THE WAY THEY WERE: DUMFRIES AND COUNTY, JULY 1994

FLASHBACK 20 years to July 1994 and a group of compet4itors in the SLGA's Under-21 girls stroke-play championship at their leisure at Dumfries and County Golf Club.
Those pictured include:
Vikki Laing, Jane Flucker, Claire Hunter, Laura Moffat, Caroline Agnew, Lesley Nicholson, Laura McLardy, Shonagh McEwen, Anne Laing,  Jill McPherson, Heather Stirling (at vert front, Anne Walker, Kim Moggach, Gail Melvin
The winner of the 1994 tournament was Caroline Agnew who is current SLGA chairman Beth Paterson's niece.
Below is a last-day report from The Press and Journal.
The par has dropped from 75 in 1994 to 72 in the intervening 20 years, whilst the SSS has remained the same at 72. 

AGNEW SCORES THREE-SHOT VICTORY

Caroline Agnew (Eastwood), who lost her Scottish girls' matchplay title at Deeside last week, gained ample compensation with victory in the SLGA Under-21 stroke play championship yesterday at Dumfries and County. She shot a final round 72 and with a six under par 219 total finished three shots ahead of the favourite Valerie Melvin.
Melvin made an early charge for victory, but came to grief at the last, an easy par 4. She hit her approach shot into an almost unplayable lie at the back of a bunker and eventually wound up with a double bogey 6 and a round of three under par 72. Agnew, who had shared the overnight lead with Hilary Monaghan, made the perfect start with back-to-back birdies from 6ft at the first and second. She went on to add a handful of gains in a 72.

Laura McLardy (Duff House Royal) celebrated her call up to next month's girls' home internationals team with a 74 to finish joint fifth with Monaghan while Claire Hunter (Deeside) was in the next group alongside the matchplay winner at Deeside last week, Lesley Nicholson.

LEADING FINAL TOTALS
219 Caroline Agnew (Eastwood) 75 72 72
222 Valerie Melvin (Stirling University) 74 76 72
224 Heather Stirling (Bridge of Allan) 81 70 73
226 Laura Moffat (West Kilbride) 71 81 74
227 Laura McLardy (Duff House Royal) 77 76 74; Hilary Monaghan (Longniddry) 77 70 80
232 Lesley Nicholson (Haddington) 79 76 77; Claire Hargan (Cardross) 76 79 77; Claire Hunter (Deeside) 80 76 76
233 Jane Flucker (Craigmillar Park) 78 76 79
234 Karyn Burns (Clydebank and District) 79 76 79

RICK VALENTINE BEATS CATRIONA MATTHEW IN THREE-HOLE HICKORY CHALLENGE

 The way they were ... Rick Valentine and Catriona Matthew ready for their three-hole hickory challenge match at Montrose Links today.

Credit: Photo courtesy of www.carnoustiecountry.com

NEWS RELEASE FROM CARNOUSTIE COUNTRY

The Open is grabbing the headlines – but it’s not the only international golf tournament making the news. To launch the World Hickory Open 2013,  two top golfers from the worlds of women’s golf and hickory golf battled it out today across three holes on Montrose Golf Links, where golf has been played for over 450 years.

The World Hickory Open 2013, which takes place in Montrose on October 1 and 2, is one of the main events in the inaugural Carnoustie Country Golf Festival, which is being held this autumn. To launch this high profile, international event, Carnoustie Country Ambassador Catriona Matthew, one of the main contenders at the Ricoh Women’s British Open next month, competed in a mini-hickory golf tournament against the current World Hickory Open champion, Rick Valentine. 

Catriona swapped her state-of-the-art golf clubs for hickory-shafted golf clubs which are exact replicas of those used 100 years ago and, in keeping with the spirit of the World Hickory Open, wore a golfing outfit similar to those worn by lady golfers in the early 20^th century. 

“Until today, I had no experience whatsoever of hickory golf but it was great fun,” said Catriona.

“I was intrigued to discover just how different the whole experience is from the golf that we play today and how much golf equipment – and golfing attire - has advanced over the last century.” 

After three hotly-contested holes across Montrose Medal, the Carnoustie Country course which will host the World Hickory Open 2013, Rick Valentine narrowly beat Catriona. 

