LA ROMANA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC | Alfy Fanjul, who with different members of his household controls a sugar and actual property empire price billions of {dollars}, nicely remembers the primary time he met Gilles Gagnon.
“It was possibly 40 years in the past, when Gilles was operating the golf operation at Casa de Campo, and I used to be negotiating to purchase that property from Gulf & Western,” stated the Cuba-born Fanjul. “He and I chatted, and in some unspecified time in the future, I stated, ‘I don’t know who on this planet would have ever employed a left-handed hockey participant from Canada to be the golf professional.’ ”
Each males chuckled on the pleasant gibe. And it was not lengthy after the Fanjuls accomplished the acquisition of the 7,000-acre property, which included the acclaimed Tooth of the Canine golf course, that he realized simply what a genius transfer the earlier proprietor had made.
“Gilles is wise, extraordinarily hardworking and by no means appears to get upset,” stated Fanjul, whose firm has owned Casa de Campo since 1984. “He additionally is aware of the way to resolve issues and entertain clients. What extra might you ask for?”
As for the now 76-year-old Gagnon, whose official title as of late is golf director emeritus and senior director of golf gross sales, he feels he couldn’t have had a greater place to work. “The Fanjuls have handled me so nicely,” stated the PGA of America life member. “The Dominicans are nice, too, and I really like the climate down right here in addition to how secure and quiet it’s. And whereas Casa de Campo was very distant once I began in 1980, it now has about each amenity you may probably need.”
These embrace polo, taking pictures and fishing. Nice eating places, too, in addition to some 250 resort rooms and 50 villas, among the finest marinas within the Caribbean and an expansive sugar-sand seashore. Then, there’s the golf, with all 90 holes designed by Gagnon’s good pal, the late, nice Pete Dye.
“Individuals typically ask when I’m going to retire,” added Gagnon, who was inducted into the Caribbean Golf Affiliation Corridor of Fame in 2019. “However I can’t think about stopping what I’ve been doing.”
“My dad left once I was about 8 years outdated. He simply took off. My mother’s dad and mom lived upstairs from us. She labored as a financial institution teller, and whereas we all the time had sufficient meals to eat, cash was tight.” – Gilles Gagnon
Even tougher to fathom when you think about his anything-but-ideal upbringing is how Gagnon established such an exalted place within the royal and historical sport.
Born in Montreal within the fall of 1948, the native French speaker grew up in a one-bedroom residence together with his mom, Denise, and brother, Pierre.
“My dad left once I was about 8 years outdated,” he stated. “He simply took off. My mother’s dad and mom lived upstairs from us. She labored as a financial institution teller, and whereas we all the time had sufficient meals to eat, cash was tight.”
As was the case with most youngsters in Canada, Gagnon fell in love with hockey.
“We performed on the ponds so much,” he recalled. “It was not a simple sport for me as a result of it was so costly. I taped my hockey sticks from prime to backside to ensure they lasted longer.”
A left-handed shot, he grew to be adequate to compete in Canadian junior hockey leagues with a number of future NHL stars, amongst them Gilbert Perreault, Rejean Houle and Marc Tardif.
From there, he discovered his option to Michigan State College within the States.
“My grades in highschool weren’t superb, and I barely spoke English,” Gagnon stated. “However I handed an ACT take a look at, in all probability as a result of I used to be a very good guesser, and began at Michigan State as a freshman. I learn loads of books and relied closely on a dictionary to do my homework. In about 10 weeks, I used to be capable of learn, write and communicate English fairly nicely.”
Gagnon describes Michigan State as a “likelihood of a lifetime.” For the bachelor’s diploma in bodily schooling he earned, to make sure. And in addition the high-level hockey he was capable of play for the college.
“I used to be the main objective scorer within the nation my junior yr,” stated Gagnon, who wore No. 10 on the again of his hockey sweater and celebrates that little bit of historical past to this present day by marking every of his golf balls with the identical quantity. And he left Michigan State in 1972 as its all-time main scorer.
A middle, he stood 5 toes 5 and tipped the scales at 145 kilos. As a result of these measurables, Gagnon was invariably the smallest man on the ice. However he performed the place – and the sport – a lot larger than he truly was.
