Canadian women tee it up for Sickkids
Roberta Bondar’s resume is breathtaking.
Canada’s first female astronaut and the first neurologist in space is also an educator, a highly-acclaimed landscape photographer and author, a certified skydiver and parachutist, an owner of a basketful of honourary degrees and a member of both the Order of Canada and Canada’s Walk of Fame.
But during her tenure as chancellor of Trent University in Peterborough from 2003 to 2009, Bondar found something she couldn’t do — play golf. There were annual fundraising tournaments she was asked to participate in but she kept having to decline the invitations.
So, in her early 60s, Bondar did what she’s been doing throughout her life, she faced the challenge head-on, deciding to give golf a try. Today, at 66, the Sault Ste. Marie native is passionate about the game, playing it as often as she can, which isn’t much with photos to take and a foundation to run.
“I’m thrilled if I get around a 98,” Bondar says. “I’ve not played a lot.
“The challenge in my life has always been focus, discipline and consistency. And, those are the things you really need in golf because there’s nothing in any of the golf swing that’s natural. Golf can be a very frustrating game.”
It’s also a game that brings people from diverse backgrounds together.
On May 14, Bondar will be one of two dozen celebrity captains teeing it up at Magna Golf Club in Aurora at the Women’s Celebrity Golf Invitational in support of the transplant centre at Sickkids Hospital.
The 12-hole event, sponsored by RBC Wealth Management, is cochaired by Sandra Post and Marlene Stewart Streit, two of the biggest names in Canadian golf.
It will also include an array of other women who have made their mark far away from the game’s manicured fairways and greens.
Along with Bondar, singing icon Anne Murray, former Olympians Senator Nancy Greene Raine, Kerrin Lee Gartner, Laurie Graham, Marnie Mcbean, Karen Stemmle, Tracy Wilson and Cheryl Bernard will play, as will businesswomen Arlene Dickinson of CBC TV’S Dragon’s Den and Christine Magee of Sleep Country Canada and others from sports and business.
“It’s phenomenal to be able to bring together for the first time some of our greatest Canadian women, who all also happen to love golf,” says Post, who in 1968 became the first Canadian to join the LPGA Tour, going on to win eight times during her 16-year career. “It’ll be a lot of fun for a great cause.” Post, who in 1979 won the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s athlete of the year, says they hope to have a similar tournament in Calgary next year. Streit, the most successful amateur golfer in Canadian history and the only women to win the Canadian, British, United States and Australian amateur titles says the goal, ultimately, is to expand the event to other communities and benefit their local children’s hospital. “It’s just so hard to think of a small child having to have a transplant,” Streit says. “We just don’t think enough can be done to help them.” Bondar says she jumped at the chance to play in the tournament despite recovering from knee surgery in part because she was asked to by Post, the woman who taught her the game back in 2007.