“Right up until the end, it was very close,” said Rick, who is Director of Golf at Loretto School in Musselburgh. 

“Catriona played fantastically well and I only just sneaked in as a result of the penalty Catriona incurred at the last hole.”

As the winner of last year’s World Hickory Open, which was held on Monifieth Medal and Carnoustie Burnside, Rick is returning to Montrose in October to defend his title. 

“I hope today’s result bodes well for the 2013 championship,” said Rick, whose grandmother, Jessie Valentine, was one of Britain’s top lady golfers from the 1930s right through to the 1950s. 

“Playing hickory golf anywhere is special but it will be fantastic to once again compete in Carnoustie Country, home to so many of Scotland’s greatest and oldest golf courses.” 

The World Hickory Open 2013 is a two-day event played across 36 holes of Montrose Medal. This is the tournament’s ninth year and organiser Lionel Freedman, co-founder and Director of the World Hickory Open, explained that, as a result of the success of the World Hickory Open’s move to Carnoustie Country in 2012, a couple of additional events have been added to the programme.

“We’re definitely making the most of being located in the cradle of golf, where there are an almost unbelievable 30 golf courses within a forty minute drive of Carnoustie Championship,” said Lionel.

The World Hickory Open 2013 is for amateur and professional golfers, with categories for individuals and teams. 

“Well over 100 competitors and 40 teams are expected to attend this year’s tournament,” said Lionel. “We’ve already had entries from as far afield as America, Australia and South Africa, with many entrants joining us for the first time.” 

Entry to the 2013 World Hickory Open costs £250 per golfer. This includes an optional warm-up round on Monifieth Medal, two rounds on Montrose Medal during the tournament, the possibility of a place in the Ryder Cup style competition that will be played at Arbroath on Thursday, October 3, hire of hickory-shafted clubs and the gala prizegiving dinner.

“Places are still available in this year’s World Hickory Open,” added Lionel. “Experience of hickory golf is not necessary and neither is wearing period golfing gear, although most of our competitors agree that this is the perfect finishing touch.”

To find out more about the World Hickory Open 2013, or to download an entry form, visit www.worldhickoryopen.com

JOE AND JESSIE ANDERSON'S PLACE IN BRAEMAR GC HISTORY

By BILL HOGG
My thanks for your excellent recent obituary on Moira Milton who although a bit before my time, was a name I do recall from my early days in golf. Her career covered somewhat of a golden era for Scottish ladies' golf, and you rightly name her perhaps more illustrious contemporaries in Helen Holm, Jean Donald and especially Jessie Valentine whom I recall passed away about six years ago in a nursing home in Bridge of Earn.
Jessie Anderson as she was then was a class-mate of my late father at Perth Academy in the 1920s and 30s. Although I don’t recall ever seeing her play, I must be one of the few left alive to have had golf lessons from her father, the legendary Joe Anderson who, in addition to being a famous professional golfer of his day, also represented Scotland at cricket and curling.
In his later years, Joe had his own successful sports shop in St John Street, Perth and I recall having indoor lessons there in a net he had erected for the purpose in the first-floor of his shop.

Funny how your above article rekindled such a memory of an event taking place around 1955 when I was just taking up the game aged 10 years old!

Jessie’s father, Joe was a much revered sporting figure in his native Perthshire and your under-noted thoughts about his connection with Braemar are spot on and it was indeed there that Jessie started learning the game of which she became such a master for so many years.

(Jessie Valentine is pictured right by Cal Carson Golf Agency at the age of 90 in 2005 and below with her father Joe in May 1934, an illustration from Eve Soulsby's book).

I dug out of my golfing library the Eve Soulsby book on Braemar which she undertook to mark the club’s centenary in 2002 and it includes a whole chapter on Joe’s and Jessie’s respective sporting careers and connections with Braemar, including some great photos.

One fact I learned from the book was that Joe’s sports shop in Perth was founded way back in 1899, much earlier in his career than I had imagined.

By the way, in case you wonder about Eve Soulsby’s kind inscription to me on the inside front cover of the above book, referring to my support for Braemar G C, this came about through my long involvement with the Atholl Hotel and it’s annual Golf Society Outing to Braemar which Stewart Spence started in 1972 when Sheila and he bought the Hotel.  

