2015 Honoree

This  year’s  honoree  is  Marlene  Streit.   She  was  born  in  Cereal,  Alberta,  Canada  and  graduated  from  Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla. In 1947 she began caddying and started to play golf in 1949; she was taught to play and coached her entire career by Golf Professional Gordon McInnis, Sr.

An outstanding golfer, she is the only woman in history to have won the British Ladies’ Amateur, USGA Women’s Amateur, Australian Women’s Amateur and the USGA Senior Women’s Amateur (3 times.) Other victories include winning the North/South Championship twice; a 4-time Helen Lee Doherty Champion; a 7-time Doherty Senior Division Champion; Women’s International Four-­Ball Championship twice, the first time in 1956 with Ann Casey Johnston (who was the 1960 and 1961 WWGA Amateur Champion) and then again – 40 years  later  when  she  won  in  2003  with  partner  Carol  Semple  Thompson  (also  a  “Woman  of  Distinction”  honoree.)

In Canada she is regarded as the most successful Canadian Amateur having won 24 Canadian Ladies’ Golf Association championships which include:   11 Amateurs, 9 Close and 4 Seniors.  She also won copious  Ontario Ladies Golf Championship starting in 1951 through 2003 that included Junior, Amateur and Senior Championships.

Streit  won  a  total  of  30  national  or  international  amateur  championships  with  at  least  one  championship in each decade and has the distinct honor of winning on three different continents outside of Canada. In her home country of Canada she claims 24 wins; United States four wins and one each in Great Britain and Australia. She has “Honorary Life Memberships” in 16 Canadian golf clubs; outside of Canada has one in Wales and three in United States clubs.

Her  awards  are  numerous  including  the  Canadian  Golf  Hall  of  Fame,  Canada  Sports  Hall  of  Fame,  Rollins College Sports Hall of Fame, Canadian Woman of the Year and the first Canadian to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

A true champion both on and off the golf course, she has been a friend of the Women’s Western Golf Association  for  many,  many  years.    The  “Marlene  Streit  Awards  Fund”  provides  only  travel  expenses  to  outstanding junior girl golfers from Ontario. These young ladies have traveled to the top Junior competitions outside of Canada for years including countless Women’s Western Junior tournaments.