Good golfer, better person
Lorie Kane to enter Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame
The annoying question every Canadian has been asked when travelling abroad — back when that was a thing — is, oh, you’re from Canada, do you know so-and-so?
We don’t know so-and-so, and no we aren’t friends with Wayne Gretzky or Drake.
But, of course, when I went to Charlottetown, P.E.I., Lorie Kane was having a beer at the first pub I walked into.
Kane, the golfer who was last week named a member of the 2020-21 class of inductees to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, has been representing her province and country proudly for decades.
“Both my record on the playing field and what I believe to be important, and that’s community, is I guess why I’m a new inductee, and I’m quite honoured with it,” Kane said over the phone from P.E.I. “I come from the smallest province but we’re a strong, determined group of people and I’ll accept this place in the hall on behalf of all Islanders.”
Kane, 55, began her LPGA Tour career in 1996 and has four wins and 99 top tens. She also has five wins on the Legends Tour for golfers over 45 years old. Kane is a natural in her role as one of the foremost ambassadors for golf in our country but says to be recognized outside of her sport is even more humbling.
“I think for a long time the old adage was that golfer’s weren’t really considered athletes,” she said. “People looked at the sport differently after Tiger started, even on the women’s side . ... I am an athlete. I’m a multi-sport athlete. All the things that I’ve learned in sport helped me become the golfer I am.”
Kane is a strong believer in the power of sport in people’s lives and in the places they live.
“I find myself very fortunate to have friends with the last name Orr and Gretzky who truly believe that kids should become multi-sport athletes and that will help,” she said. “And I think our country is based on the belief that sport is community and sport is about building a strong community and healthy people.”
Coming up in women’s golf from Eastern Canada in the pre-Tiger, pre-Mike Weir days was a very unlikely path to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. Kane recalls two defining moments where her mettle was tested along the way.
The first was a much publicized court battle after Kane was passed over for the Canadian team at the 1992 World Amateur Team Championships in Vancouver despite meeting the criteria.
“The courts basically told them they had to go back and look at things,” Kane said. “Fortunate or unfortunate that that had to happen but I think that was a moment where I said, ‘It’s time for Lorie to step up.’ ... I got a little bit of a thicker skin and I knew that if things were going to happen in my career I was going to have to be the one who did it.”
It was nearly a decade later in 2000 that she recorded her first LPGA victory in St. Louis at the Michelob Light Classic, and again the amiable Canadian felt she had something to prove.
“I was told my smile was too big, that I wasn’t gritty enough and then I went to St. Louis and decided that I had had enough and I got it done,” Kane said.
Kane is confident that the popularity of golf and the success of Canadians including Brooke Henderson has already made the road smoother for the next generations.
With her playing career winding down, Kane has seamlessly transitioned into her role as a mentor to young Canadian golfers and a prominent figure in the charitable foundations supported by the CP Women’s Open.
“My parents have raised us to leave it better than we found it and I certainly hope I’m doing that in every part of life,” Kane said. “And I consider myself to be extremely fortunate that I have a platform, a game for a living that I play, that I absolutely love.”
Kane had been training in Florida where she was able to practise and prepare for her season before returning to Charlottetown last week. The induction ceremony for the class of 2020 has been put off until 2021 because of the coronavirus but that doesn’t mean there won’t be small celebrations across the island this summer.
“We’re kind of opening up and some friends have a restaurant named Sims Corner that I’d like to probably head to to have a few beers when we can, and then for sure I’ll be spending some time with my friends on the west of the island at Mill River Golf Resort,” she said. “So I’ll be covering the island.”
As for the whereabouts of my run-in with Kane nearly a decade ago, the soon-to-be hall of famer eventually tried to jog my memory.
“It could have been Olde Dublin Pub, Merchantman pub, Peakes Quay...”
As enticing as it was to see how many pubs one of Canada’s greatest golfers could name, the moral of the story is, if you meet someone from Charlottetown feel free to ask them if they know Lorie Kane.