When I become co-owner in 1989, we decided to continue the tradition and last October celebrated our 40^th consecutive outing to Braemar, quite a remarkable feat I think you will agree. 

Stewart joined us on this occasion (as he did for the 25^th Outing) and regaled us with tales of the early years of the outing which used to be rather more riotous affairs than nowadays!

Bill Hogg

Editor's Note: Royal Aberdeen GC member Bill Hogg was a top North-east golfing prospect in his teens when he was good enough to play for Great Britain and Ireland against the Continent of Europe in the Jacques Leglise Trophy boys' international match. Bill pursued a career in business or he might well have made his mark in golf in his 20s and 30s.

Below is reproduced an excerpt about Joe and Jessie Anderson from Eve Soulsby's "Braemar Golf Club: The First 100 Years."

JOE ANDERSON PLAYED FOR SCOTLAND

AT GOLF, CRICKET, CURLING AND BOWLS

Joe Anderson was born on the 31st of January, 1878. His father, William. was a good amateur golfer at Craigie Hill Golf Club in Perth and Joe was the professional there and later at King James VI Golf Club.

In 1899, he founded the Joe Anderson Sports Shop in St John Street, Perth, the premises now occupied by Austin Reed Ltd.

Joe came to Braemar when term finished at Glenalmond School were he coached games. Although Jessie is the member of the family who gained world renown, Joe was no mean sportsman himself.

He played cricket for Perthshire and subsequently opened the batting for Scotland. He also represented his country at curling and bowling and, of course, at golf. Furthermore, he is reputed to have been an excellent fisherman and a more than adequate footballer.

It was very much to the credit of the Braemar club committee that they were able to attract such a talented professional. Perhaps the seasonal nature of the employment was the attraction for Joe; perhaps it was the scenic location of the course or the friendliness of the locals. Whatever the reason, Braemar was the beneficiary and inordinately proud of the association.

Joe Anderson supervised many alterations to the course in the late 1920s. He continued as professional to the club until 1938 when he was 60 years of age.

Jessie recalled spending many happy summers at Braemar, honing her golfing skills in the company of Jean Moir Scott (later, Jean Donald).

At the age of eight, Jessie's father gave her two more clubs and when she was 12, she was allowed to have another four so, in all, she had a brassie, spoon, mid-iron, mashie, mashie niblick, niblick and putter.

With these seven clubs, Jessie won the Perthshire championship aged 15 and reached the semi-final of the British girls championship in 1932."

Colin Farquharson writes: And so Jessie's golfing career was off and running. She would win that British girls title the following year at Stoke Poges, the first of her great collection of championships. In 1937, she was considered the best female amateur golfer in the world.
I interviewed Jessie Valentine - she married George Valentine, a Perth garage proprietor - a couple of times in her later years and there was a big difference between Joe Anderson and many fathers of golfing girls in the modern era.

Joe kept his daughter's feet firmly on the ground by being very sparing in his praise of her achievements. 

Perhaps Joe overdid it. I remember Jessie telling me a story that brought tears to the eyes of this hard-nosed golf writer that it was only on his death bed that her father really acknowleged how proud Jessie had made him down through the years.

When Jessie said: "But you never told me at the time," her father replied along the lines that he had not wanted to make her big-headed, especially as a girl. 

If you can get your hands on a copy of Eve Soulsby's book, I am sure you will enjoy it as much as I did from cover to cover.

E-mail from Martin Taylor

I always enjoy your articles/obituaries. They conjure up fantastic images of these Golfing Greats. The list of  Jessie Anderson's first golf "clubs" in today's article are fantastic, niblick and mashie.

I don't what they are so I'll google them.

Fantastic article, Colin

Martin Taylor

(whose daughter Lauren just happens to be the reigning British women's open amateur champion!)

Colin's comment: In case Martin can't get the answers from Google, a brassie was a No 2 wood, taking its name from the brass plate on the sole of the club; a spoon was roughly a No 3 wood; a mashie was the equivalent of the No 5 iron and a mashie niblick had slightly more loft than the mashie. Remember all these clubs that Jessie played as a youngster had hickory shafts.


