Winners: Charles (Sandy) Somerville, Golf

Sandy Somerville swinging his golf club.
Date:1930’s
Collection:Canada's Sports Hall of Fame

1932 - Feature Story

Amateur golf was the pinnacle of sport in the early 1930’s and no title was coveted more than the United States Amateur. No non- American golfer had ever won that championship until Ross (Sandy) Somerville travelled from his London, Ontario home to Timonium, Maryland, and defeated several outstanding American players to take the 1932 title at the Baltimore Country Club. In the final, Somerville edged Johnny Goodman 2 and 1. Somerville’s win, coupled with his six Canadian Amateur titles, put him on the list of invitees in 1934 when Bobby Jones instituted the tournament that would become known as the Masters, at Augusta, Georgia. The famously taciturn Somerville, who made the first hole-in-one in Masters history, was known as Silent Sandy. At that first Masters, a woman said of the nearby Somerville, “I bet I can make him say three words.’’ Replied Somerville, “You lose.’’

Career Highlights

• 1960, 1961, 1965, 1966 Canadian Senior championship
• 1938 Semi-finalist at the British Amateur Championship
• 1932 Lionel Conacher Award (Canada’s male athlete of the year)
• 1932 First Canadian to win U.S. Amateur
• 1926, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1935, 1937 Canadian Amateur Championship