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Article_MargPatrick_Layout 1 18-07-19 5:35 PM Page 1

Queen

of the
Tamarack

By Bruce Penton

arg Patrick works occasionally in a dental office in Calgary, where
extractions are commonplace, but trying to extract any words
Mresembling braggadocio from her about her golf career is like trying to
beat her at match play at Clear Lake during her prime — very difficult. Marg Patrick at the Tamarack circa 1988.
Patrick — Margaret McDiarmid of Brandon growing up — is a seven-time
winner of the women’s championship at Clear Lake but she’s quick to add a dose
of self-deprecation: ”I’ve lost a lot of finals.”
Those lost finals and seven titles means one thing: Patrick won a lot of matches
— a lot! — and made it to a lot of finals from 1966, when she captured her first
championship, to 1995, when she played in the tournament for the final time.
“I was a basket case before every match,” said the affable Patrick over the phone
in June from her cabin at Wasagaming, where she spends every May through
September. “A little of that (nervousness) is good, because it makes you
concentrate.”
Patrick, whose titles came in 1966, ’67, ’75, 84, ’86, ’87 and ’88, said her
matches were rarely easy because her opponents would bear down against a
player with such a strong reputation. “They’re all gunning for you,” she said. “They
bring their ‘A’ game.”
Growing up in Brandon as one of the ‘golfing McDiarmids’ meant Marg’s sport
of choice was almost guaranteed to be golf. She started taking lessons from
Johnnie Lawrence at Clear Lake when she was eight and remembers that
Lawrence wouldn’t let her hit a ball until he was satisfied that she had her swing
down pat. “He was a wonderful teacher,” she said.
Marg’s golfing friends called her “Pipeline Patrick” during her early days at
Calgary’s Willow Park, due to her accuracy off the tee. She won her first Clear
Lake women’s crown at age 25 in 1966, when she was already the mother of two
sons, Brad and Chris, born in 1964 and 1965. A third son, Tom, arrived in 1967.
Marg celebrated by winning her second Tamarack title that year. “Mom and Dad
were babysitters,” she said. “My mom (Anne) was the best,” she said. “She and my
dad were very supportive. She was so good at being a mom and a grandmother.”
Anne passed away in 1991 while her father, Dr. Bud McDiarmid, died in 1999.
The Tamarack holds a special place in her memory bank because of all the
friends and family who gathered annually once a week. “I just loved it,” she said.
One of those ‘basket case’ moments referenced earlier came in a match against
Brandon’s Grace Lindenberg. “I was four down after nine,” recalled Patrick. “My
dad got me a hot chocolate on the 10th tee and said ‘You’ve got her right where
you want her … you just have to win one hole.” “I’m so grateful that my
No. 10 went into the Patrick folder, and she was three down. Patrick thinks parents introduced me
losing a hole puts a little stress on a golfer, and it has the chance to mushroom,
and it certainly did that day. Before long, Patrick had evened the match, and to golf. It’s been a huge
eventually won. part of my life.”
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