It's difficult to compare golfers from different eras because, above all, of changes in equipment. Bobby Jones once said that a golfer can only beat players in his era, a comment that is so obvious it's rarely acknowledged or given credence.
But we can look at hard numbers. I was wondering which Canadian golfer has won the most national championships. It wasn't apparent to me, so I reviewed the candidates. I'm considering national championships such as the Canadian Junior, Amateur, Mid-Amateur and Senior, as well as international championships, whether amateur or professional. This isn't an effort at trying to determine the best Canadian golfer ever. It's simply an exercise in numbers.
Graham Cooke, the accomplished Quebec amateur and course architect, has won 11 national championships: seven Canadian Mid-Amateurs and four Canadian Seniors. He can still win anytime he tees it up.
Gary Cowan won a Canadian Junior, a Canadian Amateur, and two U.S. Amateurs. Cowan, 72, continues to play well.
Brent Franklin won six national championships: two Canadian Juniors, three Canadian Amateurs, and one Canadian PGA Championship. That's quite a triple play: the Junior, the Amateur, and the national PGA Championship.
Mary Ann Hayward has won the last two Canadian Seniors and four Canadian Amateurs. She's playing the U.S. Senior Women's Amateur at the Honours in Ooltewah, Tenn., as I write. Hayward was second in the 36-hole qualifier, shooting 70-76, and is competing now in the match- play segment that comprises the actual championship.
George Knudson won one Canadian Junior and five Canadian PGA Championships. Knudson died in 1989, when he was 51. He won eight PGA Tour events.
Stan Leonard won nine national championships: eight CPGAs, and one CPGA Match-Play. Leonard was 90 when he died in 2005
George S. Lyon won eight Canadian Amateurs between 1898 and 1914. He also won the gold medal at the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis, when golf was in the Games. I consider that a victory in an international championship. His total, then, is nine championships. Lyon was 79 when he died in 1938.
Ada Mackenzie, who founded the Ladies Club in Thornhill, Ont., won nine national championships, including five Canadian Ladies Amateurs and four Canadian Seniors.
Jim Nelford won two Canadian Amateurs. He's now the Director of Academy Experiences for ClubLink.
Moe Norman, who died in 2004, at 75, won two Canadian Amateurs, one CPGA, and seven CPGA Seniors. Ten national championships in total.
Bob Panasik has won eight national championships: one Canadian Junior, two CPGAs, two CPGA Club Pros, and three Canadian PGA Seniors.
Sandra Post won three Canadian Juniors and the 1968 LPGA Championships. Post won seven other LPGA events. She's been teaching golf for some years.
Doug Roxburgh has won one Canadian Junior and four Canadian Amateurs. He's the director of Golf Canada's high performance programs.
Cathy Sherk has won two Canadian Amateurs, three CPGAs, one U.S. Amateur, and she was the low individual in a World Amateur.
C. Ross (Sandy) Somerville won 11 national championships: six Canadian Amateurs, four Canadian Seniors, and one U.S. Amateur, in 1932. Somerville was 88 when he died in 1991.
Mike Weir has won only one championship, but what a win it was: the 2003 Masters. Some people will argue that the Masters isn't a championship, and that what it really is is Augusta National's invitational tournament. Fair enough. But it's one of the four men's majors. I'm calling it an international championship, and doubt I'll get much argument. Weir has also won another seven PGA Tour events.
Nick Weslock won four Canadian Amateurs between 1957 and 1996. He was 89 when he died in 2007.
Richard Zokol won a Canadian Amateur and a Canadian PGA. He's the chairman and CEO of the Sagebrush Golf and Sporting Club in B.C.'s Nicola Valley.
And here is the Canadian who has won the most national championships: Marlene Streit. The 77-year-old golfing marvel has won 20: one British Amateur, one U.S. Amateur, one Australian, two U.S. Senior, 11 Canadian Ladies, and four Canadian Seniors. She went down to the Honors to play the U.S. Seniors and to support the event. Streit shot 83-89 on a course that at 6,000 yards is just too long for her these days. But think of it: 20 national and international championships, and what a varied list of titles.
ALSO FROM LORNE RUBENSTEIN:
Don't count out the over-40 crowd
The toughest GTA courses to play
No better golf region than the GTA
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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