Halloween may have come and gone, but Alberta’s golf courses are never short on ghost stories. One of the most haunting belongs to the Edmonton Country Club — the province’s oldest private golf club, established in 1896. Over its long and storied history, the club has witnessed it all: moves, renovations, robberies, and even murder.
Among those who once worked within its walls was Phyllis Carter, a dedicated cook who was in her first season at the club. But her life — and her marriage to Reginald Carter — would take a dark and tragic turn, forever tying her spirit to the very place she served so faithfully.
To this day, staff and guests alike have seen, heard, and felt the presence of spirits through the clubhouse after dark. Some say it’s nothing more than old stories… but others swear that Phyllis and Reginald Carter still walk the grounds.
Read on to uncover the chilling true story that left its mark on the Edmonton Country Club, from the club’s 125th anniversary publication.
The Story
In 1952, the club was still on the outskirts of the city, with employees often spending extended periods before heading back home. That was the case with Phyllis Carter, who was working in her first season as a cook at the club, having come to Canada from Essex, England, in 1951. Given the club’s proximity to the city, Carter lived in the staff quarters near the main clubhouse. Carter’s 18-year-old daughter also worked at the club.
On the morning of Friday, August 22, Carter’s husband, Reginald, a construction worker, appeared unannounced at the club, which was quiet. What led Reginald to head to the club is unclear; newspaper accounts provide no details as to his motive. Rumours at the club suggested he may have been concerned his wife was having an affair with the groundskeeper. Regardless, what played out after his arrival was shocking and generated headlines.
Thomas Molyneaux, the club’s head professional, saw Reginald there in the morning. Not that this was out of the ordinary-Reginald was known to visit his wife occasionally. Reginald stood by his car near the club gates and waved at Molyneaux as he walked towards the clubhouse.
Phyllis Carter had already been working for several hours by this point, having served breakfast to the staff before heading back to the clubhouse for more provisions.
The police contended Reginald Carter confronted his wife in the clubhouse, stabbing and strangling her. No one at the club was aware of what was happening, according to accounts. Later that morning, Molyneaux walked over the bridge that connected the tee to the 18th green, and saw a noose hanging on the bridge, but nothing else. Strangely, he doesn’t appear to have made much of this discovery, and it apparently didn’t concern him.
However, around noon, Peter Stiksma, who worked on the grounds crew, found Phyllis’s body. The Edmonton Journal accounts suggest there were two murder scenes— one in the kitchen, and one in a bedroom located nearby, indicating Phyllis may have tried to evade her husband. The paper said she was discovered “fully clothed,” with a butcher knife in her back and a sweater knotted around her neck. Frank O’Rourke, who also worked in course maintenance, saw the noose tied to the bridge, and unlike Molyneaux he was concerned enough to investigate, where he found a body in the ravine below, which police had difficulty getting down to remove. In all, it was a horrible scene.
Putting the situation together, it would appear Reginald confronted his wife, murdered her, and then, feeling remorseful, hanged himself on the bridge. However, Reginald had used a rope that was far too long in his suicide and was decapitated by the force of having dropped so far, which explains why there was a noose on the bridge, but no body. “The daughter, who spent Thursday night in the city with a sister, was informed of the tragedy when she returned to the club at noon Friday,” the paper reported.
An obituary in the Edmonton Journal noted the couple were survived by four children. The murder of Phyllis Carter created one of the great legends at the club: that her ghost continues to haunt the clubhouse to this day.
The Haunting
For decades after her death – right up until the time of writing of this book (2021) – staff and the occasional guest have been frightened by an apparition that many feel resides in the clubhouse. Those who have experienced the ghost say there’s a common thread -the presence is a woman in proximity to the kitchen.
On a chilly fall evening in 2003, Matthew Walker was busy with a small drywall job in the dining room. Everyone was gone for the day, and the radio was his only companion. Matthew had his back to the dining room as he worked, when he suddenly felt someone looking over his shoulder. He turned to see who it was this late in the evening. But no one was present, and he resumed his work until the same feeling came over him once again, only more strongly.
He quickly turned. But again, no one was there. He turned off the radio and began to listen, determining there were “chopping” sounds coming from the kitchen. Then he suffered something he had only read about in books – he was paralyzed by a shooting sensation up his spine and back of the neck. Instead of finding out who was in the kitchen, he backed away, grabbed his gear, and went home.
Matthew finished the wall the next day when there were plenty of people around. He looked in the kitchen with the General Manager Brad Pinnell to see what machine could make that sound and nothing fit. But Brad took Matthew seriously, as he’d had his own experience the year before.
In the spring of 2002, Brad and a server were the first to arrive for the day. With fresh coffee prepared, Brad went to grab a cup. He chatted amiably with the waitress about the day’s duties, all while doctoring his brew. The dining doors were wide open, and as Brad fixed his coffee and kept up his chatter, a woman walked past in the dining room. Grabbing his coffee and stirring as he went, Brad followed the woman into the dining room. But when he finally looked up, no one was there. Brad stood in confusion, gaping at the empty scene in front of him. Just then from behind him, the waitress entered the dining room. “The hair stood up on the back of my neck,” he said. It was a feeling Brad had never before experienced. He wondered who that woman had been.
The figure made itself known to many staffers over the years, including Assistant Manager Shirley Chalmers, who began work at the club in 1984. She was often alone in the office late in the evening, and during her first year on the job, she’d often hear chopping sounds from the kitchen or footsteps in the upstairs of the clubhouse, even though no other employees were working. For about five months, Shirley was the only occupant in the office when one fall evening she heard the unmistakeable banging sounds of someone sitting at the empty metal desk.
The experience unnerved her and she simply went home. But the issue continued and after one such experience, she approached General Manager Leo Blindenbach to ask what the cause of the noise might be. Blindenbach told her employees had often encountered what they felt was a ghost in the clubhouse, but it didn’t appear to have any hostile intent. Interestingly, that settled Chalmers’s nerves, and she was no longer bothered by the strange noises in the clubhouse. However, Phyllis might not be the only ghost that haunts the clubhouse.
On at least two separate occasions, wedding guests walking out on the bridge in the evening have told of seeing a headless body floating over the bridge. The visions have come with feelings of anger and despair.
In the fall of 2012, Beth Baker and a co-worker were working in the Snack Shack when they were spooked so badly, they had to flee. The music they were listening to began skipping songs and they heard a voice, apparently in mid-air, saying words they couldn’t decipher, leading the pair to run to the safety of the clubhouse.
Their experience isn’t unique; the staff working in the building at the end of the bridge often feel they are being watched, and many times locked doors swing open on their own. A few times, books fell off shelves, or the paper towels would unravel by themselves. Baker said her worst scare was at closing time on a calm Sunday evening in the fall. She heard the banging of the wooden table that was leaning against the back of one of the coolers.
Knowing it couldn’t make a sound without something moving it, Beth went to text her coworker about this latest ghostly incident. As she grabbed her phone, she felt someone blowing on her face. She sprinted outside, extremely shaken by the incident. After composing herself she went back to continue the closing up but felt the mood in the shack was angry and she was not welcome. She had to get someone from the clubhouse to help her conclude her tasks.
There are many stories of this nature and without records, it’s difficult to know when they began. But most people feel it’s related to the Carter deaths. A longstanding club surely has its ghosts, but in the case of Edmonton Country Club, they seem all too real.