Steven Toombs

Growing up on a family farm doesn’t leave a lot of time for playing golf, but when Amherst professional Steven Toombs finally got to play on a regular basis, he soon got hooked.
 

“When I was younger, my parents occasionally took me to the golf course, with them. My mom played a few times a week and my dad would play when he had time.
 

I soon came to love the competitive nature associated with the game.”
 

Although he didn’t play on a regular basis until he was 16, not many years went by before he decided that he wanted to have a career in this great sport.
 

Steven grew up in Bedeque, PEI and attended school in nearby Summerside. His main sport for many of these years was hockey, where, as a center, he was the leading scorer in the provincial high school hockey league. He skipped junior hockey to play senior and, in 1986, scored the winning goal when his Borden Ramparts won the Atlantic Championship.
 

He started playing golf in 1982 and, a few years later, began working in the back shop for Terry Hamilton, who was professional at Summerside at that time. Eventually, Terry asked Steven what his career plans were and indicated that Summerside was considering expansion and would require an assistant professional. Realizing that he had only been playing golf a few years, Steven felt he would need for some formal education in golf business, if he planned to make professional golf a career. So, he left his studies at UPEI to attend the San Diego Golf Academy. At the California school, Steven received classroom lectures, studies and projects, along with time to practice and play golf.
“I probably practiced more than anyone, my first year, and I took a lot of instruction,” remembers Toombs. “ There were six teachers available to the students and each week, for about six months, I had a lesson from each one of them. Learning more about the fundamentals of the golf swing was something I really enjoyed.”
 

He turned professional around this time and worked as an assistant with Hamilton during his final three years at Summerside.
 

Steven next moved to Thornhill Country Club in Toronto, as an assistant, before returning to the east coast for two years as an assistant at Oakfield.
 

After achieving Class A membership, Toombs headed out to British Columbia. After little success securing an assistant position, Toombs met Doug Roxborough, who was the project manager at a new development, Belmont Golf Course. After a few meetings, Steven was offered the position as head professional, where he remained for four years.
 

“Getting hired for a better position than what I was aiming for, has to be one of the most memorable moments of my career,” relates Steven.
 

The 35 year old Toombs is now in his fifth season as head professional at Amherst Golf Club.
 

Amherst has a membership of about 600, including 125 juniors. Along with regularly scheduled club matches there is a men’s league each Thursday with about 100 participants. Lady members hold ladies day each Tuesday, as well as some two-day events. Instructional clinics for junior members are held on Tuesdays. Steven stresses proper etiquette and behaviour as much as swing instruction.
 

“ The overall development of young people, as they become golfers, is as important as playing,” he emphasizes.
 

The clubhouse at Amherst accommodates a lounge and full service kitchen upstairs. The dinning room opens on to a large outdoor deck that overlooks the first and tenth tees and the ninth and eighteenth greens - a great area for watching play on the course. A fully stocked proshop, office, locker rooms and storage area occupy the ground floor. Nearby is a large putting green, practice area and a substantial barbeque area for club events and the many corporate events held at the club. Green fees are $ 38.00 on weekdays, $ 40.00 on weekends \ holidays and golf cars are $ 28.00. All these fees include sales tax. Club and handcart rentals are also available.
 

Steven and his staff strive to provide friendly and knowledgeable service to the members and quests at the club. He believes golf professionals should strike an even balance in membership service, instruction and other skills and talents required by their clientele. This well-balanced approach carries through to his philosophy of playing the game.
 

“I don’t think my game has any parts that are strong or weak,” observes Toombs, “I just try to maintain an equal balance when I play. I believe in developing fundamentals. There are different aspects to the golf game but each has its own similar set of fundamentals. Golfers should work on the weakest part of their game, so they can have all the parts of the engine running the same.”
 

The highlight of Toombs playing career came two years ago when he won low professional honours at the Amherst Open, after spending four weeks in hospital. He followed this up two weeks later with a victory at the Covered Bridge Pro-Am. He won Nova Scotia Provincial Player of the Year Award for his performance that year.
“Being sick, then coming back really skinny and weak, and responding better than I ever did before is certainly the highlight of my playing career.”
 

He is also very proud of his play at the Rustico Open in 1988, when he not only passed his final apprentice playing ability test on his first try, but also won the tournament and the $ 1,000.00 prize that went with it.
 

“ That was a fair bit of money in those days,” said Toombs.
His favourite hole at Amherst is the double dogleg, par five, number one.
 

“It has great character and is a real eye-opener. How you play this hole usually determines the way you will play the holes that follow,” advises Toombs. “You’re faced with a very intimidating tee shot, to say the least. You have to keep the ball in play, as it’s very easy to make a seven very quickly.”
 

His tee shot strategy is to hit driver straight out, with a little fade that will carry it through the dogleg.

As for future goals, Toombs is looking forward to a successful season on the Maritime Pro-Am Tour.
 

“ I’d like to improve on my final tour standing, from fifth overall last year, and it would be really nice to win one of the tour events. That would be great.”