E-mail from Iain Valentine

Just seen your article on my Mother, Jessie Valentine, and Grandfather Joe Anderson in Gillian Kirkwood’s Golf News and wanted to say how nice an article it is and is much appreciated.

Many thanks,

 Iain Valentine

Chief Executive

Hong Kong Golf Association

Suite 2003 Olympic House

1 Stadium Path

So Kon Po

Causeway Bay

Hong Kong

Website : http://www.hkga.com/

 

Engaged within sight of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge - how romantic!

Another picture sent to Kirkwoodgolf.co.uk by Anne Walker, UC-Davis's highly successful women's golf team coach from Scotland.

"This was the night we got engaged by the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge! Fond memories" - Anne Walker 

Editor's note: The lucky man's name is Chris Gundling from Half Moon Bay, California. Anne's husband-to-be has obiously got brains (in more ways than one) because he is studying for a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering with the emphasis on wind energy. They have fixed the Wedding Day for next August.

MORE NEWS AND PICTURES TO COME FROM ANNE WALKER ... only on Kirkwoodgolf.co.uk

PHYLLIS WYLIE'S 100th BIRTHDAY TEA PARTY

Belle Robertson, left, Centenarian Phyllis Wylie, the Curtis Cup and a birthday cake .. all in one picture from Shona Malcolm!

FROM SHONA MALCOLMI thought you might like to see a few pictures from Phyl Wylie's 100th birthday tea at Troon Ladies. Around 19 past captains and invited guests were there and it was a happy and fun occasion.
Phyl has some very strong views on how top amateur golf is much less fun now than it was in her day, and that the youngsters are in far too big a hurry to turn pro!!!
It was a bit of a master stroke to take the Curtis Cup with me – she was just thrilled (as were all the others!).
Belle Robertson was great and said a few very fitting words at the end of the afternoon.
Our Curtis Cup facebook page is now up and running so the photos are out there as well.
It was actually a privilege to be there.
One rather nice moment when Phyl was waxing eloquent about team golf in the 1930s when she turned to Belle and said “These were the best times, weren’t they, Belle?” at which Belle (aged 75 and who played round Portland to her age last week to get cut to 1!) said:
“Well, actually I was just being born then!”
 Belle was born in 1936 – Phyl played Curtis Cup in…..1936!

Shona Malcolm

LOOKING BACK AT THE LATE, GREAT BABE ZAHARIAS

Celebrating the anniversary of 100th birthday of the
world's greatest sportswoman/golfer

FROM THE LPGA WEBSITE
By Don Van Natta Jr.

