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Wednesday, April 14, 1999 THE OAKVILLE BEAVER D1 Sports DOES YOUR CAR W AX GIVE YOU BETTER PROTECTION THAN YOUR CUT-RATE CAR INSURANCE? Don't trust just anyone to insure your car, see me: Hal Mayer 2861 Sherwood Heights D t 829-5200 taklnlhUU^hli An Oakville Beaver Feature Editor: NORM NELSON 845-3824 (Ext 255) Fax:337-5567 Canada's most successful pro golfer * continues on in the game she loves The Oakville Sports Hall o f Fame recently celebrated its inaugural induction dinner and the actual hall is soon to open at the River Oaks Rec Centre. The inaugural members were Donovan Bailey, Sandra Post, Vic Hadfield and Maria and Otto Jelinek. The Oakville Beaver is running feature stories on all o f the honoured inductees, and today's installment takes a look at Canada's most successful professional golfer ... SANDRA POST. By Kathy Yanchus SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Tjhe energy Sandra Post exudes is perhaps the eighth Wonder of the World. After___ 45 years in the game of golf she's still enthralled with the game of golf, her stirring passion for its potential to change lives, infec­ tious. She wakes up every morning, not only grate­ ful for the agreeable life golf has provided her, but filled with passion for what lies ahead. At the age of 50, Post is one of Canada's best known athletes, let alone Oakville's. She left the pro tour 16 years ago, but her accomplishments on and off the links have forever imbedded her name in our hearts and minds. They have tran­ scended her professional career which she cut short because it was time to come home. Post was the first Canadian in the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and in her rookie year won the LPGA, to this day the only Canadian woman to win a major. (With seven Canadians on the tour "we're doing very well but we can always do better.") After the four-day event she was tied with American Kathy Wentworth and while Canadian journalists scrambled to get flights to Massachusetts to catch Post's playoff -- they were at St. George's in Toronto watching Bob Charles win the Canadian Open -- she quietly and methodically shot a 68 to win. Her rapid fire ascent to the top of the LPGA ranks shouldn't have surprised anyone consider­ ing how quickly she took to the game of golf and how stunning her amateur career was -- before graduating from high school Post had won three Ontario junior, three Canadian junior and and an Ontario amateur title. There was nothing left to do but turn pro which she did at 19 at a time when professional women athletes were novel. She became hooked on golf at a very early age. She was five, on vacation with her family in Florida, when her dad took her to see mem­ bers of the LPGA. Until he saw a sign while driving he was unaware of the existence of pro­ fessional women golfers "and he said, 'You're coming with me tomorrow to watch the women golf'." Young Post was enthralled, particularly with Marilynn Smith who gave her a ball, a tee and a golf glove. Her dad cut down a hickory shaft -- "I still have it" -- and the youngster started swinging her club that same afternoon. At the age of nine she and her father, a scratch golfer, won low net at a Rosedale parent and child tournament. "My dad was sort of way ahead of his time. It wasn't even so much that, as he didn't know any different. He was gender neutral. I just took to golf and they gave me every opportunity pos­ sible." Those first couple of years on the tour, Post drove 45,000 miles by herself coast to coast, finishing 12th on the money list. "We caravaned for safety. It was all about fit­ ting into tour life. We drove for a couple of years and then when we started making some money, we flew. But I saw the country and I know about the people." "I think I was always a responsible person. At 16 I was given a car. I didn't drink so that wasn't an issue. I used all my energy to get my job done. Looking back I really was responsi­ ble. You'd never catch me partying." Her first major victory was followed by back-to-back Colgate Dinah Shore victories in '78 and '79 which led to the title of Canada's Athlete of the Year, an honor followed by Canada's Woman of the Year award in both 1979 and 1980, then induction into both the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. At 34 she left the tour while still on top, with a total of nine wins and 20 second-place finish­ es including runner-up in the prestigious U.S. Open. "You have to know me (to understand the decision)," says Post, happily married to former Brampton MP and cabinet minister John McDermid since 1992. "I was out there for 16 years. I had done what I wanted to do. I was seeing friends get older. I wanted to come home." She took a few years to decide what she wanted to do with her life. The one thing she was certain of though -- it would involve golf. "I didn't know how I was going to make a living. I had pushed for so long I was just tired. I wanted to come home and Oakville's so nice." Post says she was always one to keep things in perspective. Never forget where you came from she was told "and I think you have to trav­ el the world to find out what makes you happy." "My life is really here." She started teaching at the Family Golf Centre on Upper Middle Road and once mar­ ried, re-located in Caledon and opened the Sandra Post Sandra Post School of Golf. She is particularly fond of instructing begin- ' ners, exposing them to the social aspect of the game and demonstrating its potential to develop discipline and honesty. "And it's for the entire family. It can change your life for the better." She admits it's a difficult sport to grasp, but it's worth the challenge. "It's more than a sport. All the people I've met -- I hope I have been able to change their life in a positive way. I'm working with some girls right now and I know what's ahead for them. A free education, they'll see a different part of the world. Their whole life will be better because of the game." Post spends every day at her school -- which shifts to the Bahamas in the winter -- taking time only to pursue other golf-related projects such as commentating for CTV which she does for three tournaments (the DuMaurier, Canadian Open and the AT&T). Her golf tips segment will return this summer on both Canada AM and Sportsnet as will her short game clinics at the. Oakville Executive Golf Course, her corporate outings and charity events. Other Post projects include her magazine, The World of Women's Golf, in its third year of publication with 45,000 circulation. "Someone approached me and there was a need for it." With 1.5 million women golfers in Canada, Post reaches out to them via her publication with golf tips, travel and tour information. She is also captain of the Canadian team for the recently announced Nation's Cup which pits five of the best Canadian LPGA players against five of the best American LPGA players July 5/6th at Emerald Hills in Stouffville. "It will be match play format," said Post. "The American captain is Judy Rankin." The growth of golf among Canadians is phe­ nomenal, particularly among Canadian women with one in every 12 a golfer, said Post. "I think because the season is short we never tire of it. We as Canadians like to be outdoors. I think we're fairly intelligent and we like a thinking sport, a real challenge." As if all that golf business wasn't enough, Post is also launching the women's golf cata­ logue Bogey Run, and recently founded the first chapter of the Executive Women's Golf Association in Toronto, a networking organiza­ tion which already boasts 100 members and growing fast. "I love it all. I'm at the right time at the right place. I've always taken everything in stride. I'm very proud of my past but I really look to tomorrow." Complacency is not a part of her makeup and the word retire isn't in her vocabulary let alone occupying any thought in her mind. She still takes time to play, more in the fall and winter, and in such locales as Kenya, Scotland and Ireland. Her induction into the Oakville Hall of Fame is very important to her because this is home. This is where the Post family farm was located and this is the town of her birth. She credits her husband and parents Clifford and Muriel for the support which has enabled her not only to secure a spot in golf history, but to carry on her love for the game. "First of all I have a great husband who encourages me. I had a mom and dad who thought I could do anything." With husband John at her side - "he has become such a great club fitter" -- her golf school is a "great mom and pop operation". "I love what I'm doing and I'm not alone doing this. Every facet of my involvement in golf is with a different group of people and they give me energy." We always said that everyone should own a Mercedes. Now we're doing something about it. C -C L A S S . We th in k everyone deserves to drive a car w ith the safety of a Mercedes-Benz. And the perform ance. And the longevity. W hich is why we built the C-Class. Starting at $37,950', i t 's the most accessible M ercedes-Benz ever. W ith all th e qualities th a t make a M ercedes a M ercedes. 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