For those keeping track, Lorie Kane has taken 5,987 swings in her previous 29 appearances at the CP Women’s Open. While there is no entry in the record book for such trivia, it’s safe to say that no one else comes close to that mark.
This week, Kane will take a few more swings before she wraps up her career at the Canadian championship, one that has seen her start as an amateur, rise to legitimate challenger for the title and now serve as a mentor for the likes of Brooke Henderson as well as an ambassador for CP and the tournament’s charitable causes.
She knows that she doesn’t have the horsepower in her game to compete against the top players this week, but this is more than a farewell tour. She is still going to be grinding, still trying to play her best as she makes her last walk along the fairways. But it won’t be all business.
“I look at the bigger picture now,” said Kane. “And that is I made this choice to make this my last, and pardon the expression, but come hell or high water I'm going to make sure I have fun.”
Part of that fun will come on the 17th hole, known as The Rink due to it being surrounded by hockey boards. Kane plans to hit her tee shot and then slip on a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey to walk to the green. That’s a brave move in Ottawa Senators country and may result in her getting booed at this tournament for the first time in 30 years
Over the many tries, Kane’s best opportunity to win the event came in this city back in 2000. She arrived fresh off her first LPGA victory at the Michelob Light Classic and was full of expectations. At the same time, long-time sponsor du Maurier was saying goodbye, ending its sponsorship due largely to new government regulations on tobacco advertising. Kane took it upon herself as the highest-profile golfer of the day to try and find a replacement.
Tournament director Jocelyne Bourassa, who won the very first edition of the tournament back in 1973, introduced Kane to every prospective sponsor, hoping her profile would help.
“I know that she and I that week in 2000 did every interview,” Kane recalled. “She introduced to me to thousands – it felt like thousands of people. I was coming off the win so there was a lot of excitement.
“The funniest story I can tell you is that I was tired of talking. My face hurt. I sat in the hotel room and watched the Reproduction of The Moose on the National Geographic Channel in Newfoundland. I was so fed up talking about me and golf that that's what I did.”
On the course, Kane was one shot back heading to Sunday, but she simply ran out of gas. An errant tee shot on 14 that sailed into an internal out of bounds likely cost her a chance to win.
“If I put the ball in the fairway. . . I may have had that trophy in my hand,” Kane reflected.
Her efforts in finding a new sponsor did succeed, however, as Bank of Montreal stepped in. It was replaced by Canadian National which was bumped by Canadian Pacific, which has been the title since 2013.
Over all those years, Kane sharpened her game and became a Canadian sporting icon. She won four times on tour, finished in the top 10 99 times, has been inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame, Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame and been named to the Order of Canada. Not bad for a girl from Prince Edward Island, who grew up learning the game from her father, Jack, who passed away last month.
This week, Kane has a special headcover designed to pay tribute to her father covering her seven-wood. Embroidered on it are the words, “leave it better than you found it,” a saying her father instilled in Kane and her three sisters.
Kane, who will turn 58 in December, learned the ropes of professional golf from the Canadians before her. Dawn Coe-Jones and Lisa Walters took her under their wings and guided her on all that she needed to know for life on the LPGA Tour. And as Kane’s career hit the back nine, she began to do the same for any player with a Canadian flag on the bag. That includes Henderson, who praised Kane for her passion to the game and her country.
“Lorie is incredible,” said Henderson. “You know, growing up she was women's golf in Canada. I looked up to her and she's been a great friend and mentor. I think all of Canada just loves her dearly, so it is sad that this is her last one.
“Also I think it's amazing that the career she's had and all the lives she's changed, and especially working so closely with CP and being such a great ambassador for them, their charity CP Has Heart. She helped raise millions of dollars, so we're really going to miss her out on the golf course. But I think she'll just continue to impress us all in her endeavours off the course.”
Kane is pointedly clear that this is not the end of her career; she’s just not going to play this particular tournament any more as she feels she’s taking up a spot for a more deserving player. She’ll play some of the senior women’s tournaments and on the Legends of the LPGA circuit for golfers 45 and over.
She also has plans to help grow the game and give back to the sport that has been the focal point of her life.
“So as hard as it is for me, and I've questioned myself, like maybe I shouldn't have done this, but I know it's right because the next thing for me is to continue to grow the game, continue to work at making it more available to people across the country, to find another me in Atlantic Canada. I know that he or she is out there,” she stated.
“I think the plans and the programs that Golf Canada has in place right now are going to allow us to find that person. I certainly hope that my relationship with Canadian Pacific continues. They're family. I love what they have to do and the ability I have to connect on the charitable side, the customer side, the experience of helping them do business in the communities that they run their rail.”
When she walks up 18 for the final time, be it Friday or Sunday, you can count on some tears to fall. But they’ll be tears of joy more than tears of sadness. Kane has had a lot of success in this tournament but she’ll be the first to say that it’s about a lot more than the 5,987 swings she’s made.
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