When they tee up the first ball for the 2016 Olympic golf competition in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 11 this year, the defending champion will be unable to attend.
George Seymour Lyon of Richmond, Ont., passed away on May 11, 1938, at the age of 79.
The last time golf was contested as an Olympic event was in 1904 during the St. Louis Games at the Glen Echo Country Club in nearby Normandy, Missouri. There were men's team and individual competitions, and 46 year-old George Lyon was on the Canadian team, having won the Canadian Amateur Championship in 1903.
Though an excellent athlete, George did not take up golf until he was 38 years old. He went on to win his first of a record eight Canadian amateur titles two years later.
Today, his legacy lives through his greatgrandson, Roger Cosgrave, who owns and operates North Vancouver's Peak Golf store.
"He is my great-grandfather. His daughter Kathleen Lyon married James Cosgrave, my grandfather," said Roger. "My father Lawrence's middle name was Seymour after him. When I was born, my parents named me Geoffrey Lyon Cosgrave only to change it days later to Roger Barton Cosgrave. .. go figure."
Kathleen passed her father's love of the game on to her son.
"Golf was really important to my father. He was a good player with a single digit handicap. My grandfather was more into business and horses with EP Taylor back in the day. Golf came to me and my brothers through my dad."
Yet the family connection was almost obscured by the mists of time.
"It didn't really impact me much until I did family tree work to find that he was not only related to me, but he was in fact my great-grandfather. I am very proud. He was eight-time Canadian amateur champion and runner-up in the 1906 United States amateur championship. It's pretty impressive."
With only Canada and the United States competing in 1904, it was hardly a global field. The
Americans dominated the team event but Canada's George Lyon proved a formidable opponent in individual match play.
Having dispatched John Cady 5 and 4 in the opening round, Lyon went on to defeat Stuart Stickney 11 and 9, Albert Lambert 5 and 4 in the quarter-finals and Francis Newton 1-up in the semifinals before facing Chandler Egan for the gold. They could not have been more different. Egan was from Chicago, a Harvard educated 20-year-old and a long hitter. He was the reigning U.S amateur titleholder and won the long drive competition that opened the Olympic tournament.
Lyon was 46, suffered from hay fever and sold insurance.
The final was a 36-hole competition. While Egan had a reputation for long hitting, Lyon kept outdriving him. Ahead by three on the 34th hole of play, Lyon watched as Egan hooked his ball into a pond. Lyon putted out for par and the gold was his, 3 and 2. Always a colourful character, when it came to the medal presentation, Lyon turned himself upside down and walked up on his hands to receive his prize.
Golf was also scheduled for the 1908 Olympics in London. Lyon made the voyage to defend his title, but the English and Scots could not agree on a playing format, so wouldn't play, and the Americans decided it was too far to go, so stayed home.
The Olympic committee offered Lyon the gold by default but he turned it down, having not won it through competition.
In the 112 years since golf was last played at the Olympics, the game itself has changed little, but everything else from balls and equipment to training and psychology has been revolutionized. Hickory club shafts and persimmon wood heads have given way to metal, graphite, titanium and carbon fibre.
In 1904, George Lyon would likely have played with a wound rubber ball covered with the dried sap of the balata tree. Today, golf balls are designed by engineers using a variety of materials to obtain optimal distance and performance.
Stodgy leather Oxfords with metal spikes have been replaced by flexible synthetic shoes designed for comfort and support, and the trend in soles is spikeless.
This year qualifying for the event will be based on world rankings as of July 11, and 60 men and 60 women will be eligible. The top 15 ranked players of each gender will qualify with a maximum of four golfers per country.
The International Golf Federation has established that one player from Brazil, the host nation, and one each from Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania will also participate.
The men's competition runs Aug. 11-14 and the women's competition starts on Aug. 17 and goes until Aug. 20 at the new Olympic Course in the Reserva de Marapendi, a coastal nature preserve in Rio de Janeiro. It promises to be a great event and, somewhere, George Lyon will be smiling.
