Olympic Lyon: The Untold Story of the First Gold Medal for Golf
(2nd Edition)
Published: June 14, 2023
Updated for the 2016, 2020, and 2024 Olympics
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 gruelling 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.
Resources:
“I absolutely loved Olympic Lyon . . .Once I started reading it, I didn’t want to put it down.[Michael Cochrane’s] writing is a lovely gift to the game of golf.”
—Dick Zokol, 1981 Canadian Amateur Champion
Michael Cochrane is a Toronto lawyer and author. He has published several bestselling books about law and was the host of a nationally televised live phone-in show called Strictly Legal. Golf and golf history have become his passions. He has spent hundreds of hours researching the story of George Lyon.
