Burlington’s Fareen Samji wins Golf Canada’s Lorie Kane award

When Fareen Samji was named an inaugural winner of the Golf Canada Lorie Kane Community Service Award, the Burlington resident was super humbled."

She admits that Kane, a retired LPGA Tour star from Prince Edward Island, is one of her sporting heroes. And she knows that winning the award helps validate what she is doing with her Smashing the Grass Ceiling program, which not only helps women get into the game but promotes the sport to girls who might not otherwise be able to afford it.

The award also carries a $5,000 prize.

That will allow us to bring another 10 girls into the program, so I'm really thrilled about that," said Samji, whose 2017 book - likewise dubbed Smashing the Grass Ceiling" - encourages women to get into golf, not just for the enjoyment of the sport but to help them in the business world.

Men, she notes, have been advancing their careers and making deals on the golf course almost since the sport was first played.

And she says women are afraid to try because they don't think they're good enough.

I tell them I've got news for them. Most of those guys aren't very good either," says Samji.

After graduating from McMaster University, she played the mini tours for a few years before her interest turned to long-driving competitions.

Samji's introduction to golf came in her teens when she was a tennis player in her native Kenya.

My mother wanted me to try golf and I thought it was a sport for old people," Samji relates. My mother handed me a seven iron and the first shot I hit went high and far. I can still remember the look on my mother's face."

Not long after, the family moved to Canada and settled in Burlington. Samji enrolled at McMaster where she ended up playing tennis because the school didn't have a women's golf team.

After university, Samji began working in the family orthotics business but the lure of golf was too strong.

Samji says she was able to use what she learned studying kinesiology at Mac to figure out how to adapt her golf swing to hit the ball further.

That led her to win five Canadian women's long drive championships. And she's still at it. Just recently, at 49, she won the Ultimate Long Drive World Championship in the over-40 women's division in Bradenton, Fla.

Samji is also now the tour commissioner for ALD Long Drive in Canada and helps organize events coast to coast to identify men and women to represent the country at international competitions.

She also coaches both men and women on how to hit the golf ball further.

And, as satisfying as that is, it pales in comparison to her work in getting women, especially those in business, into the game and helping underprivileged girls take up the sport.

During the golf season, she organizes a series of nine-hole, women-only events called Smashing 9s at area courses.

You watch the women on the first tee and they don't know each other and they're so nervous," says Samji. And by the time the round is over they're laughing and joking and having a great time."

While the purpose is to convince those women that they shouldn't be nervous entering corporate golf events, Samji has found that some participants get so into it that they agree to become mentors and help young girls as well.

Samji says the women are currently working with 12 girls - four each from Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo and Cambridge.

To learn more about Samji's programs, contact her by email at longdriver@farsamji.com or go to her website at farsamji.com.

Whole-in-one: Congrats also to former Hamilton resident Clayton Sikorski who was recently named the Golf Coach of the Year for the Big Sky Conference in NCAA Division 1 golf. Sikorski is the director of both the men's and women's golf programs at the University of Northern Colorado in Greenly, Co., and recently led the men's team to the Big Sky Conference title ... A note on a column I wrote a couple weeks back on courses in our area that have closed over the years. I forgot Paris Grand in Paris, Ont., and Upper Canada Country Club, which was once on the site now occupied by Glen Abbey in Oakville ... Aces in the area include Carson Foxcroft on the 167-yard 15th hole at Burlington Golf and Country Club with an eight iron and Colin Dido on the 162-yard 17th hole at Burlington Springs with a five iron.

Garry McKay is an award-winning golf writer and former sports writer for The Hamilton Spectator. Garrymckay1@rogers.com