilities Championship. If you think that more people should be playing golf, and I do, then there is a group of people who have traditionally been missing from the golf landscape and we need to figure out how to get them more actively involved."
After much hard work by Kelly and with Jonasson’s support, the B.C. Indigenous Championship made its debut at Nk’Mip Canyon Desert Golf Course in Oliver in the summer of 2023. The third championship will be played in July at the St. Eugene Golf Resort in Cranbrook.
The third playing of the B.C. All-Abilities Championship was held June 16-17 at Fraserview Golf Course in Vancouver. “I’d say Kris is a very caring and loving human being,” Kelly says. “He really does care about people. He is a genuinely good human being.”
Player development has been a key focus for Jonasson and his B.C. Golf staff. He has been a big proponent of creating opportunities for British Columbia’s top players to compete against their peers from outside the province. Jonasson played a role in starting the Lamey Cup, a Ryder Cup-style competition featuring top players from the B.C., Washington, Oregon, Idaho and soon to be Montana golf associations.
He has also been a big supporter of the Pacific Coast Amateur Championship, which has been played periodically in B.C. at venues like Capilano and Royal Colwood. “I think we need to provide opportunities for better players to play against better players,” Jonasson says.
“The better players will tell you they want to play and beat the strongest field possible. And sometimes not all of those people can come from one particular province. I just look at the history of British Columbia Golf. We often ask the question, who is the only person to have won the B.C. Amateur, the Masters and the B.C. Junior, and it’s Fred Couples. The only way that could have happened is that we allowed Fred to play in those events.
“You look at some of our trophies and you can see those names. The Pacific Coast Amateur is a great example. You look at who has won that event and it is a pretty impressive group, but when you look at who played in it and didn’t win, it’s an even more impressive group.”
As he prepares to leave B.C. Golf, Jonasson is pleased that the association and the game are in good health. But he has been around long enough to know that the good times don’t always roll forever. “I think the state of golf is very healthy,” he says.
“It wasn’t healthy prior to the pandemic but it has become very healthy. The association is healthy, we are financially healthy, our membership is a little bit stronger than it was. We have a better definition of our relationships between ourselves and other organizations which we can build on, so I think the future looks relatively bright. Having said that, I have also been through the ups and downs of this industry and I do think there will be down times coming.”
As for his retirement, Jonasson hopes it will include more time with his grandchildren, more golf and some travel with his biggest supporter, his wife Esther. Jonasson is a longtime member of the R&A and in recent years has made an annual trip to St Andrews. He loves the golf there and the way the game is such a vital fabric of so many of the communities in Scotland.
“I have very much enjoyed taking people over there and I just recently got back,” Jonasson says. “The golf is completely different there. Golf is a focus in the community and I think we miss that. You may see it in some of the smaller towns here, but certainly in Vancouver you miss it with the larger private clubs. I particularly enjoy the links style of golf. I like the fact the ball rolls forever.”