Manitoba Golf Hall announces class of 2015

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This article was published 21/08/2015 (3941 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

RECORD-SETTING Isabel Beairsto heads the class of 2015 as the Manitoba Golf Hall of Fame and Museum announced its yearly list of inductees Thursday.

Beairsto was a 13-time club champion at St. Charles Country Club, but more important than that set a standard in Manitoba golf that has never been surpassed — she captured six provincial Amateur titles.

The feat was accomplished long ago, between 1925 and 1940, and no golfer in Manitoba has beaten this standard.

In the women’s game, the six championships has been matched twice, by Marg Homenuik and Aileen Robertson, both of whom preceded Beairsto into the Hall of Fame.

As a point of reference on the men’s side of the game, Bobby Reith and Todd Fanning share the high-water mark of five Amateur titles each. Both are also in the Hall of Fame.

Joining the late Mrs. Beairsto in this year’s class are three men all elected at least partially on their builders’ contributions.

The late Hal Eidsvig and Len Harvey go into the Hall as athlete/builders and Barry McWha in the builders’ category when the annual induction ceremony takes place Sept. 28 at McPhillips Station Casino.

Eidsvig won the Manitoba Amateur in 1946 and ’47, turning pro in 1948. He added four Manitoba Open titles to his resumé. Beginning at Assiniboine Golf Club, Eidsvig moved to Niakwa as head pro in 1950 and was there until 1959.

Harvey was the head pro at three Winnipeg Clubs, Assiniboine, St. Boniface and Pine Ridge between 1958 and 1967 and remains active in the game as a teaching pro in B.C.

His playing credentials include a Manitoba Open win in 1953 as an amateur and the next year as a professional, a 1967 Saskatchewan Open title and a berth playing for his country in the Canada Cup in the late ’60s.

McWha, the former head pro and general manager of Southwood Golf and Country Club, left the province for B.C. 25 years ago but remains active in the game.

He appeared on the scene here as an apprentice to Southwood pro Bill Thomson in 1967, moved to Wildewood as head pro in 1969 for a year before taking a career stint outside the province.

When McWha returned to Winnipeg in 1973, it was as Southwood’s head pro. He did a stint as Manitoba PGA president in 1977 and as president of the Canadian PGA in 1983, adding the GM’s title to his portfolio at Southwood in 1985.

The foursome of inductees will be the 13th class of new honoured members at the late-September ceremony.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca