Husband & Wife Team Of Phil And Patty Jonas Among Five New Inductees To The B.C. Golf Hall Of Fame
Patty & Phil Jonas Have The Unique Honour Of Being Inducted Into The BC Golf Hall Of Fame As Husband & Wife, Simultaneously And On Their Own Separate Merit - Image Courtesy Phil & Patty Jonas
Lynda Palahniuk, Bill Hobbis And Babs Davies Also Being Honoured In Ceremony On Oct. 23rd
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
They met on a driving range and 36 years later that is still a place that feels like home for Phil and Patty Jonas.
Phil Jonas and Patty Grant were both playing collegiate golf for Lamar University in Beaumont, Tex., when the game brought them together. They had a driving range at Lamar and we just happened to both be practising on a Saturday,” Phil says. After a six-year courtship, they married 30 years ago and settled in the Vancouver area.
Their significant accomplishments as players has the husband-and-wife team heading into the British Columbia Golf Hall of Fame together. The Jonas’s, along with Lynda Palahniuk, Bill Hobbis and Babs Davies, will be formally welcomed into the Hall of Fame at an Oct. 23 ceremony at Shaughnessy Golf & Country Club.
“It’s kind of unique isn’t it,” Phil Jonas said of entering the Hall of Fame with his wife. As one of the world’s top junior golfers growing up in South Africa, Phil Jonas had no idea his golf career would take him halfway around the world. “I didn’t even know where British Columbia was back then,” he said with a laugh. “It sounded like an exotic place.”
Both Phil and Patty are thrilled to be entering the Hall of Fame together. “I am very happy and I am proud and honoured,” Patty said. “To go in with Philip is a bit overwhelming to be honest. I am obviously very proud of him.”
“I would say I am more happy that Patty is getting the recognition,” added Phil. “Women often have to put their careers on hold when they have kids, so their careers are shorter. It’s not really an equal world as much as we try and make it.
"Patty really hasn’t played much golf since we had kids. Her career was good, but it could have been a whole lot better, so I am glad she is getting an opportunity to get recognized. There are a lot of people around here who have no idea about her record.”
Patty, who was a competitive swimmer before she first touched a golf club at age 14, won the B.C. Women’s Amateur Championship in 1984 and 1985. She won a NCAA tournament while at Lamar and after turning pro earned several other wins, including three PGA of BC championships.
Her competitive career was put on hold when life got busy with their two children, Emma, now 21, and Patrick, now 18. “It is kind of difficult to explain, but it (her playing career) was so long ago that you almost don’t feel worthy of it in some way.” Patty said. “Philip has continued to play his whole life and his accomplishments are still going on and mine kind of stopped.”
Patty has continued to teach part-time at Phil’s golf academy based at Hazlemere Golf Club in Surrey and she has started playing regularly once a week for the first time in many years. Phil has never stopped playing. He competed on the PGA TOUR briefly after finishing his collegiate career at Lamar, where he was a two-time all-American, and was a fixture on the old Canadian Tour (now the PGA Tour-Canada-Mackenzie Tour circuit).
He won the Peru Open twice and beat a field that included the likes of Ernie Els, John Daly, Retief Goosen, Tom Lehman and David Feherty when he won the 1990 Goodyear Classic Championship on the South African Tour. He has won multiple PGA of BC and PGA of Canada titles and competed on the European Senior Tour.
“It is cool,” Phil said of his Hall of Fame induction. “You don’t think about halls of fame when you are playing. I really like the history of the game. Sometimes I get aggravated with some of the kids you teach and you mention Nick Price or someone and they have no idea who he is. I was never one of those guys. Even though I am a transplanted Canadian, I know a lot about the Canadians that I have never even met. It’s really nice, I don’t know how else to say it.”
image courtesy YouTube
Lynda Palahniuk Holds The BC Senior Women's Trophy After Her Win In 2013
Lynda Palahniuk is heading to her second provincial golf hall of fame. The longtime Kelowna resident was inducted into the Manitoba Golf Hall of Fame in 2009. “I didn’t really expect it because I didn’t think I had done enough in B.C. to warrant it, but I am thrilled to hear that they selected me,” Palahniuk said.
Her B.C. selection is largely due to her impressive record as a senior golfer. She won two B.C. Senior titles in 2002 and 2013. “The second one was special because it was 11 years later and of course I was 11 years older,” Palahniuk said. “You kind of think as time wears on that’s not going to happen.”
Her biggest senior win came in 2003 when she won the Canadian Senior title. “That was a really good field,’ she said. “Carol Semple Thompson and Marlene Streit were both there.”
Bill Hobbis joked that he will always remember when he got the phone call informing him of his Hall of Fame selection. “I found out in the middle of the Yankees-Blue Jays game I was watching two nights ago,” he said.
Hobbis, who now lives in Victoria, played on two Willingdon Cup teams for British Columbia and won the 1999 New Zealand senior championship. He also collected many wins in Northern British Columbia while living in Prince George, including three Simon Fraser Opens.
The 62 he shot in the 1974 Simon Fraser Open still stands as the course record at Prince George Golf Club. Hobbis, a former Royal Canadian Golf Association governor, has worked as a rules official for much of the past two decades.
