After five consecutive days of unrelenting golf, an 18-hole qualifier and then two 18-hole matches a day for four days, Lambton’s George S. Lyon was on the verge of making history in the Olympic Games at Glen Echo Country Club in St. Louis, Missouri. What the 46-year-old thought about as he fell asleep on the night of September 23, 1904, before his final match against 20-year-old Chandler Egan, is anyone’s guess. There’s no doubt he was battle-scared, perhaps physically aching after walking the soggy fairways or mentally exhausted, but like all successful Olympians, there is no doubt that he was looking forward to the challenge with a never-give-up attitude.
George was a natural athlete who played many sports over the years – baseball, football, hockey, lacrosse, cricket, soccer, and curling among them. He didn’t take golf up until 37 years of age. As thoughts ran through his mind as he relaxed in bed that evening in the Glen Echo clubhouse, he might have tried to remember what he was doing at the age of 20. He may have recalled that he won a medal in 1876 at the age of 18 for setting a national record in pole vaulting, another Olympic sport, at 10 feet, six inches.
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