A Life Driven by Golf
A Conversation with Triple Bogey Brewery President Geoff Tait.
Megan and Geoff Tait, the founders of Triple Bogey Brewing
Finding a lifelong passion that keeps you fulfilled and happy is a special opportunity. Discovering it early in life so it provides you with both fun and a livelihood, makes it even better. Geoff Tait, the man behind Triple Bogey Beer, was fortunate to find golf early in life and has used his strong connection to the game to make a living around the sport he grew up playing. Many find golf in their youth and parlay that love of the game into a career path. Some become professionals, some the dedicated turf experts and others managers and administrators. Geoff Tait has worn many more hats than thought possible in the industry.
The historic St. Thomas Golf & Country Club in Southwestern Ontario is a classic Stanley Thompson / Robbie Robinson design. The club has a storied past filled with a legacy of great champions hoisting the victory trophy on its grounds. With the likes of George Knudson, Moe Norman, Nick Weslock, Maddie Szeryk, Garret Rank and Masters Champion Mike Weir, all being victorious there, the club has a well cemented reputation as one of the finer private clubs in the country. It was here where Tait first found golf as a 12 year old working in the backshop before being promoted to other aspects of the club’s operations over his teenage years.
Tait remained connected to St. Thomas, working during the summers while he was completing the Humber College Golf Management Program. Following the program, he left Canada and headed to Australia, where he left the golf industry and completed a business degree. Coming back from the “Land Down Under,” he found himself drawn back into the game and spent some entertaining times as a teaching professional on cruise ships through the Caribbean. After a stint as a English teacher in Venezuela and then organizing golf junkets throughout Florida, Tait launched the Quagmire Golf clothing line with some business partners. It was this venture that ultimately took him to the heights of working with one of golf’s elite icons.
While managing Quagmire, Tait recalled an invitation he got from IMG to meet with Arnold Palmer and his handlers. They were looking to refresh and update the Arnold Palmer brand. A meeting at TPC Sawgrass ultimately resulted in Tait being hired to rebrand their line of products. He speaks with heaps of pride describing the work he and his team did to update the styles, yet honor the “King.” Tait proudly reminisced about not just the accomplishment of upgrading the Arnold Palmer brand in North America, but also the opportunities and time he got to share with Mr. Palmer, not just as a business partner but as a friend.
Tait fondly remembers attending major events together, from parties hosted at Palmer’s Bay Hill Club in Orlando to being a guest of Mr. Palmer at a Masters tournament, which included being invited to a private afternoon at one of the cabins with Palmer and Jack Nicklaus and their wives. He shared a special day spent at Palmer’s Latrobe homestead going through all the memories and golf history collected there over the years. He emotionally describes the years working with Arnold Palmer as some of the best times of his life. When Mr. Palmer passed, Tait was humbled and honored to be in attendance at the service with many of the world’s golfing icons, as everyone paid tribute to a man that represents so much to golf, but more importantly a dear friend to Tait himself.
The Quagmire team went through some challenges and ultimately dissolved. This drove Tait in another direction, but still within the golf world that had occupied so much of his life to that point. As a marketer, the vision to create another golf product came to fruition. For a guy who had for years taught people to stay away from the triple bogeys on a scorecard, Tait and his wife Megan launched the Triple Bogey Brewing Company. This marriage of two parts of Canadiana, golf and beer, have been going strong since the beginning in 2013.
The Taits founded their brewery on providing quality beer with a primary focus on customer service. The beer is currently in fridges at 350+ Ontario golf courses. They have expanded to Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Maritimes already, with an expansion to British Columbia in the works for this golf season. Triple Bogey also has a U.S. presence now, with further expansion south of the border high on the priority list for Tait. The attractiveness of the year round sales opportunity in the sunny locales is the next big step for the company. Regardless of future plans, Tait is proud of the networks and loyal customer base he and the team have in Ontario. “This will always be a priority market for us.”
The Triple Bogey beer line includes the original blonde lager, an amber lager, a light, a non-alcoholic and their companion “Hurry Hard,” amber lager for those who throw rocks on the curling rink instead of darts on the golf course. They also have a canned wine, a vidal blanc, and a lime seltzer for those who have a different palate while on the fairways. All are flavorful, refreshing and the perfect addition to a hot day on the links or sitting on a deck or dock, if that is your preference.
Check out the entire Triple Bogey product line on their website. Click here.
Geoff and Megan have devoted the better part of the past decade into the Triple Bogey enterprise. He admits that the 2020 summer of Covid restrictions saw a huge increase in sales for the company. With golf being one of the only social opportunities available, the tee sheets were full and the food and beverage sales saw many +3’s on the scorecards and the cup holders on the courses. The hope is sales will continue to grow as new people come to the game and golf’s popularity grows again this year. The current 2021 Ontario shutdown of the industry may have a negative effect on this year’s bottom line, but as we have seen, Tait can be likened to a hard working scrambler, one that finds a way to salvage his round. We have no doubt that he and the dedicated and talented crew with whom he speaks with great pride, will find a way to contribute to the enjoyment of the industry when possible and keep everyone happily refreshed when the beverage carts are allowed to roll again.
