Betty Cole winning the 1957 Canadian Women's Amateur championship, holding the Duchess of Connaught trophy.
Betty Stanhope-Cole was a woman ahead of her time. Tall and tomboyish, with a charming gap-toothed grin, she was fiercely competitive and independent. Her peers today call her the Wayne Gretzky of women's amateur golf. She amassed a formidable record at home and abroad with the dictum: "I hated to lose more than I wanted to win."
On Jan. 27, Ms. Stanhope-Cole died at the age of 79 of lung cancer in Edmonton, where she grew up and honed her craft. For years her parents lived in the home closest to the entrance of the Highlands Golf Club. When they died, Ms. Stanhope-Cole took over the estate, becoming the unofficial matron of the course. A park nearby was named in her honour in 2011.
"She was different than most moms," said Rob Cole, one of her two children. "She was either always in the curling rink [she played at the national level] or on the golf course. It was the norm for me."
He adds that she was also able to be very present in her children's lives and was careful not to put her sporting career before them.
"I think she did a remarkable job at balancing that during an era that was pretty traditional. Back then, we lived in a male-dominated world, but that didn't bother her. She just marched ahead and did her own thing."
And march she did. "She drove like she played golf," Mr. Cole said. "Like, 100 miles an hour. Hard, passing people. If you got ahead of her at a light, she'd want to beat you."
While playing for a national team in New Zealand in 1963, Ms. Stanhope-Cole bravely took to the wheel in a country where motorists drive on the left side of the road. Fearless, she sped along the highway, exceeding the speed limit.
When a car loomed alongside her at the same rate of speed, Ms. Stanhope-Cole accelerated, only to find out so that the other vehicle was an unmarked police car.
The police officer issued her a steep fine. Ms. Stanhope-Cole threw herself at the mercy of the court, claiming that she was a young woman in a foreign country who was concerned for her safety and that she had no intent to race. Problem solved. She always found a way.
With talent, indefatigable attitude and strong will, Ms. Stanhope-Cole became the top female golfer in Canada in 1974 and 1976. Before that, she delivered a string of triumphs: 1956 Canadian Junior Girls champion, 1957 Canadian Ladies' champion (the first woman from Western Canada to do so), 1967 Canadian Ladies' Close champion and Alberta Ladies amateur champion 16 times. In all, she won 40 City of Edmonton Championships.
Ms. Stanhope-Cole represented Canada five times between 1963 and 1976 and played on 25 Alberta interprovincial teams. She considered turning pro, according to her son, but decided against it because the women's professional golf tour, then in its infancy, offered little financial incentive or support.
In 1980 she gave up competitive golf, but devoted herself to becoming a mentor to young players and to the Canadian Ladies' Golf Association.
She is a member of three Halls of Fame: the Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame, the Golf Canada Hall of Fame and the Edmonton Sports Hall of Fame. In both the Edmonton and Alberta Halls, she also gained induction on the strength of her curling exploits. She skipped three Alberta championship curling teams, and placed second in the 1978 Canadian Lassie (national championship).
Betty Stanhope was born in Calgary on Sept. 21, 1937, to Rob Stanhope and his wife, Lillian, a fiery redhead who had been orphaned and worked on a farm from the age of nine or 10 to take care of her sister. "She was tough as nails," Mr. Cole said.
Lillian was outgoing and had many friends and a warmth about her.
Her husband worked hard in the oil fields after crude was discovered at Leduc, Alta., in 1947. He was "difficult," Mr. Cole said. He stood more than six feet tall, with broad shoulders, but underneath it all, he had a soft heart.
Betty was a product of the two. She was blessed with the warm fire of her mother, but had a more reserved personality.
Another difference between the mother and daughter could be readily seen on the golf course. Lillian was a terrible golfer. On one occasion, however, Lillian scored a lucky hole-in-one at Highlands, which drove her daughter crazy.
