Montreal Municipal Golf Membership could not boast the grandeur of Canada’s most historic non-public golf equipment, however its legacy is plain.
Nestled within the coronary heart of the town, this public course was a logo of accessibility—a spot the place on a regular basis golfers might share fairways as soon as graced by champions. For many years, it stood as a neighborhood hub, providing an accessible area in a sport typically perceived as unique. In a province that launched golf to North America, Montreal Municipal embodied the sport’s grassroots spirit.
That spirit made it the right stage for historical past in June 1973. The inaugural La Canadienne, Canada’s first LPGA Tour occasion, unfolded on its fairways, attracting a world-class discipline and hundreds of followers. On the coronary heart of all of it was the legendary Jocelyne Bourassa, then a 26-year-old from Shawinigan who had already garnered nationwide consideration as LPGA Rookie of the Yr in 1972. Accidents had sidelined her for a lot of the season, however returning dwelling to Quebec, she carried the hopes of a nation.
The ultimate spherical was pure drama. With famend Montreal golf author Mario Brisebois as her caddie, Bourassa drained a 28-foot putt on the final gap to pressure a playoff in opposition to legends Judy Rankin and Sandra Haynie. Beneath the gaze of 11,000 spectators, she held her nerve, sinking a three-foot par putt on the third playoff gap to say victory—and the $10,000 winner’s prize. The roar that erupted wasn’t only for a golf champion; it was for a Quebec hero making historical past on dwelling soil.
That win at Montreal Municipal was transformative. Bourassa grew to become the primary—and for 45 years, the one—Canadian girl to win Canada’s Nationwide Ladies’s Open, till Brooke Henderson’s triumph in 2018. Her victory elevated La Canadienne, which later rebranded and earned main championship standing in 1979, finally turning into what’s now the CPKC Ladies’s Open and provoking generations of Canadian golfers.
Although the course has pale from prominence – now present as a 9-hole par 3 – its legacy endures. Montreal Municipal was greater than a venue; it was a proving floor, a spot the place accessibility met excellence. It reminds us that golf historical past isn’t solely written on the manicured grounds of personal amenities—it thrives within the public areas that welcome each participant.
Watch the video beneath (credit score: CBC Information) to relive this iconic second and have fun a course that helped form Canadian golf historical past.
