Golf Genius ::

Jean Trainor

Hometown/Residence: Rochester, N.Y.

Deceased (1917 – 2001)

Born Jean Elizabeth Ramaker in 1917, she was raised in Rochester on Wilshire Road.

Her father, Mr. Benjamin A. Ramaker, was a well-known athlete during his years at University of Rochester and lettered in football, basketball and baseball.

Jean was a natural athlete herself and took an early interest in sports such as basketball and tennis at Allendale Columbia School.

The family owned a summer home on Lake Ontario, where a young Jean could spend her days swimming, boating and riding horses. As golf became more popular, the Ramaker family decided to take up the game, soon becoming members of Monroe Golf Club after deciding to sell their lake house.

Trainor first learned the game at the age of 13, alongside her brother Jack, and her parents, who were all becoming avid golfers themselves. She won a Monroe women’s club championship at the early age of 15 in 1934.

As a teenager, she was known for being a long-ball hitter, which helped her set the early women’s course records at her home club first in 1936 (83), and then again in 1937 (81). She was an elite junior golfer long before there were opportunities and programs established for girls.

In 1935, she reached the semifinals of the Women’s Golf Association of Western NY championship, losing to Betsy MacLeod of Park Country Club, 2 up.

Her first official tournament wins came in 1936, when she won a Women’s Western Golf Association of Rochester one-day tournament at Brook-Lea in June, and then another at Country Club of Rochester in September, where she won by seven strokes.

Trainor captured her first of many Women’s Rochester District titles in 1937 at Brook-Lea Country Club. She entered the final as a young underdog taking on the defending champion, Mrs. Walter W. Lyons of Oak Hill Country Club. She defeated Lyons, 3 and 1, in the championship match. Not only did the 19-year-old from Wells College become the youngest winner at the time, she set the course record in the process with an 80 (39 on the back).

That same month, she was one of the favorites in the NYS Women’s Amateur at Onondaga G&CC, but lost in the quarterfinals, 6 and 4, to the eventual winner, Marion Turpie of NYC.

Jean earned medalist honors during the 1937 Women’s Golf Association of Western NY Championship, firing a 79 at Oak Hill Country Club to break the women’s course record by four strokes. However, she lost her second-round match, 1 up, to 1935 champion Betsy MacLeod, once again.

A couple of years later, she married fellow member of Monroe Golf Club, Dr. George McCague Trainor, who was a resident physician at the Rochester General Hospital. George hailed from New Castle, PA but attended Amherst College and eventually moved to Rochester.

Coincidentally, or maybe not, both Jean and her husband George were club champions in 1940, her last time holding the title prior to leaving for Oak Hill and the Country Club of Rochester.

George, who was an accomplished golfer in his own right, won his lone RDGA title (finished runner-up several times) that same year, and many more club championships at Country Club of Rochester.

Mrs. Trainor, having won two more WRDGA titles in 1939 and 1940, but had a daughter Anne in 1942, and was unable to win during the early stages of raising her young child. Once Anne was in Kindergarten, it allowed Jean more time to practice and compete. She won the WRDGA again in 1947 and went on to win thirteen consecutive titles.

She finished runner-up in the NYS Women’s Amateur twice in the mid-1950’s. In 1954, the first year the event changed to a stroke play format, she fell second to three-time champion Barbara Bruning of White Plains at Saranac Lake, but fired the tournament-low round of 3-over 77 in the final round. In 1956, she fell short to Naomi Venable at Cortland Country Club, 2 up. The championship format was match play that year.

In 1962, the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship was hosted by Trainor’s home club, Country Club of Rochester. Both she and her daughter Anne qualified for the championship, then faced each other in the Round of 32 after winning in the first round of match play.

Their meeting was their seventh overall in match play format, with mom (Jean) winning each time, whether in WRDGA or club championships. She defeated Anne once again, 4 and 3, before losing to defending champion Anne Decker, 3 and 2, who was staying as a house guest at the Trainor’s home during the tournament. It was the only Mother-Daughter match in the history of the championship to date.

In fact, when she claimed her thirteenth straight Rochester District win in 1959, it was against her daughter, who was 17 at the time. She beat her 5 and 4 on the course where her love of competitive golf began, Monroe.

