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Great Athletes

Sandra Post

by Thomas S. Cross

Sport: Golf

Early Life

Sandra Post was born on June 4, 1948, in the affluent community of Oakville, Ontario, Canada, a suburb of Toronto. The area was conducive to farming the land and yachting on Lake Ontario. A Canadian who wishes to enjoy the pleasures of golf must endure long winter months of cold weather or move south. The Post family took an annual vacation to sunny Florida. Sandra’s father, Cliff, played golf for its challenge and social value. He introduced his daughter to the game when she was only five years old. The young girl followed her dad around the golf course, striking the ball a short distance with a short club. Those joyous days of warm weather and frolic set the stage for the development of a golf champion.

Sandra Post, who was the best Canadian golfer in the 1970’s.

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(Ralph W. Miller Golf Library)

The Road to Excellence

Tutored by her father, Sandra learned the fundamentals of a golf swing. Her progress led to precision shots struck with an aggressive style of play. Soon, competitions became a proving ground to test her development.

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As a teenager, Sandra won the Ontario Junior Championship and the National Junior Championship of Canada for three straight years. The triple winner took her consistently aggressive style south to the United States, where she won the South Atlantic Title. In 1968, convinced that her golfing skills had reached a level comparable with that of the best women players in North America, Sandra turned professional.

Confident of her ability, Sandra approached the U.S. tour without hesitation. She felt that, to earn a living, she would have to know when to be aggressive and attack a golf course and when to be patient when the risk of hitting a difficult shot would be taking too great a chance.

The nineteen-year-old Sandra tested her plan at the Ladies’ Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Championship. A major tournament, the LPGA Championship is ranked along with the U.S. Open as one of the most prestigious titles. The 1968 LPGA Championship was played at the Pleasant Valley Country Club in Sutton, Massachusetts. On a demanding golf course and in an important tournament, Sandra displayed remarkable poise for one so young. With so much pressure, she was not expected to perform well enough to tie for the lead at the conclusion of regulation play, but there she was, in an eighteen-hole playoff with the formidable Kathy Whitworth. Sandra managed her emotions well enough to win the playoff by seven strokes. A major championship in her first year as a professional golfer brought Sandra earnings plus rookie of the year honors.

The Emerging Champion

Sandra’s first major victory was a springboard to the Ladies’ World Series of Golf. The tournament was only in its fourth year and had sponsor problems that ultimately caused its discontinuation. However, the World Series was the most financially rewarding tournament on the LPGA Tour. Participants included the top two players on the money-winning list, Mickey Wright and Sandra Haynie; the defending champion, Kathy Whitworth; the Canadian Open Champion, Carol Mann; the U.S. Open Champion, Susie Berning; and Sandra, as the LPGA Champion.

Only the best players on the women’s tour could play for the $10,000 first prize, and Sandra was part of this elite group. She felt that luck had played a major part in her playoff win at the LPGA. However, when she took an early lead in the 36-hole World Series, skill was a prominent factor. A bogey late in the first round placed Sandra four shots off the lead. Whitworth’s two scores of 69 subdued the field and won the tournament, but Sandra had proven to be capable of playing with the best golfers on tour.

Placing thirteenth on the 1968 money-winning list excited Sandra. The future looked bright until back problems struck her down. Lower back and hip-muscle spasms are common symptoms associated with the golf swing. Sandra’s aggressive approach and limber swing had contributed to her injury. Her competitive level suffered for three long years.

Time healed the back condition, and Sandra approached the 1973 competitive campaign excited but cautious. She played a tempered game to test her back muscles. Although she did not achieve a tournament victory, she did finish well enough to rank twenty-third on the money-winners list. By the conclusion of the 1974 season, she had improved to fifteenth on the list. She continued to be a member of the top fifteen money winners over the next seven years.

Continuing the Story

Sandra earned a reputation for striking accurate irons and having the ability to play position golf on tight courses. On the par 3 eighth hole at the 1973 Colgate Dinah Shore, she hit an iron shot that struck the green 10 feet below the flagstick. The ball took a bounce, one hop, and rolled into the cup. The hole in one was worth a new car and five thousand dollars.

In 1978, Sandra scored a rare double, in both victories and shot performance. Playing a par 5 hole in two strokes is statistically more difficult than making a hole in one. Sandra holed a number 3 wood shot from more than 200 yards to score a memorable double eagle. That same year, the Colgate Dinah Shore became her second tournament victory. Once again, she was extended beyond regulation play and responded with a victory over Penny Pulz of Australia on the second extra hole. Another victory at the Lady Stroh’s Open moved Sandra into seventh place on the money-winners list. It had been her best year to date, and 1979 would be even better.

A second victory at the Colgate Dinah Shore made Sandra the first champion to defend her title in that tournament. Two more victories and a total of twelve top-ten finishes moved her into second place on the money-winners list. Ordinarily, her performance for the season would have placed her on top of the golfing world, but there was another newcomer, Nancy Lopez, who had taken the top spot.

Her performance in 1979 brought Sandra recognition as Canada’s female athlete of the year and the outstanding athlete of the year. She retired from the competitive circuit following the 1983 season and made her home in Boynton Beach, Florida. Teaching golf, writing a column for the Canadian golf magazine Score, and travel filled her busy schedule. In 1999, Sandra captained the Canadian team in the inaugural Nation’s Cup between Canada and the United States. She was selected as captain again the following year. In 2003, she became a member of the Order of Canada.

Summary

Sandra Post attacked a golf course and made her aggressive approach pay off handsomely. She finished in the top twenty-five money-winners on tour for nine straight years and was the best Canadian golfer during the 1970-1979 decade.

Additional Sources

1 

Allis, Peter. The Who’s Who of Golf. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1983.

2 

Golf Magazine’s Encyclopedia of Golf: The Complete Reference. New York: HarperCollins, 1993.

3 

Post, Sandra, and Loral Dean. Sandra Post and Me: A Veteran Pro Takes a New Golfer from First Swing to Tournament. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1998.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Cross, Thomas S. "Sandra Post." Great Athletes,Salem Press, 2009. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=Athletes_1756.
APA 7th
Cross, T. S. (2009). Sandra Post. Great Athletes. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Cross, Thomas S. "Sandra Post." Great Athletes. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2009. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.