1953 Labatt Open
In August 1953, the Labatt Open took place at the newly rebuilt Summerlea in Lachine. The Open was Canada’s biggest tournament. There were 133 entrants including some of the world’s top golfers of the day. Sam Snead, Doug Ford, Tommy Bolt (noted for his rainbow sweaters and erratic temper), Jimmy Demaret, Julius Boros, Walter Burkemo, USPGA winner and Dave Douglas, the Canadian Open winner.
The official opening ceremonies took place Monday, August 14th with Mayor Houde of Montreal and Mayor Gaston of Lachine officiating.
To create interest, fun loving Summerlea members created several special events to be held during tournament week. On Monday, a “masked” mystery entrant played a practice round against Damien Gauthier, Montreal Municipal Golf Pro. This was followed by a nine-hole match between Jules Huot of Laval-sur-le-Lac, using regulation golf clubs and former Brooklyn Dodger hitter Goody Rosen using a regulation baseball bat and archery expert Orla Larsen using a bow and arrow.
At 2pm the same Monday, Canadiens hockey greats Elmer Lach and Rocket Richard played against Maple Leafs Teeder Kennedy and Turk Broda for the National Hockey League Golf Championship.
After a great day, the results were in. The “masked” marvel was anything but marvelous with a round of 84, losing to Gauthier with 76. The mask was lifted to reveal Kas Zabowski of Ashburn Golf Club, Halifax. Goody Rosen defeated Larsen and Huot and after a hard-fought best ball round, Elmer Lach and Rocket Richard defeated Teeder Kennedy and Turk Broda in an overtime win on the 20th hole.
On Wednesday afternoon, an event of great interest took place. Babe Didrikson Zaharias, one of the world’s outstanding female athletes, including golf professional, partnered with Henry Martell of Edmonton, the CPGA champion, to play an exhibition match against Jules Huot and Damien Gauthier, ending up all square. After this exciting round Joe Kirkwood, a trick shot artist with a huge bag of weird and wonderful clubs gave an exhibition that totally amazed one and all.
Thursday, the first day of the official tournament, Jerry Barber shot a 6 under par, a course record at Summerlea. Barber was still leading on Friday with a 68 but the competition was getting tougher. Sam Snead, one of 4 players turned in a score of 66 while Bill Kerr of Beaconsfield shot a 67. The only casualty of the day was Doug Ford’s putter which broke on the 17th hole.
On Sunday, the final day, Ford who said he had “everything wrong with his backswing” shot the lights out. There was no stopping him until the 17th. Having had trouble there all week, on this day his drive hooked and landed next to the equipment shed. Taking his two-club-length penalty, he dropped his ball and then found that a half-buried rock interrupted his backswing. Using a 2 iron, Ford hooked his shot onto the green for a par giving him a 65 and winning the tournament with a total 265, 15 under par.
The excellent weather all week brought out large galleries resulting in the best attended tournament in Montreal at that time.
Marion Dunn