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MARCH 2015 T H E WEST VANCOUVER HISTORICAL SOCIETY VOL. 32, NO.1 Reeve Joe Leyland and the Capilano Golf Club by Dick Andersen MD Dickenson and myself for the municipality. In discussing the matter, the Guinness man had referred to the fact that they intended to construct a golf course and Reeve Leyland told him,' If you're not prepared to spend more than a million dollars on the club house and golf course, we are not interested in that phase of the matter' The Guinness man then Horseshoe Bay for $120,000, so let's agree to the million dollar figure." Presumably, the Guinness representative was W.S. Eyre, who visited Vancouver in 1930 with Taylor. Taylor subsequently met with Stanley Thompson in the summer of 1931, when he asked him if he would take on the job of building the golf course. Two wonderful books have been written about the Capilano Golf Club, and most of us are familiar with the efforts of A.J.T. Taylor and others to bring about the construction of our world-class course, but I wonder if the credit shouldn't be shared with a lesser figure.' A year ago, 1 noticed a small paragraph in a book called "A Place of Excellence", written by Brtice Ramsey in 1986 about West Vancouver. In it, he described an action of Reeve Joe Leyland in 1930, which just may have determined the form of the golf course that now exists. Now this begs the question, could Taylor have approached Stanley Thompson if a very large amount of money, i.e. "more than a million dollars" had not been approved for spending on the golf course -- a huge amount in 1930? Would that amount have been available if Reeve Leyland had not played hardball with the Guinness representative? After all, as Reeve, Leyland had the final say The fact that the Guinness man had to "retire to consider his position" leads one to beheve that they were not planning to spend as much, otherwise, why leave the room to reconsider? If retired to consider his position.. In the meantime the three of us were shaking wondering what was going to happen. He came out and seemed think that was OK! I can just hear him saying "That's an awful lot of money, but we are getting 6,000 acres of prime landfrom Capilano to Do we owe Joe Leyland a debt of gratitude? in fact they weren't planning to spend as much, could they have hired Stanley Thompson and built the present magnificent course, or would we have ended up with something much less? This paragraph was taken almost verbatim from an interview in 1980, between municipal archivist, R.A. Harrison and G.R. Robson, the municipal solicitor. In this interview, Gordon Robson states, "When the Guinness people decided they were interested they sent out to Bing Crosby at Capilano in 194?. 1982.WVA.RAH Vancouver a man from their British Isles who was their top advisor in all financial matters, and this matter was to consider expenditures of millions of dollars which, in those days, were real dollars... and, I must comment on the final meeting before the outlines of an agreement were made, to a meeting held in the Hotel Vancouver at which he was present and Reeve Leyland and councillor