Her career flourished. Mackenzie was acclaimed Canadian Athlete of the year in 1933 and was named Female Athlete of the Year by the Canadian Press.

She was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 1955 and became a Canadian Golf Hall of Fame member in 1971.

Roma Watson was on the Canadian team with Mackenzie when they travelled to England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland to play.

Watson remembers playing Mackenzie when they returned. Mackenzie was direct in her feedback.

“She said ‘You should be beating me you know?’ But I didn’t.”

Renowned Canadian golfer Marlene Streit explains that Mackenzie was competitive but encouraging of younger players.

“She wanted us to beat her but she was not going to let us win.”

Streit was only 15 in 1949 when she met Mackenzie.

In 1953, when Streit was 19, she travelled with Mackenzie to Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand to play. Mackenzie was captain.

Mackenzie would challenge Streit to play for $1.

“It made me play better. I didn’t want to lose that dollar,” Streit said.

Unlike most women of her day, Mackenzie never married.

But she went on to earn many titles, including: Five-time Canadian Ladies' Amateur Champion, five-time Canadian Ladies' Close Championship, four-time Canadian Senior Women's Champion and two-time Ontario Senior Women's Champion.

Her legacy lives on in the form of the lives she continues to impact. Lives like Canadian golfers Elizabeth Tong, 25 and Selena Costabile, 20, both Thornhill residents.

“She did something no other woman was doing at the time,” Tong said. “Men ruled the landscape. Her legacy lives on. It’s really inspiring”.

Costabile recalls when she joined the club, there was a meeting of the junior players about the heritage of the club so she learned about Mackenzie early.

In the U.S., women can’t play at certain times and days but being at The Ladies Golf course, Tong hasn’t experienced that.

For Costabile, being discriminated against on the basis of gender is a foreign concept.

“I never faced barriers. This atmosphere is welcoming for juniors. We’re lucky to have a club like this.”

And yet, despite the strides, a stereotype persists.

Tong says if she ever plays at a course with men who don’t know she's professional, they assume her abilities are subpar.

“They think you cant hit the ball until you blast one and they are like OK. The stereotype is we are not as good, can’t play as well”.

Tong says the club is supportive and has embraced change. When she first joined in 2003, she was one of only four Asian players, now there are “a whole bunch” of Asian members.

Mackenzie died in 1973, at age of 81.

Perhaps Golf Canada puts it best.

“Ada Mackenzie was one of the finest female golfers Canada ever produced.”

But there remain many other reminders of Mackenzie’s legacy: The Ada Mackenzie Park in Richmond Hill, the Ada Mackenzie Trophy that’s part of the Senior Canadian Championship of the Canadian Ladies' Golf Association and the Ada Mackenzie Foundation that continues to give out awards to wheelchair athletes with a disability, through the Canadian Wheelchair Sports Association.

Perhaps most notably, the Ladies' Golf Club of Toronto remains one of the only golf clubs in North America reserved for women.