Ada Mackenzie – Part II, Ladies’ Golf Club of Toronto

Part II of the tetralogy showcasing the remarkable life and golfing career of Ada Mackenzie chronicles how she almost single-handedly established the Ladies’ Golf Club of Toronto, the oldest existing club in the world founded by a woman for women.

If you missed Part I, which narrated Ada’s time growing up as a student and outstanding sportswoman at Havergal College, Toronto and her formative years as a golfer up to and including 1924, then please click on Ada Mackenzie – Part I, Havergal College Alumna.

Background

Apart from covering a very special Exhibition Match and assimilating a sprinkling of passing references, I have consciously excluded Ada Mackenzie’s golfing exploits on the Links which overlapped chronologically with the events covered in Part II.

Ada’s golfing career is assiduously covered in Parts I, III and IV so that the second part of this series is exclusively about the events leading up to and including the official opening of the Ladies’ Golf Club.

As per the opening instalment, I am profoundly indebted to Margaret McLaren (self-appointed historian at Rivermead Golf Club, Ottawa) for her generosity in sharing such an amazing array of material and artefacts about Ada Mackenzie…this time in relation to the Ladies’ Golf Club which augmented the cache of information I uncovered from assorted sources in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.

Wherever possible I have attempted to x-reference and validate the myriad of information…but I accept there might well be some unintentional inaccuracies, which I am more than happy to correct in response to any comments and feedback.

More than anything I just hope you enjoy ‘Ada Mackenzie – Part II, Ladies’ Golf Club of Toronto’.

Field of Dreams

Late one evening Ray Kinsella was walking through his cornfield when he heard a voice whispering “If you build it, he will come”…he then sees a vision of a baseball diamond and ‘Shoeless’ Joe Jackson (one of the Chicago White Sox Team who conspired to fix the 1919 World Series) in the middle of the cornfield.

Soon afterwards he ploughs up some of the corn to create space to build a baseball field, in the belief that Shoeless Joe Jackson will ‘reappear’ and play baseball once again.

Most, if not all of you, will recognise the above as an abridged synopsis for the opening scenes from the movie ‘Field of Dreams’ which was released in 1989, starring Kevin Costner and Ray Liotta. The storyline is really all about passion…a passion for sport, a passion for baseball and a passion for doing something which others perceive as ludicrous.

Not for one moment am I suggesting that about 70 years earlier Ada Mackenzie heard a whispering voice saying something like “If you build it, they will flourish” but there are several striking similarities between the passion exhibited in the fictional movie and Ada’s fusion of multifaceted passion whilst searching for and creating her ‘Field of Dreams’….a passion for sport, a passion for golf, in particular, a passion for ladies golf…and above all else an unwavering passion to establish a golf club exclusively for ladies in her native Canada despite all of the obstacles, challenges and sceptics encountered along the way.

Kernel of an Idea

Just after WW1, restrictions were in place at Canadian Golf Clubs that enabled gentleman golfers to play whenever, which markedly limited the playing opportunities for women golfers…in particular, an increasing number of women (including Ada) found they were not permitted to play at weekends, which were the only days they had off work.

Also, the golfing season in Canada is much shorter than say that in Great Britain due to climatic and seasonal conditions and thus the opportunities to play and practice were further reduced.

For a talented golfer such as Ada Mackenzie, limited playing time in her home country allied with a much shorter window to practise could have possibly stymied her progress to fulfil her undoubted potential.

So set against that backdrop, Ada Mackenzie travelled to Great Britain in 1920 to gain much-needed experience by playing in various tournaments, notably, the British Ladies Amateur Championship staged at Royal County Down Golf Club in Northern Ireland.

But her limited playing and practising opportunities (back in Canada) resulted in Ada (sometimes) being at a disadvantage when playing against more experienced golfers from Great Britain. Even in defeat, Ada Mackenzie invariably focused on the positives and thus just before returning home a kernel of an idea slowly started to take shape…

‘Why not create a golf club exclusively for women with no playing or practising restrictions’

Covert Operation

The first challenge for Ada to translate her idea into reality was to find land suitable for a championship standard golf course for women golfers. So over the next couple of years or so, Ada Mackenzie undertook a covert operation by travelling to tournaments throughout Canada in her car, continually on the lookout for land (circa. 130 acres) that was up for sale!!

An operation that Ada disclosed to nobody apart from her good friend Stanley Thompson (the famous Canadian golf course architect), as she suspected that if word got out what she was actually up to then the purchase price would ‘escalate’. Thus when making appointments to view possible sites, Ada regularly pretended to be buying a farm, even though she knew absolutely nothing about farming!! At times, Stanley Thompson and Ada Mackenzie posed as husband and wife when enquiring about properties/land so that if required she could borrow the money from the bank to purchase the land!!