During her storied career, Betty never accomplished a hole-in-one.
Lillian – or Nan, as her family called her – scored her ace with a shot that never got off the ground. It ricocheted off a tree and bounced around before it rolled back onto the green and into the cup.
Betty was 11 and playing tennis when her father suggested she take over a lesson at a driving range at Grierson Hill in Edmonton that he could not attend. Betty claimed it was a set-up, but she quickly became hooked.
Allan Wachowich, a former Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta, came to know Betty at the driving range, when he was 14 years old and she was about 12. "I had already learned to golf and was golfing pretty good," he recalled. "But she was out-driving me. She was probably 30 pounds lighter than I was."
Her raw talent was developed further by Canadian golf Hall of Famer Henry Martell, known for his sweet swing. She learned from the best.
"Her swing was magnificent," said fellow team member Cathy McMillan, who was 15 when she met Betty. "It was beautiful. So perfect. You look at the kids these days, like Rory McIlroy, her swing was as good as that, if not better. She didn't try to kill it like the young men today do. It was a beautiful swing, partly because of her height. The takeaway and follow-through were just perfect.
"And, oh god, she was a mean machine and competitive. She was tough." Still, Ms. McMillan found her Alberta team member always willing to impart helpful advice. And because Ms. McMillan lived out of town – in Ponoka – Betty would always allow her to crash at her house during Edmonton tournaments. "We had fun," Ms. McMillan said. "She was a special gal. I think she and Marlene Streit are the two greatest golfers that this country has ever produced."
Life didn't always deliver a smooth path. More than 30 years ago, Ms. Stanhope-Cole underwent a kidney transplant just in time to avoid dialysis. She took anti-rejection drugs for the rest of her life, but none of that slowed her down.
She married Gordon Cole, an engineer who eventually became chief executive officer with Interprovincial Pipe Line Ltd., which later morphed into Enbridge Inc. More than 20 years ago, they divorced. He died of cancer four years ago.
Ms. Stanhope-Cole was known for having a dry sense of humour that could be biting at times. "She was incredibly opinionated," her son said. "She and I fought like cats and dogs, just because we're both the same. But we're probably the only two who could fight like that and still get along, just because we're so strong-minded."
Mr. Cole caddied for his mother for years when he became old enough. "I think I was the only one that could fight back and not be fired," he said. "If it was anybody else, she would have told them to get the hell off her bag. I could put her in her place, although I was very selective."
Yet the two have a special bond, and Mr. Cole ensured that his mother crossed a few items off her bucket list before she died. A couple of summers ago, he talked her into visiting Glen Abbey Golf Course in Oakville, Ont., to view her Hall of Fame display.
"While she was proud of her accomplishments, she was never boastful," he said.
Last spring, he persuaded her to attend the Masters tournament in Georgia. Behind the scenes, Mr. Cole arranged for her to meet her idol, Jack Nicklaus – without telling her.
"She was just like a schoolgirl," Mr. Cole said of the meeting. "She was so excited, yet she was pretty composed. You could tell after that she didn't have any words as we walked away." Her first concern afterward was that she had offended Mr. Nicklaus by calling him "Jack."
An autographed photo of Ms. Stanhope-Cole with Mr. Nicklaus and his wife, Barbara, arrived in time for Mr. Cole to present it to her on Mother's Day.
However, during the Masters, Mr. Cole noticed that his mother was fatigued at climbing the hilly course even though she had been quite fit until then, often walking on a treadmill and going for walks outdoors. "She was always going 100 miles an hour," he said.
She developed a bad cough and cold in the fall. By December, her cancer had quickly advanced.
"She just marched on like she always did," Mr. Cole said. "She never really talked about it. She certainly didn't seek any sympathy."
She left a huge footprint in many areas.
Ms. Stanhope-Cole leaves her son, Rob; daughter, Jackie; and grandchildren, Brian, Tyler, Talia and Tanner.
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