Bobbi Lancaster (born June 23, 1950) is a family physician, champion golfer, author, human rights advocate and motivational speaker.
[3] Her father, Douglas Lorne Lancaster, was a high school graduate and World War II U.S. paratrooper and later worked for Revenue Canada.
At the age of fourteen, she finished formal education and worked in a garment factory making uniforms for the military.
The family lived in Chatham until 1956 and then moved to Ridgetown, a small town in southwestern Ontario farm country.
at fourteen years of age and attended Cathedral Boys High School where she was taught by Jesuit priests.
[citation needed] She received an Honor M for academic excellence and captained the men's varsity golf team to two OUAA Championships (1972 and 1974) She was accepted to McMaster Medical School in 1972 and ultimately was awarded an M.D.
[citation needed] Most notably she served as a Board of Director for the Hamilton Catholic Children's Aid Society and became president in 1984.
[citation needed] In 1991, Lancaster moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where she became American Board Certified, established a family practice and continued to teach interns and residents at St. Joseph's Hospital.
[citation needed] Lancaster then provided medical supervision of modified barium swallow studies (2012–2016) while she maintained her small concierge family practice in Gold Canyon, Arizona (2001 to present).
Upon moving to Phoenix, she competed on the Western States Tour in 1997 and won a professional event at Palm Valley Golf Course.
She received permission from the USGA to compete as a female and promptly won the Papago Club Championship against some of the best players in Arizona.
[citation needed] When Lancaster became a professional golfer and attempted to qualify for the LPGA Tour at sixty three years of age, her story garnered international media attention.
[1] It started after Paola Boivin (senior sports columnist for the Arizona Republic) received a complaint from a fan about how inappropriate it was to see her playing on the Cactus Tour.
There was a documentary that appeared on national television produced by the Golf Channel (interview conducted by multiple Emmy Award-winner Jimmy Roberts).
There were also documentaries exploring Lancaster's life by Cronkite News, Sports Illustrated (golf.com) and the Human Rights Campaign (Arizona).
She has also given speeches to Phoenix Valley Leadership, the Arizona Women Lawyers Convention in Tucson, the Performing Artists Medical Association International Symposium (NYC 2016).
Lancaster has participated in a White House Summit, at town hall meetings and has canvassed and phone-banked for pro-LGBTQ candidates.
[citation needed] She has recently completed a full-length memoir called The Red Light Runner and is actively looking for a publisher at this writing.