Criteria

Ada Mackenzie believed that the proposed golf course would need to have good road and rail transport links to the nearest city and that the golf course needed to have ‘water features’ and thus by early 1924 her search eventually narrowed to the city of Toronto and the surrounding district.

After spending countless hours following the rivers Don, Humber and Etobicoke Creek, Ada finally drew up a shortlist of three sites that met the criteria…one of which was an estate farm in Thornhill known at the time as ‘Brooklands’, north of the city of Toronto.

The estate comprised of a new, grand, Georgian revival style home surrounded by about 52 hectares of rolling hills and mature trees with a tributary of the River Don running through it. It also had the additional advantage of accessibility, being only a few miles from the Toronto city limits.

The owner was the industrialist Strafford Watson but the question was…would he sell the property and land to Ada Mackenzie for the purposes of the proposed Ladies’ Golf and Tennis Club?

(Long before Strafford Watson was the owner, part of the estate and much of the area surrounding it had initially been awarded to United Empire Loyalists…i.e. Americans who supported the British in the Revolution, and who were granted land both for their loyalty and also to encourage settlement in what was York at the time…York is a former city within the current city of Toronto)

Conditional Sale

The estate was not actually up for sale when Ada Mackenzie made initial enquiries but help came from a very unexpected source…Strafford Watson’s wife Margaret!! She didn’t want to live out in the countryside and with a 2-year-old daughter and pregnant with their second child, she just could not settle outside of the city environment.

Thus over time, Ada Mackenzie was able to ‘persuade’ Strafford Watson to sell and agreed on an overall purchase price of $85K Canadian Dollars which equates to just over $1 million Canadian Dollars in today’s money!!

However, the subsequent contract stipulated that a down payment of $30K was required in no more than 3 months from the contract being signed by all parties…the rumour at the time was that Strafford Watson did not believe Ada Mackenzie could raise the required finance in such a short period of time.

(As an interesting ‘twist’ along the lines of it’s a small world…the Watson’s 2-year-old daughter was called Laurene. As an adult, Laurene Watson became very well known in the field of early childhood education and taught at the Nursery School and Kindergarten at Havergal College and served as the Director of that department for more than 35 years. She was also the Founder of the Havergal Summer Day Camp and served as its Director for 24 years before retiring from Havergal in 1986…and Havergal College was the alma mater of Ada Mackenzie!!)

Finance

With the contract signed, the next mountain that Ada had to climb was to raise the finances to cover the down payment in only 3 months.

After seeking advice, as Ada was unable to finance the deal on her own, she settled on a Bond Issue ($1K per Bond) which was to raise sufficient funds to initially cover all of the down payment and then in time to cover and repay a commercial mortgage on the overall estate (House + Land).

Ada then commenced the gruelling process of generating interest in the proposition by presenting her plans to prosperous ladies and prominent businessmen!! Although willing to fund this incredibly ambitious project, many of the people Ada spoke to openly questioned whether a golf club exclusively for ladies could actually attract the number of members as detailed in her business plan.

Prospectus

Undeterred, Ada created a prospectus comprising of a booklet that described the proposed Ladies’ Golf and Tennis Club and an application form…with joining as a founding Charter member to be in the form of $100 shares with each member entitled to a single share. The target was to have an initial membership of 200, with a target of 300 by the end of the first season.

Ada then mailed ‘hundreds and hundreds’ of Ladies and received lots of replies to her ‘mailshot’ (using today’s jargon), most containing cheques to purchase membership shares!!

Only members could have a share on a ‘single $100 share per member basis’ and if they left the club they would be refunded the full amount paid!!

(There are several stories recalling how some of the first members drained their respective savings and bank accounts so keen were they to be a part of this unique initiative!!)

Ada also gave a motivational speech to the Toronto Business and Professional Women’s Club advocating the benefits of outdoor exercise, especially for those who worked in an indoor environment, and how those exercise benefits could be achieved by taking up golf.

Incredibly, primarily due to her single-minded perseverance and belief, Ada somehow managed to secure enough founder charter members. This finally convinced several women and businessmen to purchase Bonds and this resulted in circa. $22K of funding…but this still left Ada circa. $8K short of the contractually agreed down payment.

11th Hour

At very short notice, Ada Mackenzie somehow secured a meeting with J.P. Bicknell who was a financier, a philanthropist and a sports enthusiast who would eventually own the Toronto Maple Leaf hockey team. They would have known one another as J.P. Bicknell was also a member of Mississaugua Golf Club and he would certainly have known all about Ada’s golfing accomplishments.

