Mike Riste – region’s foremost golf historian talks about Robert Johnstone, the golf course architect and club pro who founded the Pacific Northwest Section PGA

Mike Riste serves as the historian for the BC Golf Museum, and is the official historian for the PNGA. He assembled the initial research for “Washington Golf: 100 Years of Growing the Game,” the centennial history book of Washington Golf, published in 2022.

Mike may claim he is not a writer, but his body of work is substantial. He co-authored the monumental “Championships & Friendships,” the centennial history book of the Pacific Northwest Golf Association (PNGA); and wrote “Just Call Me Mac,” the biography of noted Northwest course architect, A. Vernon Macan.

He first became involved in golf in the spring of 1960 when Capilano Golf and Country Club (in West Vancouver, B.C.) advertised for caddies for their opening day tournament. Mike would later become the very first Evans Caddie Scholarship recipient from the Northwest.

In 1986, when the University Golf Course clubhouse (in Vancouver, B.C.) came vacant, MIke assembled a group of volunteers to renovate the structure into a golf museum. Today, BC Golf House is in a building that is the oldest structure still used for golf in B.C., and the BC Golf Museum is the only provincial or state standalone golf museum in North America.

In 2013, Mike received the Distinguished Service Award from the Northwest Golf Media Association.

Read the full transcript from Mike Riste’s Pod for the Course interview.


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