HAMILTON, Ont. - The Golf Journalists Association of Canada (GJAC) announced Monday Marlene Stewart Streit is the 2016 recipient of the Dick Grimm Award at the GJAC Annual Writing Awards Dinner held this year at Beverley Golf and Country Club in conjunction with the RBC Canadian Open.
Grimm, who passed away in 2014, was a true giant of the game in Canada, and in the world of golf. He was an energetic supporter of the Golf Journalists Association of Canada, and, the association’s highest annual award is named after him.
A committee of GJAC Past-Presidents selected Streit, who is the lone Canadian member of the World Golf Hall of Fame (2004), as this year’s winner. She has numerous accomplishments both on and off the golf course that make her so deserving of this honour.
“She is such an obvious and deserving recipient of the Dick Grimm Award,” said GJAC President Grant Fraser. “It’s so great that we’re able to recognize her not only for what she accomplished as a player and competitor, but also everything she’s doing to grow the game and give back.”
Streit was bestowed the Lou Marsh Award as Canada’s top athlete twice, in 1951 and 1956, and 50 years after her second Lou Marsh trophy, she was selected to the Order of Ontario.
In between those impressive accomplishments, Streit captured a numerous titles on the golf course.
She is an 11-time winner of the Ontario Ladies’ Amateur and Canadian Women’s Amateur. She won the Ontario Senior Women’s Amateur six times, including in 2003 as a 70-year-old, and is the only female golfer in history to win the Australian, British, Canadian, and U.S. Women’s Amateurs.
The native of Cereal, Alberta was inducted in Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1962, Canada’s Golf Hall of Fame in 1971, and made an Officer in the Order of Canada in 1971. Her World Golf Hall of Fame induction came in 2004.
Streit continues to work tirelessly to promote and build the game, especially in Ontario.
$1,000 will be donated in Streit’s name to the Golf Ontario’s player development bursary named after her.
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PAST WINNERS
2015 - Lorne Rubenstein
2014 - Jocelyne Bourassa
2013 - Bob Weeks
2012 - Sandra Post
2011 - Jim Barclay
2010 - Dick Grimm
The Dick Grimm Award honours Canadian Golf Hall of Famer Richard "Dick" Grimm whose legendary service to the Canadian Open and the Canadian golf industry is unparalleled in Canadian golf history. It alternates each year being awarded to members of the Canadian golf media and someone from the Canadian golf industry who has made a significant lifetime contribution to Canadian golf. Dick Grimm passed away in May 2014.
Dick Grimm's Canadian Golf Hall of Fame Biography --
Born: April 29, 1923
Place of Birth: Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
Inducted: 1993
Category: Builder
Dick Grimm was affectionately known as “Mr. Canadian Open” during his involvement with our national professional championship that lasted from 1965 to 1993. Masterfully coordinating the skills of salesman, promoter, official and fan, Grimm put his heart and soul into making the Canadian Open the great event it is today.
Additional Highlights:
- 1965 Chairman of the Canadian Open for Mississaugua Golf Club
- RCGA Canadian Open Chairman: 1970, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1981
- 1974 President of the RCGA
- 1969 - 1974 RCGA Governor
- 1975 - present RCGA Honorary Life Governor
- Director of Professional Tournaments for the RCGA: 1983 - 1993
- Commissioner of the Canadian Tour: 1993 - 1997
