KELOWNA – It’s easy to say that Greg Forbes went from looking for a hole in one, to drilling several holes.
After growing up playing golf in Oakville, Forbes earned a golf scholarship to study at Coastal Carolina University, and returned to Canada to tee off a career with retail giant Golf Town that ultimately brought him to Kelowna.
Greg Forest is enrolled in the Okanagan College carpentry program
“I had been opening stores across Ontario, and the opportunity came up to move to Kelowna. I couldn’t resist,” he recalls.
Last August, he signed up for the Carpenter Foundation program at Okanagan College, thrown into a completely foreign world filled with tools, supplies and machinery.
“I did not handle a circular saw until I stepped into the class,” he says. “It’s amazing to see how comfortable I am now, only a few months later, handling tools. It is so satisfying completing projects and knowing that I did that.”
Forbes has completed the program after completing the final exam, and hopes to work alongside Red Seal Carpenter in addition to working the links during the summer months. With enough hours, he could become eligible to register for Level 2 of the apprenticeship program.
At one time, he was ranked in the top 100 in Canada for amateur golfers and made the Canadian Amateur Golf team. Forbes eventually earned his pro card and began playing a lot of PGA of BC events, especially on the Interior Tour.
In 2013, he shifted energies more to the game, joining Black Mountain Golf Club as a PGA Golf Professional. “You’re doing something you love and coaching people. It’s great,” he says.
His career allowed his family to buy a 1979 fixer-upper home that needed upgrades.
“I’ve never been a handy person at all,” he chuckles, adding that they hired a Red Seal carpenter friend to do some renovations. “I watched and learned, helped out where I could. But here I am in my 40s, and I found I kind of liked working on the house. I thought, why not try carpentry?”