The new owners of Petrolia's 125-year-old golf course celebrated a grand reopening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday morning.
Jenna Gorzeman and husband Joe purchased the former Heritage Heights Golf Club earlier this year, rebranding it Kingswell Glen Golf Club.
The grand opening of Kingwell Glen Golf Club. July 9, 2020 Photo courtesy of Joseph A. Gorzeman
The local entrepreneurs have been operating businesses together in Petrolia for five years now, after first meeting in the ninth grade.
"I own Crabby Joe's in Petrolia," said Jenna, "and we've been operating that. We're building Kingswell Hotel in Petrolia, slated to open at the beginning of 2022, and when the opportunity came up to purchase the golf course, we definitely were very excited about the opportunity because it fits right in with our vision for Petrolia."
Jenna said their families separately moved to Petrolia in 1990, when she and Joe were both just two-and-a-half years old.
"Being from Petrolia, having roots here, we just love the town and see such fantastic potential here and would love to turn this into a premier destination location," she said. "But more importantly, to add to the fantastic community that we have. We want people to feel at home here, we want people to feel comfortable here."
Joe said they renamed the course 'Kingswell' to pay homage to the King Well, which established Petrolia as Canada's major oil producer in the mid-to-late 19th-century.
"I've honestly talked to myself sometimes that playing on that golf course thinking how fortunate I was to have a course this amazing in Lambton County and in my backyard, but also thinking to myself that it would be crazy to ever operate this as a business, it just seems like so much property and so difficult to actually make this a thriving business."
Joe said starting up a business is presented with its own set of challenges, but doing so during COVID presented a whole bunch of different challenges.
"It's one of the few things that during these times, people are able to do, and I know golf really, really well and know what makes the golf experience as a whole really special, and together we know the hospitality side of it to make that special as well, so it's been fun. We've been working 14 hour days for the last nine weeks and we smile every single day, so it's been wonderful."
Joe said Golf Canada is sending the course a 125th anniversary plaque. He said the course is one of the 10 oldest in Canada and the fifth oldest in Canada continuing to operate.
The grand opening of Kingwell Glen Golf Club. July 9, 2020 Photo courtesy of Joseph A. Gorzeman