Canadian Lorie Kane hits a tee shot at the Pan Am Games at Angus Glen Golf Club in Markham, Ont., on July 16. Kane has played only two LPGA events this year, missing the cut in both, but believes she still has enough game to win gold and qualify for a spot on the Canadian team for next year’s Rio Olympics.Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
Lorie Kane's career is far from over, but she can't help but look back to where it all began.
Kane was named one of this year's inductees to the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame on Tuesday morning along with famed amateur Warren Sye and reporter Bob Weeks, who enters in the builder category.
"This sits right beside my first win," said Kane, who won her first professional tournament in 2000 at the Michelob Light Classic outside St. Louis.
"It took me a long time to get my first win and if I look at my career, if this is my 20th year, I've been truly blessed. I still see lots of future in front of me, as far as my life in golf is concerned."
"I hope it doesn't mean the circle is complete because I still want to keep going around, if that's where I'm at. I would definitely put this next to my first win in St. Louis."
Kane, from Charlottetown, is still active on the LPGA Tour and has won eight professional tournaments in her career. She has also won the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award in 1997 and 2000 as the Canadian female athlete of the year and was named to the Order of Canada in 2006.
She becomes the first native of Prince Edward Island to be inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame.
"There'll be a big party," said Kane on a conference call with reporters. "We don't need very big reasons to party in the Maritimes.
"I'm quite honoured to be the first Islander inducted. It is a true honour and I don't know what else to say other than, 'Thanks.'"
Sye, from Toronto, was this year's amateur inductee for his considerable achievements on the golf course. He has captured the Ontario Amateur Championship five times – 1988, 1991, 1993, 1994 and 1996 – and also claimed the Ontario Champion of Champions title in 1983 and again in 1991.
His success nationally includes a pair of victories at the Canadian Men's Amateur Championship (1990 and 1994). He also won the Ontario Senior Championship in 2012.
Sye was always confident in his play but never saw himself as a sure thing to make the Canadian Hall of Fame.
"It had crossed my mind but it wasn't worrisome for me," said Sye, who, like Weeks, is based at Toronto's Weston Golf and Country Club. "I always thought that there was maybe a chance. There's other great players in there with great records, better records.
"I had an idea but not until I got that phone call."
Weeks is one of Canada's leading golf reporters and is already a member of the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame and a winner of the Golf Journalists Association of Canada's Dick Grimm Award. In 2015, Weeks was presented with a Distinguished Service Award by Golf Canada for outstanding contributions to the game.
He noted that he might add another distinction to his career.
"For as long as this Hall of Fame is open and going I will probably be the worst golfer ever inducted into it," said Weeks. "That's the one thing that kind of scared me, to be honest. Seriously, I'm very thrilled."
Weeks also covers curling and will be inducted into the Canadian Curling Hall of Fame on Wednesday.