Hey, it's us again! But wait... who's "us" exactly?

Leah Bathgate-Snethun President & Founder, Alberta Golf Tour

Wow, it's been a while since we've brought this blog back to life. We experienced some pretty unprecedented growth in 2016 and 2017, along with still working full time jobs outside of the Tour, so some things definitely fell by the wayside. But here we are, back, and better than ever!  We are going to give you a more well-rounded look at the industry we all know and love, and some behind the scenes insights into how the Tour is run. 

First things first: You hear "us" and "we" all the time, but who is "us" and "we"? Collectively, it's everyone who plays on the Alberta Golf Tour. After all, "we" do all of this for all of you. 

Allow "us" to introduce ourselves. Meet Leah Bathgate-Snethun, the founder and President of the Alberta Golf Tour. Leah has worked in the golf industry for the past 10 years helping spearhead the way for golf marketing in Alberta. She's worked with several courses in the Calgary area such as Priddis Greens, Blue Devil, Inglewood, and Country Hills. She's an expert relationship builder, and she believes this is the foundation of every successful sales and marketing plan. She's a mom to a tremendous 10-year-old golfer (seriously, he's annoyingly talented), Flames-turned-Oilers fan, a now silent Roughriders fan, fitness fanatic, Kinesiology graduate, mediator, motivational speaker. She also thinks it's super awkward to talk about herself in 3rd person. 

You probably haven't seen much of Leah on social media because she's usually the one behind the camera and posts, or busy rounding up the masses to make sure everyone is ready for her to announce their names on the first tee on time, or not pressuring people into playing snips every round. She spent the first couple of years doing it all herself, until the Tour grew so much, that a group of eager and loyal players insisted they help her, and began calling themselves her Minions (to which she always gets looks from the golf pro's like, "they let you talk to them that way?" "hey, it was their word!"). Lovingly referred to as "The Prez", Leah and her Minions (officially referred to as the Player Advisory Committee) make sure every single tournament is a consistent, exceptional experience run like a well-oiled machine. We'll talk more about this in later posts. 

"But can she golf?" If you saw her scores lately, you'd probably say no. Once an 8 handicap in 2012, she's now a comfortable 12-13 and probably not getting better any time soon. Her 10 year old even beat her at the 2017 Presidents Cup match play tournament... 5&4. She's better suited to give people crap for pace of play anyway. 

So, if you ever send an email or comment on a post, now you know who you're talking to! We had a few players interrupt Leah (pronounced Lee-ah) at the Championship Dinner this year - one of the few times she's in front of the camera - let's hear what they had to say (who said that comment at the end by the way? #newAGTslogan ?): 

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