Successful golf journalist had career foreshadowed at U of G
Lorne Rubenstein may have applied to the University of Guelph with the intention of completing a Master’s in Psychology, but the hands of fate had other plans. After graduating from York University in a program then called Liberal Sciences (which is now the equivalent to Psychology), Rubenstein took a year off from academics. The man who would later work as a Globe and Mail columnist for 32 years only applied to graduate school at U of G after becoming aware of a Professor, Richard Lonetto. “It was just the opportunity to really work with him that brought me out there,” Rubenstein explained.
Rubenstein and Lonetto worked together on a study concerning Clinical Psychology – nothing to do with golf, or even sports in general. However, upon first arriving to the university, Graduate Student Housing directed the late applicant to an apartment at University Avenue which overlooked a golf course – a lingering foreshadow, no doubt.
Despite his later career having nothing to do with psychology – at least formally – Rubenstein suggested that the work he completed with Lonetto developing programs in Clinical Psychology helped build a foundation for the immensely successful writer he would later become. “[The work] gave me a perspective on life…working with people at the other end of life,” Rubenstein explained of the programs developed to permanently help patients. “It was the experience of being around people, learning how they coped; and the most important thing, to me, was to really listen to them. That translated into how I approached my work as a writer and as an interviewer.”
Working with people nearing the end of their lives also had a significant impact on the writer – perhaps a significance even Rubenstein wasn’t quite aware of at the time. “Realizing people have stories and [that] given a trusting relationship, they might like to be heard,” Rubenstein explained. “It was very meaningful to be around. It helped me approach my work in that way. Just valuing the human spirit.”
After completing his Master’s at U of G, Rubenstein returned to York to hopefully attain his PhD in Psychology. However, that was a goal left unfinished, as the hands of fate stepped in once again. “I started to just write about golf,” Rubenstein explained, which led to his being offered a part-time job working for the Royal Canadian Golf Association. “One thing led to another…When you look back, I’m sure I could find a direct line with everything and stitch it all together. But it didn’t feel planned. I just enjoyed it, kept at it, and kept getting published. I was fortunate.”
Rubenstein wrote while he played in the Ontario Amateur and British Amateur Championships, which was then followed by caddying on the PGA Tour. “That led into my proposing a column to the Globe and Mail,” Rubenstein explained of his first real start. “Once you get published in one place, it’s easier to get another. It just became a career.”
It was quite a career for something that was never planned or organized. Rubenstein worked as a golf columnist for the Globe and Mail for 32 years and was published in several other publications – such as Golf Digest and Golf Magazine – as well as publishing 13 books. He was also the co-host of the Acura World of Golf on TSN for 11 years, and has received an incredible amount of awards and recognitions, including an induction into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Canadian Sports Media Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009.
With such a decorated resume, it’s no wonder Rubenstein has difficulty deciding on just one proudest moment. About what he holes pride in: “Just being able to sustain a career in writing for so long and being able to write about the game,” Rubenstein said. “But if I were to really pick, it would be in 1980, going to the Globe and Mail [and] suggesting a general golf column to them. That’s what got it going.” Rubenstein also added that having the ability to write beyond the professional side of the game, into the “architecture” and “literature” of golf, is something he never took for granted throughout his career.
“I’ve had the opportunity to write lots of different things… I had the opportunity to write the book about Mike Weir when he won the Masters, that was great. I started before he had even won and as we all know, that turned into ‘The Road to the Masters,’” Rubenstein said, reminiscing about great accomplishments and additional works of fate. “Just being able to stay relevant in a career revolving around a genuine passion for so long…that would be it.”
Through it all though, Rubenstein still remembers that little apartment overlooking the golf course. The once Guelph alumni didn’t think then that he would become a tremendous force for the growth of golf in Canada, but 30 years later, a lot has changed – except for one very important thing: “I really enjoyed those two years there, I really did.”