Mickey Creek Golf Club has new owners working to expand and renovate the club and make it a central hub for cottagers, skidooers and anyone stopping by to stay a little longer.

Roderick Quinn and his wife Robin Quinn moved to the Pontiac in 2019 and knew they wanted to invest in . . .

something in the region and when the property came up for sale, they saw it as an opportunity to bring people into the Pontiac and build on tourism in the area, said Roderick

The Pontiac is home to Roderick. Just over the mountain range of the golf course lives his mother and father on their ancestral farm, and near it is his father’s family farm, Quinn Farms. Although he was born in Ottawa he grew up in the Pontiac and has many fond memories of growing up and visiting the area.

Robin on the other hand is from the northeast coast of Quebec, and the Pontiac was new to her.

Always working for other people, Roderick told The Equity that he was always a hard worker, he saw how that translates into a good company and so when he started his first business up north and succeeded he couldn’t go back to working for someone else, he said.

“It’s hard to go back to work for anyone else because your time becomes more valuable and once you realize what you can do you know. I’ve always wanted to be a business person, and now we are. Robin and I are partners in this,” said Roderick

The couple met when Robin was working up north as an education consultant for the Cree School Board. At the time Roderick was planning on getting into the army and only planned to stay there for three months. After they met his plans shifted and stayed there for almost 18 years.

Being an entrepreneur himself, Roderick started off working up north for the Cree government in the environmental department and was approached by both the Cree Nation and the government to create accommodation for exploration companies. He then started Mistay Enterprises, through that experience he realized he couldn’t go back to working under anyone.

Robin has always worked in education but the flexibility of doing her day job remotely has allowed her to do both, which she enjoys as starting a business is all very new to her. She highlighted that the perks of being a business owner is being in control of her own work and also being surrounded by nature.

When they first moved to the area, Robert had conversations with the warden and the mayors about what was needed in the area and what kept coming up was promoting tourism and creating places to be able to come and stay here, so lodging or cabin services, he said.

And once they purchased the golf course on April 15, 2021, they saw what the region wanted and their plans for the golf course aligned with what the MRC was looking for from businesses in the area.

To have people stay longer they want to build 10 cabins and create ski-doo and cross-country ski trails for the winter. The golf course is 120 acres of land which they hope to utilize as much as they can and create green spaces and turn it into a “jewel” said Roderick.

“We’re working closely with the MRC right now to get into some of the funding they have to develop this vision. And we’re gonna be meeting with them very shortly to try and see if we can do it sooner than later. Because we need to be able to attract people from Renfrew, from Pembroke, because that’s what’s happening is it’s spilling out everywhere else but here.”

They currently have finished renovating the kitchen with an extensive menu hoping to add seafood and steaks for all the food lovers and they also have a bar. Down the line, he hopes to open a steak house, he has fond memories of eating the best steak at Fred’s, a hotel in Chapeau, and he wants to create a place like that because it was also a place people gathered.

“Every time the summer came around you’re talking to people from Minnesota from all over the country and they knew to go to Fred’s to get a good steak. There’s nowhere like that anymore. But I’d like to bring this up to be a nice steakhouse for the Pontiac or something like Fred had,” said Roderick.

Because golfing is a seasonal sport part of their business plan is to keep the place running by offering other services throughout the winter and fall seasons. This includes dart and card tournaments and live music once a week

No matter where Roderick travelled he always felt like the Pontiac drew him back, “I see the maples and the oaks and I get around to Danford Lake, and I’m like ‘I’m home.’ I get here and the mountains there and the rivers there. I mean you don’t see the diversity like this is a temperate deciduous area,” said Roderick.

The vision Robin and Rodrick both share is that they want their golf course to be a meeting place and a space they can host people and events and for people to come and have a good time, they said. They don’t want people to feel uncomfortable by creating restrictions on how they dress because they want people to come out and have a good time. “It’s mostly about if you can come out and enjoy yourself and have some fun that’s our goal. It’s not to be fancy or what have you. It’s really to have fun,” said Roderick.

The Grand opening is on June 18, people can expect Irish live music from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and a country rock band from 8 p.m. onwards.

The golf club is the main attraction currently but the owners, Roderick and his wife Robin Quinn hope to develop more for people to do when they visit.

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