WALTER DAGG FAMILY / GOLF BUSINESS
Walter Dagg family ROOTS
The Dagg family tree can be traced back to Modereny, Tipperary, Ireland in the 1800’s. Walter’s great, great grandfather Richard Dagg arrived in Canada during the early 1840’s during The Great Famine in Ireland. The family settled in Kincardine, Bruce County in Ontario on the shores of Lake Huron as farmers. Several Census documents list the family as Irish Protestants. Bernard James Dagg, the, the first son of Richard Dagg and Sarah Hopkins settled in Manitoba in the late 1880’s. He married Constance Maud Averill on July 9th, 1930. The couple had 2 sons Walter and Ralph. Bernard died in St. James Manitoba January 12th, 1936. “Their mother, Ruth, worked as rural school teacher and raised Walter and Ralph on her own in rural Manitoba during the dirty thirties” The family resided in various farming areas such as Clanwilliam, Bethany and Minnedosa – all within about 50 kilometres of Clear Lake, Manitoba. Walter born April 17th, 1931 in Minnedosa, Manitoba and younger brother Ralph caddied at Clear Lake Golf Course.
At age twenty-two in 1953 Walter moved to Calgary and married Betty Ann Young in High River, Alberta in 1954. Shortly the couple moved to Vancouver. Betty worked for Hagen’s Travel plus as a bookkeeper for luxury women’s store, and the Bank of Nova Scotia.” The couple had three sons Bruce, Bill, and Jim. “Dad trained to be an electrician but never practiced. He was colour blind which made it somewhat challenging with the different wire colours.” “Around 1960 Dad worked for Mac &Mac selling wholesale products. While selling hardware one of the products Mac&Mac distributed were Bag Boy carts from Portland, OR. He felt he could do a better job so he started his own business.” By 1960 Bag Boy had became the most popular cart in Western Canada for the personal market as well as the rental market at the golf clubs.
Capilano – the test golf course for Walter’s new cart
In 1963 Walter delivered 60 carts to Jock McKinnon, the head professional at Capilano G&CC, for testing. Walter chose Capilano because of the rugged, hilly contours of the course. Within one month all the handles on the carts had broken. With the golf bag attached to the cart, the delicate balance point on the cart caused the cart to topple dropping the handle on the ground. Walter strengthened the handles by making the handle solid at the point where it joined the main body. He solved the tipping problem by adding weight to the bottom bag plate. Clearly Walter’s cart was superior to the heavy clumsy Bag Boy cart. Soon all professional shops had replaced their fleet of Bag Boy carts with the Glidemaster carts. The pro shop staff could easily make any repairs to the well-balanced light carts.
“Dad felt he could design a lighter cart for the golf course rental business. He called his new product “the Glidemaster Cart”. He distributed as far east as Manitoba. He’d do a yearly fall sales trip and visit all the golf courses in the west. This was mainly to get orders for the next spring”. Soon Walter’s cart became the best cart for the golf course rental market.
Constructing the Glidemaster
“He definitely designed the castings for the Glidemaster Cart. Parts came from various sources. The Globe Foundry located at 1200 Willard St. Burnaby specialized in non-ferrous metals, Globe made the aluminium parts/castings for the golf carts. Globe also made some of the putter heads. The wheels came from a company called R.J.Fallsaw in Australia. The frames of the carts were manufactured from aluminium tubing that was cut to length and then bent by hand with a long handled machine. I worked for him for a couple of summers and well remember working with this machine, which we called “Charlie the Tube Bender”. My Dad was very proud of how well balanced and easy to pull the golf carts were. (And was adamant that the carts should be pulled, not pushed!) Every Fall he loaded his van and visited the golf courses taking orders for his Glidemaster.”
Greenmaster/ Dagg Putter
Around 1963 Walter began making putters under the trade-name Greenmaster. “I believe he did make the molds for his putters and clubs. Globe didn’t make his iron heads. Those were made in Taiwan. The Metro Foundry in Burnaby possibly made the putter heads.”
George Knudsen story at Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf
Knudson
George Knudsen arrived at Capilano about two weeks prior to the scheduled filming for the Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf match between himself and Vancouver’s Stan Leonard. During his practiced rounds clearly George hit the ball perfectly from tee to green. His irons shots never veered left or right of the flag. He just needed to hone his yardages. The drives traveled 250 – 270 yards with a slight draw. But his putting left much to be desired. He could not hit the hole from five feet.
