Golf can be a relaxing pastime for some and a frustrating obsession for others. But for Business Administration grad Guido Cerasani, golf has been the beating heart behind 31 years of community and family at Shooters Family Golf Centre.

Shooters is well-known in Winnipeg as the city’s only privately-owned 18-hole course. Open year-round, it features a par-57 course, a driving range that includes grass tees, a miniature golf course, and a pro shop. The 2731 Main Street location sits at the edge of the city and also boasts a restaurant and outdoor patio.

It’s an impressively diverse business. For Cerasani, though, having family involved at every level is the best part. His son Eason runs the pro shop and daughter Amy leads the restaurant operations and food services. Both are also RRC Polytech graduates.  Cerasani’s wife, Sue, is also a big part of the family aspect behind the ‘Family Golf Centre’.

“We’re fortunate because our kids were born and raised at the golf course, so they spend every day of their lives with us,” said Cerasani. “One of the pre-requisites of them taking over management operations is that they had to graduate from the Business Administration program at RRC Polytech, and they both did. So yeah, it’s a family affair.”

Cerasani graduated from the College’s Business Administration program in 1978. Shortly after, he began a successful 20-year banking career with TD. While he originally thought of himself as handy man in high school and envisioned a future as an electrician, success in early computing — and a bit of luck — changed everything for Cerasani when he decided to divert from a friend group attending university and instead opted to fast-track his financial career with hands-on learning at RRC Polytech.

“Everybody says ‘you know what you’re going to do’, but I really had no idea what I was going to do,” he said. “In high school, I took typing classes and it turns out it was the best class I ever took in my life because I could type 65 words per minute. Then when I got into banking, we had to do a lot of our own typing.”

“That said, I like to fix things and build things, I like to tinker and make electronic devices, and because of that I thought I’d be something of a mechanical guy, doing something with my hands and not working in an office. But you just never know – at least, I didn’t know right away.”

“Going to RRC Polytech was the best decision I ever made, because if I hadn’t gone there, I don’t think I would be the businessman I am today.”

Guido Cerasani, RRC Polytech graduate (Business Administration, 1978)

After joining TD within a week of graduating, at a time when “companies were begging you to work because of a labour shortage,” Cerasani held roles from management trainee to Branch Manager, Senior Credit Manager, and Senior Commercial Credit Manager. While he admittedly didn’t use many of the accounting skills honed at RRC Polytech in the early years, the technical skills kicked in as he moved up the corporate ladder.

“Once I got into commercial credit, I went ‘geez, I took all this in college!’ and I was pulling all my textbooks out to help jog my memory,” he laughed.

Even with success at TD, though, Cerasani had eyes on working for himself.

“I’m a workaholic and I figured if I was going to work that hard… why not work for myself?”

“As a corporate banker, I was being invited out to play golf at St. Charles [Country Club], Niakwa [Country Club], Glendale [Golf Club] – all these high-end courses – and coming from an immigrant family, where we had very little growing up, I figured I had to build a course where there were no memberships, where money isn’t a determining factor on whether you can play or not,” Cerasani said.

“So, I came up with the idea for Shooters. I got some land together to build it, and the rest is history.”

Cerasani opened Shooters to the public in Spring of 1994 as a driving range and mini golf course.  From 1994 to 1998 he continued to work at TD while building the golf course, with the first 9 opening in September 1998.  Being close to the city’s perimeter, he’s quite literally seen Winnipeg build up around him over the past 30-plus years.

“When I first started here, I could sit in my little hut here with my wife, and see the traffic going by on McPhillips,” he reminisced.

One thing that’s remained consistent, though, is the community’s interest in golf and the appreciation of a course that’s determined to remain accessible to the masses.

“The closeness of the community is unbelievable,” said Cerasani. “A lot of the kids we hire stay working here through college and university. It’s a great ‘people business’ to be in. I always say this isn’t the dentist’s or doctor’s office. If you can’t smile here, you shouldn’t be here.”

Community has also been a big part of Cerasani’s connection to RRC Polytech. A vocal supporter over the years, he’s managed to stay connected to his graduating class of 1978. The alumni group gets together at least twice a year and recently held a dinner at the College celebrating a reunion. RRC Polytech’s President and CEO, Fred Meier, even stopped in to say hello.

“You meet so many new people in a short time in the program, and I was fortunate to meet some great people who are still my best friends. It’s just one of those things where you have the right combination of personalities and people that creates a tight group that can meet and reminisce and tell stories.”

As Shooters expanded its business over the years — hosting social events, celebrations, business meetings and offering catering for off-site events — that sense of community has remained intact and has continued to drive success as golf’s popularity exploded during the pandemic.

“Everyone thought I was nuts when I started this venture, including my wife and my parents,” laughed Cerasani. “But I took the chance, and, in the end, it’s worked out.”

In May 2014, the family added to their business by purchasing the neighbouring Northgate Trailer Park, which had 76 mobile homes at the time. They recently completed an 81-lot expansion and have renamed the park to Rivergrove Mobile Home Estates.

A proud partner of RRC Polytech, Cerasani was one of 41 outstanding graduates featured in the College’s Polytechnic Proud campaign. You can learn more about the campaign here.

Profile by John Gaudes (Creative Communications, 2012)