George Knudson (Image: Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum)
For fans of the late, great George Knudson, a pilgrimage to his mid-town Toronto gravesite is a fitting and moving tribute to the man who ranks alongside Mike Weir as our outstanding male golfer.
I made the trip recently, remembering the golfer I had worshipped as a young boy in the 1960s as I walked through Mount Pleasant Cemetery, searching for his headstone (Plot 1513, Section 32). After seeing him on newscasts or watching him Sunday afternoons on our old black-and-white TV, I would go out and try to emulate his cat-like walk on the fairway and that impossibly sweet swing he had perfected over countless hours of practice, the stroke even Ben Hogan said was one of the finest he’d ever seen.
Knudson’s gravesite in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. (Image: Brian Kendall)
Knudson died of cancer at age 51 in 1989, having won eight times on the PGA Tour (tied with Weir for most victories by a Canadian). Now he rests among good company at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, a leafy and sprawling park-like retreat in central Toronto designated a National Historic Site of Canada. Also found here are the graves of William Lyon Mackenzie King, Alexander Muir, Sir Oliver Mowat, Timothy Eaton, Foster Hewitt and dozens of other Canadian luminaries.
Sadly, I never had the good fortune to meet Knudson during his too-short life.
But like so many others of my generation, I’ve never forgotten the brilliant shot-maker whose success thrilled Canadians — and who first made us fall in love with the game.
George was the one who taught me golfing at an early age. I wasn’t quite as good as George