Jocelyne Bourassa likes to keep moving. Her latest move is a physical one. The 68-year-old is in the process of boxing up her life, moving from Montreal to the countryside.
“Variety, that’s what the countryside is bringing me,” Bourassa said by phone Wednesday. It has also been her life, evolving from tour player to executive tournament director to instructor. It’s the adapting that she loves and she’s found success each step of the way.
Bourassa turned professional in 1972 after a great amateur career in Canada where she was a three-time winner of the Quebec Junior, two-time champion of the Canadian Open, winner of the Eastern Providence Championship from 1967 - 1970 and the Ontario Open. She became the first ever woman named French-Canadian Amateur and Pro Athlete of the Year. She was also named Canadian Woman Athlete of the Year.
That same year the LPGA rookie went head to head with Kathy Whitworth at the Southgate Open where she remembers walking up the 18th fairway clapping, believing she had her first win in hand.
“I thought I had hit it very close. But I three putted.” She fell into a playoff with Whitworth, who Bourassa remembers “was hitting it from everywhere in the hole.” The victory was one of five for Whitworth that season and Bourassa was named Rookie of the Year.
Despite her rookie success, Bourassa continued to battle a nagging knee injury she sustained playing basketball, one of the many sports in addition to golf that she played at the University of Montreal. She underwent surgery on her knee but was quickly motivated to return to the Tour thanks to a friendly reminder from one of her sponsors, horse breeder Jean-Louis Levesque.
“He called and said do you know what we do with horses who have bad legs and bad knees? We either kill them or breed them. So you can imagine the pressure I was on,” Bourassa said. She returned to the tour in 1973 and played well for two weeks before teeing it up in her home event, La Canadienne, later the du Maurier Classic and major championship.
“It’s the crowd that really helped me. The energy of the crowd,” Bourassa said that propelled her to her first and only victory on the LPGA Tour. She played for six more years before facing another set back with her knee. “I spent two years changing my game instead of having surgery,” but in 1980 her injuries forced her to retire.
Always looking for her next move, Bourassa took advantage of the opportunity to become the Tournament Director of an event close to home and to her heart, the du Maurier Classic. She helped grow the event into a major championship from 1979 to 2000 and served on the LPGA Board of Sponsors as well as Treasurer during the 1970’s and 80’s. Bourassa also founded the first mini-tour for Canadian women professionals, the du Maurier Series, to which the LPGA granted several exemptions into Canada’s major each year. With Bourassa the Series grew, providing clinic and teaching instruction to some of the biggest names in Canadian golf, including Lorie Kane and teaching professional Debbie Savoy Morel, who taught Celine Dion to play the game. “It was a win-win situation. Those girls are like my daughters,” Bourassa remembers. “This was my path, creating events, creating shots.”
In the midst of her packing, Bourassa came across three, large boxes full of binders from the Classic, the Series and the Canadian Women’s Open, brimming with checklists and memories. All the moves she’s made throughout her career have come flooding back with the announcement last week of her induction into the Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. She is being admitted in the Builder category in recognition of her work growing the game in her home country, which she says she is happy about. But the news of being named in this year’s induction class with several Olympic athletes Bourassa says “feels a bit weird,” adding that she was “quite nervous about the announcement.” She will be inducted in Toronto in October.
Bourassa wasn’t the only Canadian making headlines this week in golf. 17-year-old Brooke Henderson finished third at last week’s Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic then flew to Dallas and Monday qualified for this week’s Volunteers of America North Texas Shootout Presented by JTBC. Bourassa was well aware.
“She’s the new Canadian,” Bourassa observed, having paved the way for Henderson more than 40 years ago. Her advice for the young professional? “Be patient and enjoy yourself. Meet a lot of people. Create shots. Create movement.”
“Canadians, they love golf, and I think the game is definitely growing over the last couple years,” Henderson said this week in Dallas. “It’s been a long time since Canada has seen wins on either the LPGA or the PGA.” The last Canadian to win on the LPGA Tour was du Maurier Series alumna Lorie Kane in 2001. Bourassa remains the only Canadian to win on home soil in the now titled Canadian Pacific Women’s Open.
Bourassa says she will keep up off and on with what’s happening on Tour, but she’s moved on. Soon the countryside will be her focus. Building fires, cutting wood, creating trails, fishing and just being outside.
It’s now what keeps her moving.
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