Having said that, he apparently did not let her into his house and instead, Ada had to talk to him from the verandah!! Ada showed him the signatures for the Bonds she had already secured and in return, J.P. Bicknell wrote her a cheque to cover the $8K shortfall.

Thus with only a few hours to spare Ada had miraculously raised the funds to cover the down payment.

Watson’s estate was sold to Ada Mackenzie and the massive hurdle had been cleared on the road to establishing the club. Ada then transferred ownership to the incorporated company ‘Ladies’ Golf and Tennis Club of Toronto, Limited’ for $1 Canadian Dollar.

An absolutely incredible achievement…even more so when one thinks that at that time women were generally excluded from public life and were fighting in the provinces for the right to vote!!

(As a further interesting ‘twist’ along the lines of ‘be careful what you wish for’…there was a rumour that a member at Thornhill Golf Club played a round of golf with none other than Edward, the Prince of Wales. After golf, they were invited to dinner by the Watson’s and Edward remarked how much he loved their home and the land. Margaret Watson then changed her mind about wanting to sell, saying if it was good enough for the Prince of Wales, it was good enough for her…but by that time, Ada Mackenzie had already purchased the estate and refused to sell it back!!)

The Course

As briefly mentioned earlier, Stanley Thompson was a golf course architect. He designed many courses in the Canadian National Parks, with his most famous probably being the Banff Springs Hotel Golf Course in Banff, Alberta. He also designed or redesigned many private golf courses throughout Canada and in 1946 he was the co-founder along with Donald Ross, Robert Trent Jones and others of the American Society of Golf Course Architects.

He was engaged by Ada Mackenzie to design the 18 hole Ladies’ Golf course, though he assimilated ideas from Ada throughout the design process.

On 17th December 1924, Stanley Thompson presented the design to the Clubs Directors. The course was designed with lady golfers in mind while still providing a challenging and enjoyable game for gentleman golfers…so narrow fairways, and greens that were small and challenging with hidden rolls. The design was also predicated on the ability of the majority of lady golfers from the tee. He calculated that a competent lady golfer would be about 30 yards shorter off the tee than her male counterpart and so he made the par 4 holes under 370 yards…though in his own words there would be two difficult par 4s.

To allow women golfers to enjoy the course, Stanley Thompson ensured there would not be huge carries and for those players who could not reach the Par 3s, there would be a bailout area before reaching the green.

Finally, he outlined how the course would be well-bunkered, though the bunkers would be kept to the sides, and not in the middle in front of the greens, and that the course would vary in length between 6050 yards and 6300 yards from the different tees.

The design was unanimously accepted by the Directors.

Clubhouse

Once again demonstrating her astute business acumen, Ada Mackenzie was quoted in several newspapers when interviewed about the Ladies’ Golf and Tennis Club that the running of the Clubhouse was to be along English lines for comfort and service but eliminating the overheads and expenses experienced by other clubs in Canada. That was effectively achieved by ‘out sourcing’ the catering.

The house was a beautiful, capacious residence which apart from the installation of shower baths required only minor modifications to be transformed into a stunning Clubhouse.

Membership

The annual membership fees (in Canadian Dollars) for the inaugural season at the Ladies’ Golf and Tennis Club were as follows:

• Adults – $35
• Juniors (15 to 20 years of age) – $15
• Juniors (under 15 years of age) – $5
• Country/Out of Town – $15

The lady members could bring their husbands or friends as guests to play and the juniors under 15 years of age had to be accompanied by a member when playing.

Gentlemen were welcome to play at the club on a sort of ‘pay as you play’ basis but were restricted to playing only during non-primetime hours as special hours and weekends were devoted to the lady members.

Alternative Entertainment

At the start of 1925, the course was still under construction but the land was totally snowbound.

This did not prevent Ada Mackenzie from keeping some of the members entertained as she organised various winter sports on what would eventually be the 9th hole including snowshoeing, tobogganing and skiing!!

Annual General Meeting

On the 11th February 1925, Lady Edith Baillie hosted the first annual general meeting (AGM) of the Ladies’ Golf and Tennis Club at her home (Rosedale House) in Toronto and many members were in attendance.

In her role as Managing Secretary, Ada Mackenzie presented a very upbeat and positive report to the members about the state of affairs of the Club. In particular, she highlighted that there were now 285 members, only 15 short of the target of 300 members. The AGM agreed that the club should now increase the membership limit to 400 as the course and the clubhouse both had the capacity to support the additional membership and there was collective confidence the revised membership limit would be achieved by the summer (of 1925).

