Southampton Golf & Country Club owner Kevin O’Brien toasting the course with bagpiper Steve Wolfe during the club’s inaugural gala April 29.

Hub Staff

An inaugural gala to celebrate the new Southampton Golf & Country Club, formerly Chippeway Golf & Country Club, was held April 29 on the putting green and in the newly branded Hampton Hall.

With greens blessed by bagpiper Steve Wolfe, Club owner Kevin O’Brien offered a toast and presented his team of employees to the members. O’Brien highlighted a new retirement community to be built on Country Club lands, a new pub named after the Club’s mascot, O’Brien’s dog Riley; and a new focus on the Club as a wedding venue with a seasonal marquee tent for receptions to be erected June 3.

O’Brien is formerly of Thornhill, Ontario and retired to be a “gentleman” farmer in Flesherton. He, along with his brothers, purchased and sold the Owen Sound Country Club in 2011 and met and brought along many of the previous Owen Sound employees to work with him at the rebranded Southampton Club.

“Southampton is really a gem of Grey Bruce,” said O’Brien during the gala festivities, citing the town as quaint and beautiful with the bonus of having the Saugeen Memorial Hospital. “I know that there’s a great wave coming here and I’m just lucky enough to be a part of it,” he said.

Kevin O’Brien introduced the Club’s General Manager Sandy Simpson and his team of employees - from event managers to groundskeepers - during the inaugural gala April 29.

Bagpiper Steve Wolfe blessed the course during the gala and piped past O’Riley’s Pub, which Club owner, Kevin O’Brien, hopes will open by the end of May.

Guests and members dined inside the newly branded Hampton Hall April 29.

Members and guests in attendance tried to sink their ball into a hole to win a bottle of Scotch, during the inaugural gala April 29.

Riley, Southampton Golf & Country Club’s mascot, after which O'Riley's Pub is named, during the inaugural gala April 29.