Ottawa Valley Golf Association
Hall of Fame
Greg Olson
Inducted: 2021
Category: Player (Amateur)
Born: 1954
Birthplace: Bitburg, Germany
Golf Club Affiliation(s):
Pine View, Hylands, Chaudiere (Now Chateau Cartier) Golf Clubs
Canadian Championships:
1980 - Canadian Amateur Men
1980 - Canadian Eisenhower Cup Team Member
Quebec Championships:
1982 - Quebec Amateur
1974, 1976, 1980, 1982 - Quebec Willingdon Cup Team Member
Local Championships:
1971 - High School Championship
1971 - OVGA City & District Junior
1979, 1980 - Ottawa City & District
University of Florida:
1974 - 1978: Golf Team Member
Professional Championships:
1985 PGA of Ottawa Zone Championship
1985 Canadian Tour Players Division Championship
1984, 1985, 1986 - PGA of Ottawa Spring Open
Awards:
1971, 1979, 1980 - ACT / Ottawa Sports Award - Golf
1980 - ACT / Ottawa Sports Award Athlete of the Year
Greg Olson profile information from 2020 July Edition of Flagstick Golf Magazine
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Greg Olson won the Canadian Amateur in 1980 and he is still the only Ottawa golfer to accomplish that feat. He was also close in 1979 finishing 4th and again in 1981 finishing 3rd. "I am super proud of winning both the 1980 individual and team Willingdon Cup championships (Quebec!)", said Greg. He continued, "When I won the Canadian Amateur in 1980, it had been decades since a Quebec team had won. I'm proud of that in addition to my Canadian Amateur solo win. Also, I'm super proud of playing in 6 Canadian Opens, 3 as an amateur and 3 as a Pro (made the cut my first year as a Pro in 1984)."
The Associated Canadian Travelers, now the Ottawa Sports Awards, recognized Greg three times as the Golfer of the Year and in 1980 named him their Ottawa Sports Award Athlete of the Year. Bob Stimpson, Andy Nezan and Don Rioux are the only other Ottawa amateur golfers to be recognized as Athletes of the Year.
After winning the Quebec Amateur in 1982, Greg decided to turn professional because "At that point I felt like I'd accomplished enough in amateur golf and decided I better give professional golf a shot rather than ever regret not trying."
After turning pro in the Fall of 1982, he had as he described in a 2020 Flagstick Golf Magazine profile story "...an up and down professional career over the next 5 years in Asia, North America and Europe".
When he stopped playing in 1987 Greg ended up in Toronto working for an ad agency that had Apple Canada as a client. He ended up moving over and joining Apple in Markham in the summer of 1989. By 1994 Apple wanted him to move to California. Newly married, Tracey and Greg left Canada for Silicon Valley working for Apple in Cupertino, just outside San Jose. That’s where their daughter was born. He eventually became the US Advertising Manager for Apple and he worked at Apple a total of 15 years in two separate stints. His career post-golf is essentially a high tech marketing career. In addition to Apple he worked at Hewlett Packard and Symantec in the San Jose/SF Bay Area. After 21 years he and his wife were ready for a lifestyle change and with their daughter they left California and moved to Seattle after he accepted a job managing the Amazon Prime Retention Strategy team in 2015. Greg now works for Adobe managing a team of digital marketing consultants working with mostly high tech Fortune 500 companies across the US.
Greg and his wife Tracey live in Seattle, Washington with their daughter Samantha.