Ada also provided an update on the construction of the golf course with the expectation that 9 holes would be ready by the summer. The directors unanimously agreed that play would not be allowed on temporary greens and that they would rather wait for all the greens to be fully completed.

Ada completed her presentation by reporting that the tennis courts were on target to be opened by Victoria Day (18th May 1925) and that the Clubhouse would also be opened on the same day.

The meeting concluded with the election of Lady Baillie as President.

(‘Tennis’ was dropped from the name of the club during the 1950s as the tennis courts were under-utilised and eventually removed)

Construction

Work started on the golf course before the design had been presented and approved. Firstly, the land was ploughed which showed the soil to be light clay loam varying to sandy loam. The land had been farmed for many years and was nicely wooded with elm, hemlock, cedar, pine and maple, though some trees had to be removed to accommodate the course design.

The greens were grown from the creeping bent stolon of the Washington strain. Only one other course at that time was developing their greens in a similar manner, and that was by the Canadian National Railways on its course at Jasper Park. Stanley Thompson also designed this course.

As envisaged at the AGM, 9 holes were opened for play (on time) by the summer of 1925. By September 1925 a further 4 holes were ready for play.

All 18 holes were ready for play not long afterwards.

Head Professional

Ada Mackenzie knew that the first Head Professional would play an important role for the newly established club and as such the services of the best individual (male or female) had to be recruited.

Unlike today, the job specification was simply ‘An excellent professional is sought for lessons and club making’…though interestingly the position was not salaried. Thus in April 1925, the young Scotsman David A. Ferguson was appointed as the clubs first Head Professional. He had been a high-quality amateur golfer in Scotland who in (early) 1924 had emigrated to Canada to secure a position as a professional golfer.

Not only was David A. Ferguson a professional golfer and clubmaker but he had also served as an apprentice architect in the office of Sir Robert Lorimer in Edinburgh, Scotland!! He had been approached with an offer for a role as a Professional in Australia but he rejected the offer as he was determined to wait for the right role in Canada.

He was from a famous golfing family. His great grandfather was David ‘Da’ Anderson who was a greenkeeper on the Old Course, St Andrews and who sold tea and lemonade from a portable cart on the Old Course!! His grandfather was James Anderson who won three consecutive Open Championships…in 1877 (at Musselburgh), in 1878 (at Prestwick) and in 1879 (at St Andrews). James Anderson is one of only four golfers in the history of the Open to win on three consecutive occasions.

From the outset, he was very busy giving lessons on a (ring-fenced) practice field and supervising the construction of the course. He served as the first Head Professional until 1928 when he moved to Weston Golf Club, Toronto.

The fine tradition of the Ladies’ Golf Club in appointing the best continues to this day with the recent appointment of Jaime Steedman as Head Golf Professional. Jaime moved to the Ladies’ Golf Club in 2016 to lead the Golf Academy and over the past 5 years, she has introduced hundreds of women to golf and to the club. The Golf Academy provides learners with confidence and comfort on the course and is a conduit to being a member of the club.

Prior to the Ladies’ Golf Club, Jaime worked at the Brantford Golf & Country Club and the Glen Abbey Golf Club. She also worked for 6 seasons at Hamilton Golf & Country Club (as an assistant/associate and then as Junior Academy Director).

Guest of Honour

In October 1925, Ada Mackenzie was the guest of honour at a luncheon with about 150 members in attendance.

The Honorary President Mrs Cockshutt, the wife of Harry Cockshutt who was the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, gave the address where she warmly welcomed all of the new members and then complimented Ada for her playing triumphs and successes and also on her astonishing achievement in establishing the Ladies’ Golf Club.

(At the time, Ada was still representing Mississaugua Golf Club when participating in championships…in fact, she did not start representing the Ladies’ Golf Club until 1927)

Ada Mackenzie’s reply was full of enthusiastic encouragement for all of the lady members and her abiding hope was that one day at least one of them would win a major amateur championship…though she did acknowledge it would not be easy as our (Canadian) standing is not as high as in America or England.

Ada proudly announced that all of the initial objectives for the Golf Club and the course had been achieved except for one of the greens, but that work on that green would be completed very soon.

At the luncheon, it was also announced that an invite had been accepted to play the Canadian Women’s Senior Championship at the club in 1926 and that hopefully, future championships would follow in due course.

Exhibition Match

The Ladies’ Golf Club of Toronto was officially opened on 23rd August 1926 with the staging of a charity exhibition match between Ada Mackenzie and Helen Paget, who were without question the best two women golfers in Canada at that time.

