In the News

[Jeffrey Reed]

LH&CC, Sandy Somerville, by Jeffrey Reed
Copyright 2010 London Ontario Golf

With London Hunt and Country Club celebrating 125 years of tradition, the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship finds a perfect home for its August 12-15 tournament schedule. Redtail Golf Course near Port Stanley will co-host the prestigious tourney with play slated at both London H&CC and Redtail August 13-14, and final round action at London Hunt August 15.

London H&CC and the Canadian Amateur boast fascinating histories. The Amateur dates back to 1895, making it the third oldest national amateur championship, following the British (1885) and Australian (1894) Amateur events.

Interprovincial team matches have been a part of the Canadian Amateur on and off since 1882. The Inter-provincial Team Championship for the Willingdon Cup features four-member teams competing in conjunction with the first two rounds of stroke play. The best three of four scores count towards the overall team total. Last year, Team Ontario combined for a team-total 212 today at Club de golf Le Blainvillier in Blainville, Que. to win the Willingdon Cup inter-provincial team title at the 105th playing of the Canadian Amateur Championship.

London H&CC will host its fourth Canadian Men’s Amateur this year. London’s Sunningdale C&CC hosted the tournament in 1962 and 1984. London H&CC played host in 1930 (Londoner Ross “Sandy” Somerville beat American J. Wood Platt); 1938 (Ted Adams, U.S. winner, Sandy runner-up); and 1954 (Harvie Ward, U.S. over fellow American William C. Campbell).

Sandy dominated the Canadian Amateur in the 1920s and ‘30s, with six titles (1926, ’28, ’30-’31, ’35, ’37), and claiming four runner-up finishes (1924-25, ’34 and ’38).

Born in London in 1903, C. Ross (Sandy) Somerville was a London H&CC member inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 1971, and the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame in 2000. He died in 1991 at age 88.

A member of London H&CC for more than 70 years, Sandy earned the nickname “Silent Sandy” while competing at the 1933 British Amateur, thanks to his quiet, business-like approach to the game of golf. His play spoke volumes, though – especially during his victory at the historical 1932 U.S. Amateur at Five Farms club in Baltimore, which was then considered one of golf’s Major tournaments.

The great Bobby Jones once said of Sandy, “If there is anything connected with golf which he cannot do well, I do not know what it is.” Bobby invited Sandy to the first Masters Tournament in 1934, and Sandy recorded the tournament’s first hole-in-one.

A member of the Canadian Amateur Athletic Hall of Fame, the University of Toronto Hall of Fame and the London Sports Hall of Fame, Sandy also claimed four Ontario Amateur titles, and two Canadian Senior titles. He was an all-around athlete, turning down offers from both the Toronto Argonauts and Toronto Maple Leafs. But following graduation from the U. of T., he decided upon golf, and in 1950 was named Canadian Golfer of the Half-Century in an RCGA poll. He served as the association’s president in 1957.

London’s George “Mooney” Gibson was voted the Canada’s Baseball Player of the Half-Century 1900-1950, giving London bragging rights on the diamond and the golf course.

When the Canadian Men’s Amateur Championship invades London in early-August, it will continue, then, to add to London H&CC’s steeped history.

Follow the action at www.LondonOntarioGolf.com at the In The News section.

-30-