The Royal Canadian Golf Association was strictly an eastern Canada operation back in the 1920s, but it was Charles Harvey from the Elmhurst Golf and Country Club (which was also known for a time as Elmhurst Golf Links) who played a major role in making it a truly national organization.
Charlie Harvey was born in England in 1882 and came to Canada as a boy with his parents. His father was a pioneer merchant in Winnipeg. Charlie started his own business in Killarney and went on to become president of the Northland Knitting Company Ltd. In addition to his business operations, he was a keen golfer and curler as a member of Elmhurst and the Granite Curling Club.
He was president of the Elmhurst club in 1924, 1925 and 1926, the first to serve three years in that capacity. In 1926, he served as a delegate to the Royal Canadian Golf Association annual meeting, representing a number of golf organizations, including the Elmhurst club, the Manitoba Golf Association and the Western Canada Golf Association.
In 1927, Harvey served as president of both the Manitoba and Western Canada associations and was elected to the board of governors of the RCGA. In 1928, he became the first person elected vice-president under a new constitution. The following year he became the first person from outside Ontario and Quebec to be elected president of the national body.
As Elmhurst president in 1926, he was very involved with the organization of the Canadian ladies open amateur championship, played for the first time outside of Ontario and Quebec. He was also chair of the third annual Western Canada Open and Western Canada Amateur tournaments along with the Manitoba Open and Amateur, attracting 250 players to the Elmhurst and Pine Ridge courses. He was also instrumental in awarding the 1929 Canadian men’s amateur championship to Jasper, AB, which at the time was the furthest west it had been played.
Harvey died tragically in 1932 at the age of 50.
What started as discussions with his contemporaries from the fairways of the Elmhurst Golf Club, to his colleagues with the RCGA, to the 1929 awarding of the Canadian Men’s Amateur to Jasper, Alberta, Mr. Harvey’s vision of seeing national representation through the RCGA was realized. The RCGA has never looked back.