Helen Paget was a member of the Royal Ottawa Golf Club and earlier that year had annexed the title of Canadian Ladies’ Closed Champion to her impressive golfing CV.

A large number of members and guests arrived in anticipation of a classic head-2-head contest…but unfortunately, the Toronto weather gods did not follow the script and a heavy downpour of rain prevented many of the spectators from watching.

Ada found a way to overcome the adverse conditions and eventually won the match by 4&3 but all that really mattered was that the Ladies’ Golf Club was now officially open and Ada’s ‘Field of Dreams’ had been realised.

In the words of the Head Professional Jaime Steedman…

“I am tremendously excited to participate in the next chapter of the club’s history. If a golf club were established today, in 2021 by women, for women, we would think it was trailblazing and progressive. That it happened nearly 100 years ago, makes it an astonishing feat worth celebrating at every opportunity”

Passion Ad Infinitum

Sadly (for me), that is the end of the second part of this series. Ada Mackenzie continued to be actively involved with the Ladies’ Golf Club of Toronto for the rest of her life and she proudly represented the club in major competitions, home and abroad.

The tenor of the story narrated in this article is one of passion and so to finish the following are paraphrased extracts from a letter that was written to the editor of the New York Times by Margaret Lucas, who in May 1972 (when the letter was published) was the President of the Ladies’ Golf Club of Toronto.

“I must refute the statement, as published in the New York Times on 28th April 1972, that the proposed ladies’ golf course in Savannah, Georgia will be the first course in the world specifically for lady golfers”.

“The members of our club are extremely conscious of our position which we believe to be unique…not only on this continent but perhaps in the world”.

Margaret Lucas then summarized some of the chronological events covered by this article, especially the incredible role played by Ada Mackenzie and how the course had been designed by Stanley Thompson for women golfers, and how the course continues to test and challenge gentlemen players by its ‘sporty layout and demand for accuracy’.

The closing paragraph of her letter contains a sentence that beautifully encapsulates the spirit of golf…

“We entertain every good wish for the Ladies Professional Golf Association in the project at Savannah”.

A passion for golf, a passion for the Ladies’ Golf Club…passion Ad infinitum.

To Be Continued…

I hope you have enjoyed the second instalment of Ada Mackenzie’s life and golfing story.

If you wish to read Part III then please click on Ada Mackenzie – Part III, Trailblazing Champion.

Acknowledgements

And finally, a massive thanks to…

• Margaret McLaren ~ ‘Self-appointed’ Historian, Rivermead Golf Club
• Marlene Stewart Streit ~ Member of the World Golf Hall of Fame
• Margaret Auld ~ Archivist, Ladies’ Golf Club of Toronto
• Paul Doucet ~ General Manager, Ladies’ Golf Club of Toronto
• Debra Latcham ~ Archivist, Dr Catherine Steele 1928 Archives, Havergal College
• Jeff Germond ~ Chief Operating Officer, Mississaugua Golf and Country Club
• Meggan Gardner ~ Director, Heritage Services, Golf Canada
• Jean Leduc ~ Golf and Operations Director, Rivermead Golf Club
• Jaime Steedman ~ Head Professional, Ladies’ Golf Club of Toronto
• Josée Dallaire ~ Communications and Technology, Rivermead Golf Club
• Mackenzie Knowles ~ Owner of Ada’s Golf Boutique
• Joyel Singfield ~ General Manager, The Royal Ottawa Golf Club
• Alexandra Pappas ~ Communications Manager, Scarboro Golf and Country Club
• Jason Ludke ~ General Manager, Pine Ridge Golf Club
• Irene Nalaskowski ~ Publications, Cherry Valley Club
• Kim Daniels ~ Office Administrator, Toronto Golf Club
• Matt Lorenz ~ Head Golf Professional, Elmhurst Golf & Country Club
• Alex Podlogar ~ Senior Media Relations Manager, Pinehurst Resort & Country Club
• Oliver Baines ~ Assistant Manager, Hollinwell Golf Club
• Brandie Cooper ~ Membership and Communications Manager, London Hunt and Country Club
• John Edwards ~ Secretary, Royal Porthcawl Golf Club
• Stuart Leech ~ Secretary Manager, Formby Golf Club
• Jim Mackenzie ~ A distant relative of Ada
• Ladies’ Golf Club of Toronto
• St Andrews Links Trust
• Mississippi Valley Textile Museum

…who so kindly provided assistance and support for this series of articles about Ada Mackenzie.