Babs Davies is being inducted in the Hall of Fame’s Legends category. Davies, who died in 1996, won three straight B.C. Ladies Championships in the early 1950s, two Vancouver City championships and was the Canadian Women’s Closed Champion in 1949. Davies worked for 12 years as an assistant professional at Penticton Golf Club.
Tickets to the induction ceremony will be available after Sept. 1 by contacting the BC. Golf Museum via email at office@bcgolfhouse.com.
BABS DAVIES
PLAYING RECORD (AMATEUR)
Canadian Women's closed Champion 1949
Pacific Northwest Golf Association Finalist 1950
Vancouver & District Women's Champion 1950,'51
Vancouver & District 2nd 1947,'48
BC Women's Provincial Champion 1950,'51,'52
BC Women's Provincial Medalist 1950
Low Gross in Provincial Team Matches 1949
TEAM RECORD (AMATEUR)
BC Provincial Team Member 1947,'50,'51
Canadian Women's International Team Member to
Great Britain 1950,'53
WILLIAM (BILL) HOBBIS
PLAYING RECORD (AMATEUR)
Northern Zone Men's Champion 1973,'74,'75
Simon Fraser Open Champion 1973,'74,'78
Cariboo Open Champion 1972, '73 (lost in playoff),'77
Chlicotin Stampede Open Champion 1973,'74,'75,'76,'77
BCGA Invitational 2nd 1977
Saskatchewan Men's Amateur Champion 1978
Calgary City Invitational Champion 1981
BCGA Zone 6 Senior Champion 1991,'98,'99,'2001,'02
New Zealand Senior Men's Champion 1999, 2nd in 1998
BCGA Zone Senior Champion 2004
TEAM RECORD (AMATEUR)
BC Willingdon Cup Team Member 1975,'77
Alberta Willingdon Cup Team Member 1978
Canadian Senior Team Member to Australia and New Zealand 1998,'99
BC Senior Team Member 1997
PATTY (GRANT) JONAS
PLAYING RECORD (AMATEUR)
CLGA BC District 9 Junior Champion 1977,'78
Missouri Scramble Champion 1983
Rayburn Classic 1982 2nd
BC Women's Amateur Champion 1984,'85
BC Women's Provincial Championship Medalist 1984,'85
Vancouver & District Women's Champion 1984
CLGA BC District 8 Champion 1984
TEAM RECORD (AMATEUR)
BC Junior Girls B Team Member 1977,'78
BC Women's Provincial Team Member 1882,'83,'84
National Foursomes Team with Dawn Coe 1982,'82
Canadian International Team Member to Australian Amateur 1982
Canadian Women's Commonwealth Team Member 1983
Canadian World Amateur Team Member 1984
Canadian International Team Member to British Amateur 1985
Canadian International Team to World Pais Championship 1984
PLAYING RECORD (PROFESSIONAL)
PGA of South Africa Kyalami Classic Champion 1988
PGA of BC Women's Champion 1996,'2000,'08
PGA of BC Women's 2nd 1995,2009,'10
DuMaurier Series Women's Tour Champion 1997
PHILIP JONAS
PLAYING RECORD (AMATEUR)
Harvey Pennick Intercollegiate Champion 1983
Hal Sutton Invitational Champion 1984
BCGA Men's Amateur 2nd 1984
John Burns Invitational Champion 1986
Border Olympics Champion 1986
Southland conference Champion 1986
LSU Invitational Champion 1988
PLAYING RECORD (PROFESSIONAL)
Good Year Classic (South African Tour) Champion 1990
Canadian Tour Payless 2nd 1993,'97
Canadian tour Kings County 2nd 1993
Alberta Open Champion 1993
Alberta Open 2nd 1996
Peru Open Champion 1996,'97
Canadian tour Newtel Atlantic Cup Champion 1999
Quebec Tel Open Champion 2000
PGA of BC Champion 2003
PGA of BC 2nd 2004,'09,'16
PGA of Canada Assistant's Champion 2004,'06
PGA of Canada Assistant's 2nd 2003
PGA of BC Assistant's Champion 2004.'05
PGA of BC Assistant's 2nd 2003
PGA of BC Senior Champion 2015,'16
PGA of BC Club Pro Champion 2017
LYNDA PALAHNIUK
PLAYING RECORD (AMATEUR)
CLGA BC Zone 2 Champion 199,'09,'10,'13
Canadian Women's Senior Champion 2003
Canadian Senior Women's 2nd 2007,'08,'09
CLGA BC Senior Women's Champion 2002
CLGA BC Senior Women's 2nd 2003
BCGA Zone 2 Senior Women's Champion 2011,'12,'13,'14,'15,'17
BCGA Senior Women's Champion 2012,'13
BCGA Super Senior Women's 2nd 2012
BCGA Super Senior Women's Champion 2013
TEAM RECORD (AMATEUR)
BC Women's Provincial Team Member 1998,'99
BC Women's Provincial Senior Team Member 2002,'03,'04,'06,'08.'10,'12,'13
BC Provincial Team Member PNGA Cup 2010