The Canadian Golfer
In 1879, the fourth golf club in Canada established was Brantford Golf & Country Club. A member from this club, named Ralph H. Reville, launched Canada’s first golf magazine. The Canadian Golfer printed its first issue in 1915. The magazine continued under Reville’s direction through 1932 and has since become the primary resource for early Canadian golf history.
SEARCH
To search the Canadian Golfer on-line collection for a specific club, location or person’s name, enter your keywords in the search form below. The search will return a list of Canadian Golfer issues containing the search terms.
To search within an issue, select the desired issue and use the search function indicated by the magnifier icon, within the on-screen viewer.
The Canadian Golfer
- Is the most prolific magazine about golf in Canadian history. It was published monthly (12 issues a year), with over 100 pages in a single issue.
- Was started during the first World War (May 1915), it continued to publish successfully at this rate for 20 years.
- There were about 30,000 golfers in Canada during the war and about 115 clubs in existence.
- Brought international recognition to Canadian golf with readers from around the world.
- Each issue carried articles on a variety of subjects, including greenskeeping, the rules of the game, the organization of new clubs, the construction of new courses, provincial and national championships and the annual meetings of clubs.
- Served as the forum for many other early Canadian authors such as poet W.H. (Walter Hastings) Webling.
“The Canadian Golfer is a model which many of our British golf papers might well imitate” – Lord Alness from Edinburgh
“The Canadian Golfer is the best golf journal we receive” – U.S. Burke Golf Company
Ralph H. Reville
Reville as inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 1986 for his contribution to golf and for the impact that the magazine had within Canada and around the world. The Canadian Golfer magazines are now a part of the CGHF library. It is the only known source in possession of a complete collection.
Thank you to the many donors who helped finance the digitization of this project