- Gary Cowan
Gary Cowan (born
28 October 1938 ) is aCanadian golf er who has achieved outstanding results at the highest class inamateur competition.Cowan was born in Kitchener,
Ontario ,Canada . He began to play golf at the municipal golf course, Rockway, in Kitchener, and found great rivalries there with such excellent players asMoe Norman and Gerry Kesselring. The three were coached by Lloyd Tucker."Golf in Canada: A History", byJames A. Barclay ,Toronto ,McClelland and Stewart , 1992.]Cowan reached the semi-finals of the
Ontario Amateur Championship at age 17 in 1956, a record for a player so young.He won the 1956 Canadian Junior Championship. His first national championship victory at men's level was the 1961
Canadian Amateur Championship , which was to be his only win, but he reached the finals on four other occasions (1959, 1960, 1964, 1968), and finished second at stroke play twice more (1974, 1978). Cowan finished as the low individual scorer at the 1962Eisenhower Trophy , an international amateur team event, inJapan .Cowan went on to win the United States Amateur Championship on two occasions. In 1966, he was victorious at the
Merion Golf Club in suburbanPhiladelphia , after defeatingDeane Beman in an 18-hole playoff. Then in 1971, he won at the Wilmington Country Club inWilmington ,Delaware , by sinking his approach shot on the final hole with a nine-iron for an eagle two. Cowan remains the only player to win the U.S. Amateur twice at stroke play, and he remains one of only two Canadians (the first wasSandy Somerville in 1932) to win the U.S. Amateur.Cowan also won the
Sunnehanna Amateur in 1964 and thePorter Cup in 1969.Cowan has captured nine Ontario Amateur Championships, a record.
Cowan turned professional at age 52 and played on the
Senior PGA Tour (now Champions Tour) for a couple of years with three top-10 finishes.Cowan was inducted into
Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1967, theCanadian Golf Hall of Fame in 1972, and was selected as the Canadian Male Golfer of the 20th Century in 2000 by theRoyal Canadian Golf Association .Cowan had a successful career in the
insurance business.References
External links
* [http://www.rcga.org/hall_of_famer.aspx?id=16&x=P1c4tTuOqenBqMIDKw0FSsAfqUB8m%2b2JbpsL8%2bFeHIGIqSx%2bFYSnOhNzctOvbMx956vLssOzddP0GFPq7k6SnTIOzuePbXJPPLyV9zXVKUV22mevOuVM%2bBjXWu7NU9X1%2fCvMhzUtdLDUcBqaVvkBiUvYfJLI60LJK9PnLu3CG3dkZKRDajCwJrqHvO4C8NEgwv2XhdJk6QQ%3d Biography at Canadian Golf Hall of Fame]
* [http://www.cshof.ca/hm_profile.php?i=166 Biography at Canada's Sports Hall of Fame]
* [http://www.pgatour.com/players/00/66/81/ Results and stats on PGA Tour's official site]
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