Page 6 - Tamarack 85

Article_JackMcDiarmid_Layout 1 18-07-19 5:23 PM Page 1
Jack McDiarmid competing in the
2012 Tamarack golf tournament.
6
Four times
a champion,
every time
a gentleman
By Bruce Penton
he McDiarmid story, in Tamarack lore, goes back to
the very beginning. The first year of the annual
TClear Lake Golf Course championship, now known
as the Tamarack, was 1934, in the middle of the Great
Depression. One of the original competitors that year
was Dr. W.O. (Bud) McDiarmid of Brandon. Dr. Bud never
did claim the men’s title, but he was a perennial contender
in the championship flight and had a couple of medallist
victories to his credit.
His daughter, Marg McDiarmid, later became Marg
Patrick and dominated the women’s championship,
winning seven titles between 1966 and 1988.
And Jack — the son of Bud and brother of Marg — has a
name that’s synonymous with the annual August golf
tournament at Wasagaming. The 64-year-old Calgarian
has won the men’s title four times and has won a couple
of medallist titles, too.
“I remember in 2001 or 2002, Kirk Penton, then with
the Brandon Sun, approached me after the qualifying was
over and told me he’d done some research and found that
I had the record for most consecutive years in the
championship flight,” said McDiarmid.
“But that was it. I missed the championship in the next
two or three years. Just like Nick Faldo on TV says ‘this
guy is 20-for-20 on putts under five feet” and then of
course he promptly misses the next one.”
Other than legendary pro Johnnie Lawrence or perhaps
Jack Matheson, it’s likely no one knows the Clear Lake
golf course better than Jack McDiarmid. “Dad and
Johnnie got me going when I was six or seven,” said Jack.
“My mom would drop me off at the course at 8 in the
morning and pick me up at dark. We’d play 36 or 54 holes,