It took me a year to get out to the Bowen Island Golf Course. Then I was there twice in as many weeks. It’s got a magnetic quality.
“They call it a hidden gem. We’re trying to getaway from the hidden part of it and just call it a gem,” says Les Meszaros, the course’s new pro shop manager.
Granted, it’s tucked away. Out at Cowan Point, the course is far from any transit line. It’s nestled into the forest with homes on one side and a view of the Vancouver skyline out front. The nine-hole course opened in 2005 after a massive volunteer effort and volunteer momentum has continued over the past 14 years (see: Bruce Russell’s letters to the editor). But beyond the volunteers and more than 200 members, there’s a dedicated staff of nearly 20 people (in the summertime).
Meszaros started in the pro shop this past winter, after former manager Cody White’s departure (while White was a pro golfer, Meszaros declares himself to be a high handicapper).
When Meszaros isn’t at the golf course, you may find him in Abu Dhabi, Madrid, Los Angeles, or some other soccer city. His other job is managing events for FIFA and CONCACAF (the soccer governing body in this part of the world). He was also a team manager and administrator for several national teams for more than a decade. He recently did an event in the Caiman Islands and will have another in the Caribbean in the fall (he says his friends don’t believe he has a job).
Meszaros had moved to Bowen for a quieter life, kayaking and hiking, but a couple of golf club board members found out about his sports expertise.
“When you see what everyone has put into this course, it’s difficult to say no to trying to help,” says Meszaros. “And it’s been a pleasure.”
One of Meszaros’s plans when he arrived was to bring food back to the club house.
After some contemplating, Meszaros started asking around about who had been in talks to buy the Lime and Moon eatery.
“It kind of seemed like the same philosophy,” explained Meszaros. So he set to looking and heard the name “Jamie” but no last name. The course’s superintendent Frank Griffiths (he and his staff are responsible for the 65 acres of meticulously maintained grounds) suggested the mystery chef could be Jamie Smith, who not only helped out at the Legion dinners a few times, but is former owner of Finch’s Tea Houses in Vancouver.
“And I went, it’s worth a shot,” recalls Meszaros. “So I phoned [Smith] and said, ‘Are you the Jamie that was interested in Lime in the Moon?’ And he goes, ‘yes.’ And I went, ‘have I got a deal for you.’”
“I really missed doing food,” says Smith while out at the grill on the clubhouse patio preparing for the day’s delicacies. “But I had prerequisite if I was doing food again.”
Smith needed a restaurant not in the city. A restaurant with a view. A restaurant in the quiet.
“I really wanted a destination,” explains Smith. “Like the purity of having a place where people are coming for you, not just walking by and going ‘let’s try that out.’”
Montgomery’s opened in late May. It’s open noon until eight on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
“I keep it very simple and quality consistent,” explains Smith.He has staples, salmon burgers and BLTs, and then specials. “I’m just going to do one entree at the weekends. And I’ll do a vegetarian version.”
The day I visited, Smith’s special was mussels steamed in coconut and red Thai curry.
Smith is planning to have live music on Friday evenings (around 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.). He hopes to make Montgomery’s a local alternative to the busyness of summertime Snug Cove. He also wants to highlight the family-friendly nature of the restaurant and surroundings (Smith has four kids so family-friendly is important to him). He has picnic baskets and blankets so people can take their lunch to the beach below the golf course and the kids can run around.
“It’s been fun to put this project together, to have food out here,” says Meszaros. “To have somebody of Jamie’s standard is second to none. I’m pretty excited. He’s my new best friend.”
Smith and Meszaros are full of plans.
The lower patio is getting a live-edge countertop on the perimeter railings so people can sit and look out over the water while eating.
Meszaros contacted North Vancouver-based Beere Brewing Company.
“So now we have craft brewed beer and micro batches, and it’ll rotate,” says Meszaros. “So it’s in keeping with Jamie’s philosophy.”
A week after meeting Meszaros and Smith, I returned to the golf course for the international women’s golf day event. Nearly 50 women of varying skill levels met for a evening of golf and visiting.
It was the first time I’d swung a golf club since elementary school (with the possible exception of using my grandmother’s golf clubs as swords while roughhousing with my brothers).
My knees were bent, my feet slightly apart and aligned with my target, my golf club went up, down, and up again. And the golf ball stayed put. Time after time (and those weren’t my practice swings).
But under the kind tutelage of Jane Kellett and Karen Moles, the ball eventually made it into at least one of the holes. I estimate my handicap at 1000 (the average American’s is supposedly 100).
I’m told the course is a difficult one, with many hills an obstacles. It is, however, (objectively, of course) spectacular. With landscaping by Melissa Roocroft, grass maintained thanks to a water collection pond, and a legendary view, the Bowen Island Golf Course may just make a golfer out of me yet.
