Victoria's "first lady of golf," Violet Pooley, was introduced to the sport at the age of eight when she caddied for her father at the United Service Macauley Point Course in 1892. By age 15 she was invited to play in the Mixed Foursomes championship. In 1905 Violet won both the British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest Golf Association Ladies Championships. By 1906 she was playing to a "scratch" handicap, a Canadian rarity in those days. She went on to claim the PNGA award on three occasions, the 1909 Oregon State crown and the B.C. title five times. Violet also represented Canada in the 1911 & 1913 British and the 1913 U.S.A. Ladies Championships. As Mrs. Violet Sweeney, she added four more PNGA plus four B.C. Ladies titles between 1920 and 1929. Throughout her career as a player and later, she played a pivotal role in the formation of the Canadian Ladies Golf Association and was the West's representative for a number of years. Violet (Pooley) Sweeny was inducted into the PNGA, B.C.& Canadian Golf Halls of Fame and the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame.
William Pridmore finished first in the inaugural “heel and toe” walking match held in Victoria in 1887 |
William Pridmore finished first in the inaugural "heel and toe" walking match held in Victoria. The year was 1878 and he defeated an American by the name of James Gordon in a ten mile contest that had them briskly walking around and around the old Pavilion Rink. The Daily Colonist newspaper of the day reported "The men, who wore tights with red silk trunks, started off together, Pridmore taking the lead almost at once and before the first mile and a half had been accomplished he had gone twice oftener around the course than Gordon." The Victoria crowd went wild and suddenly walking matches were all the rage. By the following year the walking matches were a staple of the local entertainment and sporting world and a six-day match was featured in which Pridmore again distinguished himself by walking ten miles in an hour and twenty-one minutes and twenty-two seconds. By the spring of 1881 the Daily Colonist newspaper reported "The Great Walking Match - Pavilion Rink was densely crowded by persons anxious to witness the heel and toe walking match between Callahan, the champion of America and Pridmore the champion of British Colombia." Pridmore won handily. Pridmore went on to win all his matches and his cash prizes allowed him to buy a farm on Burnside Road. But the fad, that had been the rage all over North America, lost its appeal by the end of the century and the great walking matches were no more. William Pridmore was 93 when he died in 1935.
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