Although Allan Boes had never had a golf lesson, he ruled the Manitoba Amateur and Open championships throughout most of the 1940’s.

Boes credited the late Leo Johnson with introducing him to competitive golf. “He got me to a private club (Assiniboine) from the old Deer Lodge course.” said Boes, “and it was April 13, 1935 that he took me with him to my first game at Southwood.” Boes was a life member at Southwood from 1958 and the club champion on fifteen occasions, including ten consecutive years. Southwood retired the trophy in 1957 and adorned it with Boes’s name but, for good measure, he laid claim to the new award in 1959 and 1960.

However, before his Southwood dynasty, “Boesy”, as he was known to all, had his taste of competitive golf at the national level when he joined Bobby Reith, Bud Donovan, and Danny Stack in his first of twelve appearances on the provincial Willingdon Cup team. By 1940, his strong game and promotion by Leo Johnson took Boes to the Canadian Open at Toronto Scarboro. Boes shot a par-288 to finish as the second low amateur.

At Pine Ridge in 1942, Boes won the James Richardson and Sons tournament with a nine under par-63, a total that stood as a record for the par-72 layout. He was also nine under par 28-32-60 at the Kildonan Municipal course to beat Doug Woods in the match play final of the Canadian Wheat Board championship. The Wheat Board was another chapter of Boes’s career and one reason why he never turned professional. Boes was employed there for thirty-five years and credited the firm for giving him a chance to play golf. He scored five holes-in-one in his career.