From the Archives

Ben Kern

Born in Rolandia, Brazil, Ben Kern immigrated to Canada with his family as a young boy. Kern began playing golf at age 15 at the Credit Valley Golf & Country Club in Mississauga, Ont. He was a 10-time collegiate event winner at New Mexico State University and became the first Canadian to garner First-Team All-American Honors. Crowned the Ontario Men’s Amateur Champion in 1968 and the Ontario PGA Champion in 1979, Kern was a two-time winner of the New Mexico Open. He also had numerous teaching achievements over the course of his career, including co-authoring the Future Links junior golf program and coordinating the completion of the Canadian PGA Teaching Certification Program. He also invented the “Accuform Rake” used at all TPC Clubs, PGA Tour events, and many of the top courses in the world. He was inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 2010.

Clinton Robinson

Inducted in the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in the Builder category, Clinton E. Robinson, better known as Robbie, loved the game of golf and spent his life bringing it to the masses. A golf course architect who apprenticed under the legendary Stanley Thompson, Robinson designed or remodeled more than 100 courses. Perhaps his single most significant contribution to the game was in the study of turfgrass and the dissemination of this information through the establishment of the Canadian Turfgrass shows and as the Green Section director for the RCGA in the 1950s.

Robert Wylie

As a young up-and-coming player, Bob Wylie tested his mettle on the PGA Tour in 1957 before returning to the amateur ranks where some of his greatest accomplishments were still ahead of him. After being reinstated as an amateur in 1960, Wylie won the first of his five Alberta Amateur Championships and his second Alberta Open and also claimed the Mexican Amateur title. The affable Wylie has attacked senior golf with the same intensity he showed throughout his career, winning four consecutive Senior Golf Championships of Canada from 1985 to 1988 and went on to win it again in 1990, 1993 and 1995. He represented Canada on four occasions at the World Amateur Team Championships. Wylie was inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 1995.

Fritz Martin

The only left-handed golfer to win the Canadian Amateur, Fritz Martin captured the championship in 1902 and 1910, and was a finalist in 1907 and 1908. His greatest matches were against his brother-in-law, George S. Lyon. The pair entered the United States Amateur Championship in 1905. As fate would have it, they were drawn against each other for the first round of match play. In Lyon's own words Martin “put up one of those electric games he is noted for, and defeated me one up, going round the Chicago course in 79 to my 80. He played the last nine holes in 36 - quite good enough to beat anyone.” A five-time captain of Hamilton Golf and Country Club, Martin was elected president in 1910 and was club champion on nine occasions. He was inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.

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All photos courtesy of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum.