Gleadall’s passion for golf has been restored

Former touring professional enjoying life at Ontario Golf Academy at Whistle Bear

It was the best week of her playing career, a remarkable sevenday run that ended on a Sunday afternoon in June at the Whistle Bear Golf Club.

Four months later, her love of the game vanished, the dream of becoming a full-time member of the LPGA Tour was gone.

The stretch remains fresh in Natalie Gleadall’s mind, going from the high of making the cut at the 2015 Manulife LPGA Classic as a Monday qualifier to the lowest of lows, informing coach Gareth Raflewski and her many supporters she was finished. Her decision came on the heels of a disappointing result at the Symetra Tour Championship in Daytona Beach, Fla.

“I continued to play well (after the Manulife LPGA Classic) but by the end of the season I had truly lost my love for the game. I felt like I couldn’t really grind it out anymore, I wasn’t excited to practise, I felt exhausted and I always told myself that I wouldn’t play anymore if I wasn’t having fun,” recalled Gleadall, a 30-year-old Kitchener resident.

“Telling my coach was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life but it was something I needed to do. I was ready to transition into something new.”

The transition from touring professional to teaching professional — the University of Mississippi graduate joined the staff at the Ontario Golf Academy at Whistle Bear last year — was anything but seamless.

Born and raised in Stratford, Gleadall became a receptionist at the Bruce Hotel in her first post-golf job and did a bit of bouncing around after that, working for Achushnet (FootJoy), Columbia Sportswear and Sifton Properties before landing a part-time job with the City of Kitchener that helped her rediscover a passion for golf.

Gleadall was hired in June of 2018 as an inclusion support worker in Kitchener’s “Golf Fore Life” program, an initiative designed for people with dementia. In her supervisory role, she saw participants celebrate the smallest of achievements such as making crisp contact with a ball or draining a short putt.

Their joy was infectious. “I was able to work with that program for 2 ⁄ years. I ended 1

2 up being the co-ordinator in my last year, and to work with people living with dementia, it truly changed my perspective on life, it changed my perspective on the game of golf,” Gleadall said.

“I had a family member battling mental health at the time, it was a very difficult time, and the program helped get me through it. To watch people dancing in the fairways, jumping up and down after making a shot over the water, it helped restore my joy and love for the game.”

Unfortunately, the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic brought an end to the program. Gleadall lost a second job as a program leader at Wilfrid Laurier University for the same reason and, just like that, in

March of last year, she was on the unemployment line.

And then came a phone call from Chris Dickenson, the head teaching professional at the Ontario Golf Academy at Whistle Bear. Dickenson, who knew Gleadall from his time at the Stratford Country Club, predicted a busy summer because of the pandemic and presented her with the opportunity to run a girls’ program and conduct lessons.

She didn’t immediately jump at the offer, in part because of the seasonal nature of the golf industry, and also because of the reality that the vast majority of people who work in the industry don’t have sufficient time to play the game.

Gleadall decided she would only pursue a career in golf if she could create a “lifestyle business” that would allow her to enjoy her free time as much as her work life. She turned to a pair of experts for help — “Mindful” Mike Masse of Stratford, a mindfulness consultant, and Whistle Bear member Doug Foley, author of “Breakout Blueprint: How to Find Your Passion.”

Together, they developed a plan that allowed Gleadall to teach year-round at Whistle Bear while playing at least twice a week in the season.

The plan includes a weekly Saturday round with her boyfriend, Tyler Cameron, an associate professional at Credit Valley in Mississauga, that she calls “Paradise Golf Day.”

The two have made it a mission to play some of Ontario’s best courses and will do so throughout the season. It was Cherry Hill in the Niagara Region last Saturday and this weekend it’s a road trip to Port Carling.

Gleadall is thankful Dickenson and Whistle Bear director of golf Adam Tobin have bought into her plan.

“I’m just so thankful to be part of the Whistle Bear team,” she said.

“I’ve never met a harder working golf pro than Adam Tobi. He pours his heart and soul into this golf course, and the same thing with Chris Dickenson, he has such a passion for what he does and that smile he has on his face every day, it’s a great environment to be around,” she added.

Gleadall spends most of her time with younger players at Whistle Bear but is open to teaching anyone. She’s running the boys and girls clubs for newer players and at this point is happy to leave the high-performance programs to other coaches.

A three-time participant (2012, ’13 and ’14) at the Canadian Women’s Open, Gleadall qualified for the 2015 Manulife LPGA Classic on her fourth attempt. She went 68-72 on Thursday and Friday at Whistle Bear to make the cut on the number and went 70-78 on the weekend.

“I was in tears coming off the 18th green, completely exhausted,” she said. “It was an amazing week, to have so many people supporting me, to have people believe in you more than you’ll ever believe in yourself. An incredible feeling.”

It’s a different sort of incredible now, but still incredible.