Biography

Marlene Stewart Streit, who is widely regarded as Canada's best female amateur golfer, has been making her swing felt on fairways of the world for more than half a century. Between 1951 and 2003, she won every significant amateur title available, including at least one major national or international title in each decade. A caddy at the age of 13, Streit began swinging her first clubs at 15 on the greens of the Lookout Country Club in Fonthill, Ontario. Under the careful tutelage of pro Gordon McInnis, Streit progressed quickly, taking her first Canadian Ladies' Open Amateur Championship in 1951 at the age of 17. For greater part of the next three decades, Streit dominated the women's amateur golf scene in Canada, winning eleven Ontario, eleven Canadian Open, and nine Canadian Closed titles between 1951 and 1977. She took the international golfing world by storm when, at the age of 19, she won the 1953 British Ladies Amateur Championship in Wales. She went on to add the 1956 U.S. Women's and the 1963 Australian Ladies' titles to her collection, making her the first woman to hold amateur championship titles in Canada, the U.S., Britain, and Australia. Throughout her brilliant career, Streit was a valuable asset to numerous Canadian golfing teams. She was five times a member of the CLGA Commonwealth team between 1959 and 1983, captaining the winning crew in 1979. Between in 1966 and 1992, she was on the CLGA world amateur team seven times, both as player and captain. Though the temptation arose to turn professional, Streit chose to remain an amateur her entire career. She was a fearsome force on the fairway well into her senior years, winning six Ontario and four CLGA senior women's amateur champion titles between 1985 and 1995. In 2003, at the age of 69, she became the oldest national champion to win the USGA senior women's amateur championship title. For her unparalleled success on the course, Streit received the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's top athlete in both 1951 and 1956. She was voted Canadian Woman of the Year in 1953 and received five Bobbie Rosenfeld Trophies as Canada's top female athlete--1952, 1953, 1956, 1957, and 1963. Among numerous other honours, Streit was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1967 and inducted into the Royal Canadian Golfing Association Hall of Fame in 1971. In 2000, she was named the CLGA Female Amateur Golfer of the Century, and in 2004, her world-class feats were recognized internationally when she became the first Canadian to be inducted in the World Golf Hall of Fame.