Jocelyne Bourassa: Bio of Canadian Golf Pioneer
Jocelyne Bourassa had a great career as an amateur golfer in her native Canada before turning pro and joining the LPGA Tour. Despite her competitive career ending prematurely due to injury, she made her mark as the first Canadian to win an LPGA tournament played in Canada.
Date of birth: May 30, 1947
Place of birth: Shawinigan, Quebec, Canada
Date of death: August 3, 2021
Nickname: On the LPGA Tour was called "Frenchy" by other players. (The 1974 LPGA media guide made a point of noting her "sexy French accent.")
Her Biggest Wins
As an amateur:- 1965 Canadian Women's Amateur
- 1967 Scottish Girls Stroke Play
- 1970 World Amateur Championships
- 1971 Canadian Women's Amateur
- 1971 New Zealand Women's Amateur
- 1973 La Canadienne
More About Jocelyne Bourassa
Jocelyne Bourassa got into the game at age 13 by caddying for her brother Gilles Bourassa, who was a teaching pro and was Jocelyne's first instructor. Just three years later, in 1963, she was winning the first of three consecutive titles in the Quebec Junior (1963, 1964, 1965), and the first of four titles in the Quebec Amateur (1963, 1969, 1970, 1971).She quickly became known as the top female amateur in Quebec, and one of the best across all of Canada — a status Bourassa cemented by winning the 1965 Canadian Women's Amateur.
The first of her four consecutive wins in the Eastern Province Championship came in 1967, while she was in college at the University of Montreal. She played on the men's golf team in college because the University of Montreal did not yet field a women's team. Bourassa also competed in track, basketball, skiing and volleyball while at university.
She graduated in 1969, by which time Bourassa had added the Scottish Girls Open Stroke Play Championship to her trophy case. In 1970, playing for Team Canada in the World Amateur Championships, Bourassa claimed the individual championship.
Her amateur career reached a pinnacle in 1971 when Bourassa added a second victory in the Canadian Women's Amateur (this one at stroke play, the previous had been match play), added both the Quebec and Ontario provincial championships, and won the New Zealand Women's Amateur. It was time to turn pro.
Her rookie year on the LPGA Tour was 1972. She had nine Top 10 finishes for the year, the best of which was runner-up in the Southgate Open. In that tournament, Bourassa tied LPGA giant Kathy Whitworth, then took her to the fifth hole of sudden death before Whitworth pulled out the playoff victory.
Bourassa finished 19th on the season-ending money list with earnings of $16,098, which, at the time, was the most money ever won by an LPGA rookie. She was named the LPGA Tour's Rookie of the Year.
Bourassa was also named the French-Canadian Athlete of the Year in 1972, the first time a women had been so honored, as well as Canadian Woman Athlete of the Year. But on the down side, Bourassa underwent knee surgery during the offseason, the first of many knee injuries that eventually ended her competitive career early. (She injured her knee jumping off the roof of a house into a snowdrift.)
Her 1973 LPGA season, with lingering effects from the knee surgery, was mostly disappointing after that stellar rookie campaign: She slid down the money list to 34th, and had only three Top 10 finishes.
But one of those Top 10s was a victory, and it was a huge one for a young player from Quebec: Bourassa won the 1973 La Canadienne, becoming the first Canadian golfer to win an LPGA event in Canada. The La Canadienne was later renamed to the Peter Jackson Classic, and then to the du Maurier Classic. As the du Maurier, it was an LPGA major championship for 20 years (but it was not at the time Bourassa won it). The tournament is still played today (no longer a major) as the Canadian Women's Open.
Bourassa's victory in 1973 was also a home-field win: The tournament was played on Montreal's municipal course that year. Bourassa led by one stroke at the start of the final round, then scored even-par 73. That left her in a tie with LPGA heavyweights Sandra Haynie and Judy Rankin. All three parred the first sudden-death playoff hole, then Rankin went out with a bogey on second extra hole. Bourassa won on the third extra hole with a par after Haynie's approach shot found water.
Bourassa remained the only Canadian winner of this tournament until 2018, when Brooke Henderson ended the drought.
But she was really never the same golfer again after the knee injuries started. She fell to 48th on the money list in 1974, but rebounded to a career-best 16th for the 1975 season. Her only other second-place finish on the LPGA was in the 1975 Patty Berg Classic, behind Jo Ann Washam.
Bourassa fell quite a bit down the money in 1976 list, and by 1977-78 injuries were starting to significantly curtail her tour appearances. After the 1979 season, in which she made only a few appearances, Bourassa's knee issues forced her to retire from competition.
That did not mean retiring from golf, though. She already had experience on the administration side, having served as LPGA Treasurer in 1974-75. And her post-playing career was a busy second career as a promoter and builder of golf in Canada and, particularly, in helping develop young Canadian golfers for the LPGA.
From 1980 through 2000, she served as executive director of the du Maurier Classic (the tournament she won in 1973 when it was called the La Canadienne). That period was almost exactly the tournament's major championship period.
She created the du Maurier Series, which helped expand the number of women golf professionals in Canada nearly eight-fold. She served on the LPGA Board of Sponsors, for a couple years as the board's vice president. And she criss-crossed Canada promoting golf in general and women's golf and youth golf in particular.
Bourassa very much earned her informal title as "Canada's Ambassador of Golf."
Jocelyne Bourassa is a membr of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame, Canada Sports Hall of Fame, Quebec Golf Hall of Fame, and Quebec Sports Hall of Fame.
Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Alliss, Peter. The Who's Who of Golf, 1983, Orbis Publishing.
Associated Press. "Bourassa's La Canadienne in Playoff," New York Daily News, June 19, 1973.
Canada Sports Hall of Fame. Hall of Famers, Jocelyne Bourassa, https://www.sportshall.ca/hall-of-famers/hall-of-famers-search.html?proID=610&lang=EN.
Canadian Golf Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame Members, Jocelyne Bourassa, https://heritage.golfcanada.ca/hall-of-fame-members/jocelyne-bourassa/.
Elliott, Len, and Kelly, Barbara. Who's Who in Golf, 1976, Arlington House Publishers.
Ladies Professional Golf Association. LPGA 1974 Player Guide, Player Profiles, Jocelyne Bourassa.
Ladies Professional Golf Association. LPGA 1979 Player Guide, Player Profiles, Jocelyne Bourassa.
LPGA Tour. Tournament Chronology, 1970-79 (via Internet Archive), https://web.archive.org/web/20100102105959/http://www.lpga.com/content/Chronology70-79.pdf.
Warren, Ken. "Golfing world mourns Canadian trailblazer Jocelyn Bourassa," Toronto Sun, August 5, 2021.
