Arnold Palmer
The other day I walked into the Weston Golf and Country Club from the back entrance after parking my car, and immediately came across walls laden with photos of Arnold Palmer. Palmer, of course, won the 1955 Canadian Open at this fine Willie Park Jr. course that I have enjoyed playing for years. I used to play the Willie Park amateur tournament nearly every year, and from what I hear, it's still one of the top amateur tournaments in Ontario.
Palmer's win was his first as a professional, and Weston isn't about to let any of its members or guests forget it. Palmer's smiling face is everywhere. There's even a statue of him behind the first tee. I was pleasantly surprised to see a framed copy in the downstairs corridor in the clubhouse of an article I wrote in the Globe in September 2005 on the occasion of Palmer's return to Weston on the 50th anniversary of his win. As I say, Arnie is everywhere at Weston.
That fact got me thinking about players who have for one reason or another become associated with Canadian clubs. Here are a few who come to mind. As far as I know, none has a statue in his name at the associated club.
Tiger Woods, Glen Abbey Golf Club, Oakville, Ont.: He hit that amazing six-iron from a fairway bunker on the last hole of the 2000 Canadian Open. The 218-yard shot carried the water, sailed over the flag on the right corner of the green, and finished in the fringe. Woods birdied the hole to maintain his one-shot advantage over Grant Waite, with whom he was playing. Most every golfer who plays the Abbey remarks on the shot and the spot. Many golfers have tried the shot. Woods and that bunker at the 18th are forever linked.
Lee Trevino, National Golf Club of Canada, Woodbridge, Ont.: Trevino won the 1979 Canadian PGA Championship at the National, when he set a competitive course record of four-under-par 67. The National was even more difficult than it is now, notwithstanding the changes to toughen it up in recent years. Believe me, it was super-duper tough for that tournament. I know, because I caddied for Jim Nelford, who finished fourth. Tom Watson holed out from a greenside bunker on the last hole to nose out Nelford for third. Nelford played with Trevino when he shot that 67, and his last four holes remain the best examples of shotmaking I've seen. He birdied every hole, each with a different type of shot. He cut the ball in from the pond left of the 15th green to get to the hole location at the front left. His 3-iron hugged the water before sliding toward the hole, which itself hugged the water. Who starts a ball out over water? Trevino, that's who. He had the shots and he hit the shots, on a course that was set up so tough it would have made Carnoustie, otherwise known as Carnasty, look easy. People who were there during the tournament still remember Trevino's accomplishment in shooting that 67, and in winning. I sure do.
George Knudson, Cape Breton Highlands Links, Ingonish Beach, N.S.: Knudson played a Shell's Wonderful World of Golf match at this Stanley Thompson masterpiece in 1965. He beat Al Balding, and later said he loved the course so much he'd be happy to walk it with his wife Shirley and have a picnic there, never mind playing. Knudson, who died in 1989 when he was 51, spoke highly of the Highlands Links whenever the subject came up, and even when it didn't. If folks got to talking about favourite Canadian courses, and must-visits, Knudson mentioned the Highlands Links. In the U.S., it was Cypress Point. In Canada, the Highlands Links. Last time I visited, the video of the Knudson/Balding match was being played in the pro shop on a constant loop. Knudson and the Highlands Links: a twosome forever.
ALSO FROM LORNE RUBENSTEIN:
Laetitia Beck making a difference in the game
Things in the 'not-to-obvious' department
Hadwin mapping out his golf future
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Lorne Rubenstein has written a golf column for The Globe and Mail since 1980. He has played golf since the early 1960s and was the Royal Canadian Golf Association's first curator of its museum and library at the Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville, Ontario and the first editor of Score, Canada's Golf Magazine, where he continues to write a column and features. He has won four first-place awards from the Golf Writers Association of America, one National Magazine Award in Canada, and, most recently, he won the award for the best feature in 2009 from the Golf Journalists Association of Canada. Lorne has written 11 books, including The Natural Golf Swing, with George Knudson (1988); Links: An Insider's Tour Through the World of Golf (1990); The Swing, with Nick Price (1997); The Fundamentals of Hogan, with David Leadbetter (2000); A Season in Dornoch: Golf and Life in the Scottish Highlands (2001); Mike Weir: The Road to the Masters (2003); A Disorderly Compendium of Golf, with Jeff Neuman (2006); and his latest, This Round's on Me (2009). He is a member of the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame and the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. Lorne can be reached at rube@sympatico.ca . You can now follow him on Twitter @lornerubenstein