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Article_MargPatrick_Layout 1 18-07-19 5:35 PM Page 2

“I do like match play,” she said. “Johnnie Lawrence’s daughters were always
strong players. I remember beating Donna Lawrence one year and losing to
Marion (Lawrence) one year.”
She likes to avoid bad weather, though: “I’m a fair-weather golfer,” she said. “I
remember in 1991, when Mom was sick with cancer, I played the final against
Gerri Cooke and it rained the whole match. I was miserable. And I lost.”
She played one more Tamarack, 1995, primarily to help fill out the field, and
wound up as medallist. “But I think that was it,” she said. “I don’t think I played
again.”
One of the reasons she doesn’t play in the Tamarack anymore is because she’s
not thrilled about playing bright and early in the morning, or when the
weather’s cold. “If you enter the tournament, you take whatever time they give
you. If it’s 7 a.m., come hell or high water, you gotta go. I just didn't want to do
that anymore.”
Patrick, now 77, still plays a pretty good game, carrying a handicap of about
18, and shooting in the 80s and 90s two or three times a week. She’s grateful
that Jack Matheson and her brother Jack McDiarmid “both know my swing”
and can offer corrective advice when things go a little sour. “I was never very
long, but I was a pretty good putter, like my mom.”
In the past couple of years she has accompanied her son Chris on golf
excursions to South Africa, where they played courses designed by Nicklaus,
Els and Player, and to Malaysia/Borneo, where they played spectacular courses
in extreme heat and humidity. Next winter’s planned trip is to New Zealand,
but Patrick isn’t sure she’ll go. “I might just spend some time in Arizona instead,”
she said.
Wherever she goes, whatever she does, golf is usually not too far away from 1983 (Left to right): Marion Lawrence, Helen
Marg Patrick’s world. “I’m so grateful that my parents introduced me to golf. Hickling, Marg Patrick and Lynne Little.
It’s been a huge part of my life.” (Submitted)