She rattled off another streak of eight district victories from 1962 to 1969 to bring her total to 24, (a record that will likely never be broken) and helped dub her as the perennial queen of Rochester golf. She won her final WRDGA title in 1969 at age 51, which was 33 years after she claimed her first in 1937 as a teenager. Trainor continued to compete in the WRDGA until the early 1990s and into her 70s against much younger competition.

“She had such a good swing, good tempo, smooth,” her daughter Anne said was the biggest key to her mother winning district titles in four decades. “I’ve never seen a swing as good as that,” said Sam Urzetta, legendary golf professional at CCR, from the Democrat and Chronicle.

Anne Ralph, her daughter, won the WRDGA title a total of six times between 1973 and 1994. Naturally, she needed to defeat her mother (the 24-time champion) during the semifinal en route to winning that first title.

Trainor qualified for a total of seven U.S. Women’s Amateurs in 1936, followed by 1949, 53-54, '59, '62-63. She also qualified for the 1953 U.S. Women’s Open. She was also a five-time U.S. Senior Women's Amateur Qualifier in 1972-75 and '77.

The Trainor family was selected by the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association as the inaugural Golf Family of the Year in 1963. The trophy was to be presented to “the outstanding golfing family carrying on the best tradition of the game.”

In her first year playing at the NYS Women’s Senior Amateur in 1968, she won the championship by seven strokes at Midvale Golf and Country Club.

She claimed her eighth NYS Women’s Senior Amateur title in 1982 at the popular Whiteface Inn Club in Lake Placid winning by three strokes. She was 64, still competing against players as young as 50. She gave it another run in 1983, and won the title a final time at age 65 before retiring from state competition. In all, she captured seven of nine state senior titles in Lake Placid, between Whiteface Inn GC and Lake Placid Club.

At the club level, she compiled five club championships at Monroe Golf Club, twelve at Oak Hill Country Club and a remarkable twenty-three at Country Club of Rochester, collectively from 1934-1989. She broke each of their women’s course records on several occasions, often bettering a previous score of her own and setting the new mark.

In an article from the Democrat and Chronicle from 1963, she was the holder of course records at nine country clubs in Rochester and Buffalo.

During their later years, Jean and her husband George worked on committees for the USGA, NYSGA and RDGA.

She was a Women’s Officer for the Rochester District Golf Association. As a committee member for the NYSGA, she was an active part of the Women’s, Junior and Senior tournament committees for many years.

For the USGA, she was on the Girls’ Junior Committee for two decades from 1955-75, and then later served on the Women’s Committee from 1970-79.

She was not only a role model, but a “mother” figure for junior girls in Rochester and Western New York and would travel to bring local youth on trips to different tournaments.

In 2001, at age 83, she passed away from lung cancer. Beyond her golfing abilities, she was known for her patience and modesty. She was once quoted in the Democrat and Chronicle saying in regards to herself, “she wasn’t so much good as she was lucky”.

Later that year, she was inducted into the Western New York PGA Hall of Fame.

Jean Trainor's Career Highlights

9-time NYS Women’s Senior Amateur Champion (1968-69, '71, '76-78, '81-83)
1953 U.S. Women’s Open Qualifier
2-time NYS Women’s Amateur Runner-up (1954, '56)
24-time Women’s Rochester District Champion (1937-65), 13 straight from 1947-59.
21-time CC of Rochester Women’s Club Champion (1952-89)
12-time Oak Hill CC Women’s Club Champion (1949-67)
5-time Monroe GC Women’s Club Champion (1934-35, ‘37, ‘39-40)
7-time U.S. Women’s Amateur Qualifier (1936, '49, '53-54, '59, '62-63)
5-time U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Qualifier (1972-75, '77)
1963 Golf Family of the Year – Metropolitan Golf Writers Association
Member of the USGA Girls’ Junior Committee (1955-75)
Member of the USGA Women’s Committee (1970-79)
Women’s Officer, RDGA
Member of NYSGA Women’s, Junior and Senior Committees
Inducted into the WNY PGA Hall of Fame in 2001