“I had picked up the sport at Michigan State, enjoying left-handed simply as I had in hockey. I used to be a couple of 5- or 6-handicapper by the point I bought to Colgate.” – Gilles Gagnon
After MSU, Gagnon skated for a spell with the Port Huron Wings within the rough-and-tumble Worldwide Hockey League. “I used to be getting beat up fairly badly on the ice,” he stated. “Then one night time, the crew bus slid off the interstate and down an embankment, and I needed to kick out the window to flee. I took that as an indication and determined to cease enjoying.”
In 1975 and simply 27 years outdated, he grew to become the assistant varsity hockey coach at Colgate College in upstate New York. After which he began operating the varsity’s golf course in addition to teaching the golf crew.
“I had picked up the sport at Michigan State, enjoying left-handed simply as I had in hockey,” Gagnon stated. “I used to be a couple of 5- or 6-handicapper by the point I bought to Colgate. The golf coach had simply retired, and the individuals on the college questioned if I might tackle that job as nicely. I had nothing to do in the summertime, so I stated certain. The course was referred to as Seven Oaks, and it was the primary format Robert Trent Jones ever designed.”
The monitor additionally hosted the 1977 NCAA Championship, which featured future U.S. Open winner Scott Simpson profitable the person title for the second yr in a row. As for Gagnon, he helped set up the occasion and served because the host skilled.
Three years later, he interviewed for – after which accepted – the job as head golf skilled at Casa de Campo, which then had solely two programs (Tooth of the Canine and the Hyperlinks) and had change into a golf resort after initially working as a company retreat for Gulf & Western executives and their friends.
“They gave me a two-year contract, and paid me $24,000 a yr,” Gagnon recalled. “They gave me a home, too. There was no TV, and also you needed to undergo a cellphone operator if you happen to wished to make a name. And there wasn’t a grocery retailer anyplace shut by. The earlier director of golf had left about three or 4 months earlier than me, and the place was a multitude. There was nothing price promoting within the professional outlets, and the carts have been beat up and smelled like battery acid.”
To make issues much more difficult, Gagnon’s first spouse, Pamela, was pregnant once they moved there, with the primary of their two daughters, Jennifer, being born within the close by city of La Romana on December 8, 1980.
(A second daughter, Dominique, got here into the world 4 years later and finally grew to become a adequate golfer to qualify for 4 USGA championships, together with the 2001 U.S. Girls’s Open.)
However even after that large transfer and the start of his first youngster, Gagnon settled properly into his new environs – and his new job. As a golfer, he loved teeing it up on the resort’s programs. By his personal admission, nevertheless, he by no means cared a lot for instructing, growing as an alternative a ardour for staging tournaments at Casa de Campo that through the years have introduced hundreds of golf professionals and newbie gamers to the sun-soaked getaway on the southern shore of the D.R.
“I organized the primary of these in 1981,” stated Gagnon, who way back grew to become fluent in Spanish and may also converse fairly comfortably in Italian. “And we referred to as it the Casa de Campo Open. Forty-four years later, it’s nonetheless occurring, and we normally get as many as 300 individuals within the subject.”
“In some ways, it’s labored out completely. I work on these kinds of tasks daily till 1:30 p.m., seven days every week. Then, I’m going play golf.” — Gilles Gagnon
“I created loads of tournaments,” he added. “We placed on shut to twenty a yr of our personal and still have so many others from the surface. I appreciated operating them, however I additionally noticed the tournaments as a approach of defending myself. They made me extra wanted to the resort, and made me greater than only a golf skilled.”
Some eight years in the past, Gagnon stepped again a bit from his work, changing into the golf director emeritus. However he continued to develop enterprise by way of his tournaments and different gross sales and advertising and marketing initiatives.
“In some ways, it’s labored out completely,” he stated. “I work on these kinds of tasks daily till 1:30 p.m., seven days every week. Then, I’m going play golf.”
The timing was good in one other essential approach, as a result of shortly after Gagnon took on that changed function, docs recognized his second spouse, Merrilee, with most cancers.
“She’s been battling that for seven years,” he stated. “She’s gone by way of six surgical procedures, with docs taking 4 or 5 issues out of her lungs. It’s been robust, however she’s hanging in there. Not a complete lot stops her.”
Fanjul appreciates how troublesome that combat has been for Merrilee, and likewise the nice assist Gagnon has offered alongside the way in which.
“Gilles has actually been there for her,” he stated. “And he has all the time been there for us.”
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