Before Tiger there was a Lyon
Before Tiger Woods--and before Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Ben Hogan, and even Bobby Jones, there was the great Canadian George S. Lyon. This first account of Canada's little-known golf legend, Olympic Lyon traces his incredible journey from small-town Ontario to the final match of the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis. At age thirty-seven, the fire insurance salesman and natural athlete from Toronto picked up a golf club for the first time. Just a few years later, he faced the world's best golfers--men half his age--in a grueling week of competition for the ultimate prize: the first Olympic gold medal for golf and a magnificent Championship Trophy. A meticulously researched and wildly entertaining work of historical fiction, Olympic Lyon chronicles Lyon's remarkable career and the sudden rise in popularity of golf in North America. It weaves in such momentous events as the War of 1812, the Louis Riel Rebellion, the St. Louis World's Fair, and the Great Fire of Toronto. Above all else, it restores the memory of Canada's champion and ensures that his name will be forever bound to the great game of golf.
Michael Cochrane is a Toronto author and lawyer. He has published a number of best-selling books about Canadian law and is frequently featured on television and radio as an expert. He was the host of BNN television's national legal affairs program, Strictly Legal. An avid golfer, and a lover of the match play format in particular, he was the 2007 Lookout Point Country Club (B Flight) Match Play champion, the Cedar Springs 2009 Match Play champion (eighteen and over), and 2014 and 2015 Cedar Springs (Senior) Match Play champion. He has three holes in one to his credit and one an albatross--but that is a whole other story.
Praise for Olympic Lyon: "I felt transported to another time ... [Cochrane's] book is an important contribution to the game's literature." --Lorne Rubenstein, columnist, SCOREGolf Magazine; author of Moe & Me, A Season in Dornoch, and Mike Weir: The Road to the Masters
"I absolutely loved Olympic Lyon...It gave me a personal connection to a vitally important period in golf's history...I found myself totally connected to George Lyon's story. [Michael Cochrane's] writing is a lovely gift to the game of golf." --Dick Zokol, 1981 Canadian Amateur Champion; NCAA Team Championship, 1981; Founder, Sagebrush Golf Course
"Who knows the Canadian sports pioneer who won an Olympic gold medal in 1904? In golf? Michael Cochrane knows, and now he tells the story of the Lyon before Tiger." --Christopher Moore, historian, author, and two-time Governor General's Literary Award recipient
"An extraordinary story of a nearly forgotten Canadian athletic champion, wonderfully told. Michael Cochrane brings to life the success of Torontonian George Lyon in a compelling re-creation that is literally impossible to put down." --David Miller, former Mayor of Toronto, 2003-10
"Cochrane's voice paints a realistic account of GSL's rise to golfing fame, and his palette and tone have created a down-to-earth rendering of the character that was GSL. Well done, Michael--a page turner, indeed." --Ross Wigle, great-grandson of George Seymour Lyon ..".a marvelous picture of early twentieth-century life and introduces us to the man, the athlete, and the civic leader who shocked the golfing world...Olympic Lyon is a must-read for all golfers, historians, and anyone else who appreciates a great story." --Sandy Somers, great-grandson of George Seymour Lyon