Three days prior to the actual filming day George came to the pro shop a couple hours prior to dusk. He decided he needed a new putter. The staff suggested he keep an open mind and choose one from a new Vancouver golf manufacturer – Walter Dagg. George carried the 10 Dagg putters to the putting green. At dark he announced he had found the solution in a new Greenmaster putter.
During the filming of the first 6 holes George never missed a putt. After each hole Gene Sarazen commented about George’s new putting secret. Gene offered first $50, then $100 to purchase the putter from him. After five holes no amount of money would get George to give up his new secret.
Ironically three years later George competed in a second Shell filming against Al Geiberger at the Victoria GC. George lost badly because of putting woes.
The Al “Tiger” Feldman Story
“Tiger” Feldman
In the spring of 1966 severe arthritis calcium build-up in his hands forced Al Feldman to change from the conventional putting stroke to the new croquet style. Walter designed a new type of croquet putter especially for Al’s condition. On Tuesday two days before the BC Open Walter met “Tiger” Feldman at the US border. Walter’s car trunk contained a very special putter. The Croquet putting style had swept the Northwest after Bob Duden won the 1961 BC Open using a weird bent shafted croquet putter called “the Dude”. Al accepted Walter’s gift and actually used the new untested putter in the first round on Thursday. The new putter allowed Al to putt croquet style but a split putter grip allowed him separate his hands on the shaft. “ He holds the top of the putter with his left hand and guides the putter head with his right hand which he places about eighteen inches above the putter head.” Tiger Feldman chewed up the Point Grey greens with his new putting style shooting 66 to lead the tournamenton the first day.
Tiger lead all three days to win the event. “I would not have shot 209 here this week if it wasn’t for this putter. I would have been lucky to break 80 all three days. Just give me a little more time with it. I’ll get better. I can’t putt like you guys because I never know when my wrists are going to snap when I stroke the ball. I think I’ll name the new gadget Dagg Gone It. ”
Al Nelson’s sidesaddle putters.
Al Nelson “Sidesaddle”
In 1968 the USGA banned croquet style putting. Al Nelson, the head professional at the Vancouver Golf Club, and Walter collaborated to design a new type of putter to conform to the new rule. The new putter allowed the golfer to still face the hole as the croquet style did. But the new sidesaddle putter conformed to the new rule. Namely, the golfer must have both feet on the left side or the right side of the line of flight of the golf ball. The golfer could no longer straddle the line of flight. Walter manufactured and Al distributed the new Al Nelson sidesaddle putter from the trunk of his car. Walter manufactured about one thousand for Al.
The Bankruptcy of Golfcraft Canada Assists Walter
In 1971 at the Golfcraft liquidation sale Walter purchased the golf club components and the repair equipment. Golfcraft, since the early days as Pro-Made served the local golf community as the chief repair spot for the local golf shops. Walter soon filled the void left by the demise of Golfcraft. “Because he could not distinguish colours he had a stick with different colours painted on it and labelled. He’d use the stick to match the shade to determine what colour a club was when refinishing it.” Because of his extensive stock of shafts, iron heads and wood blocks he began assembling woods and irons. Naturally he advanced to his own designs. “The heads for the woods were imported from somewhere in the US as rough blocks, which were then sanded down to the proper size and shape, and custom made parts like the sole plates and inserts”. His woods had one noticeable distinguishing mark. Robertson square head screws fastened the sole plates to the bottom of the woods. His irons cavity had backs embossed with the name “dagg” made in Canada.
A simple search of the Vancouver city Directories show Walter operated under various company names during his forty years in the golf business: Craftsman Industries, Dagg Manufacturing, Dagg Industries, and Pioneer Golf Tech. Final location Pacific Golf Centre Richmond.
The Golf Museum is always on the search for Walter Dagg equipment especially his putters. We have not seen any of his irons or woods. The Glidemaster shown here is an old 70’s model with update wheels. We would like to find an original 1960’s cart.
We would like to extend a special thank-you to Bruce and Bill Dagg for all their assistance with the research for this article.