Babe Didrikson Zaharias joined the professional golf ranks in August 1947 after becoming the first American to win the British Women’s Amateur Championship at Gullane, Scotland. That's her pictured with the magnificent trophy outside the Gullane clubhouse all of 64 years ago.
Babe became only the eighth female professional golfer in America, joining a group of pioneering women that included Betty Hicks, Patty Berg and Betty Jameson.
Fred Corcoran, the savvy agent who represented some of the era’s biggest baseball stars, represented Babe Didrikson Zaharias with an eye toward creating a new professional tournament for women.
“In England, they call them ‘ladies,’ and in a way it sounded classier than women,” Corcoran said. “We decided to call our tour the ‘Ladies Professional Golf Association.’ ” But to a few of the charter members, that name might as well have been the Lady’s Professional Golf Tour.
Make no mistake: the lady that the tour was created to showcase was Babe Didrikson Zaharias.
And why not? With a glittering all-sport resume that included her stint as an all-American basketball player and an Olympic gold medalist in track and field, Babe ensured that a world-famous woman with charisma to spare would headline the new LPGA.
In January 1949, Corcoran met at Miami’s Venetian Hotel with Babe, her husband, George Zaharias and Patty Berg. An upstart professional women’s golf tour owned by the women golfers themselves named the Women’s Professional Golf Association, had hit hard times and was moribund.
The LPGA would embrace a different business model. It would be owned by wealthy corporate sponsor whose goal was to have a tour that promoted its players and its sponsors’ products, and not necessarily in that order.
I.B. Icely, the chairman of Wilson Sporting Goods (and a sponsor of Babe’s), agreed to provide $15,000, the sum total of the prize money won at women’s professional tournaments in 1949. Not surprisingly, Babe won the biggest slice of that pie: $4,300.
Corcoran hustled for more sponsorship money, but found it difficult to attract commitments from corporate leaders. “Potential sponsors were polite when I called them,” he recalled, “but you could hear them stifling a yawn over the phone.”
The LPGA’s future looked uncertain until Alvin Handmacher, the chairman of the Weathervane Sports Clothes Company, pledged $15,000 in 1950 for a four-tournament cross-country golf tournament, with a $5,000 first prize going to the low aggregate scorer. “Let’s make no mistake about it,” Corcoran said, “Alvin put the Ladies PGA in business.”
But Babe made sure the LPGA stayed in business. “She was the colour, the gate attraction,” Corcoran said. “She was, without a doubt, the greatest woman athlete the world has ever seen – and probably the greatest woman golfer of all time.”
Babe gave people a show. It was similar to the wisecracking act that she had performed on the vaudeville stage at the Palace Theatre in Chicago, in early 1933, after her Olympics triumphs.
It wasn’t until the 1950 U.S. Women’s Open, held at Rolling Hills Country Club in Wichita, Kansas, that thirteen women became the founding mothers of what would become the most successful women’s sports association in the world. Patty Berg was elected its first president, but Babe was its first superstar (and, not surprisingly, the tour’s initial leading money-winner).
“Babe was an entertainer,” Marilynn Smith, a Kansas pro and one of the LPGA’s founding members, told me. “She knew you’re not just out there hitting a golf ball. I don’t think we realised it; maybe she was one step ahead of us. She was always entertaining – and that’s what got the people out to see us. Once they came out, they could see we were pretty good golfers.”
The tour’s early years were not easy. Some of those early tournaments were rough, amateurish affairs. Some of the golf courses were in ugly condition, parched by drought or chopped up by overuse. The women stayed in cheap, crummy motels. And no one seemed to be making any money except Babe.
She acted as if she owned the tour, and her competitors noticed. How could they not? Babe showed up in clubhouses before tournaments and bellowed at the women, “Hey, girls, the Babe is here! Now who’s gonna finish second?”
Louise Suggs put Babe’s self-confidence this way: “According to her, the rest of us were spear carriers.”
At an early LPGA meeting, the women confronted Babe about the rumour that she was being paid $1,000 under the table by some tournament organisers just to show up. This Babe-only bonus deeply offended the LPGA’s other founding members.
“If it wasn’t for us pigeons,” golfer Shirley Spork told Babe, “you wouldn’t have a tour.”
Babe just laughed. “You’re right, kid,” Babe shot back. “Let me tell you girls something – you know when there’s a star, like in show business, the star has her name in lights on the marquee. Right? And the star gets the money because the people come to see the star, right? Well, I’m the star and all of you are in the chorus. I get the money. And if it weren’t for me, half of our tournaments wouldn’t be.”
What could the women say? Babe was right, though she would have won more friends (and, perhaps, fewer tournaments) if she had kept such feelings to herself.
It wasn’t until Babe was diagnosed with rectal cancer in the spring of 1953 that she began to have a change of heart about her competitors. Doctors told her she wouldn’t play tournament golf again. Babe believed it, at first; she tried to give away her golf clubs. But within a few days, she began praying to God to let her play again. She didn’t ask God for a victory; she would try to take care of that herself.
She had a colostomy. Fifteen months later, with a colostomy bag strapped to her side, Babe won the U.S. Women’s Open by an incredible 12 strokes at Salem Country Club in Massachusetts. The win was one of the greatest comebacks in the history of American sports.
Afterward, Babe thanked her doctors and the thousands of people, many with cancer, who wrote her get-well cards, letters and telegrams. After years of selfishness, Babe finally shared the glory of the biggest title in women’s golf with the men who helped her come back and thousands of strangers.
Jim Murray, the Los Angeles Times sports columnist, called Babe’s 1954 U.S. Women’s Open victory “probably the most incredible athletic feat of all time, given her condition. People all over the country who had been resisting the operation, preferring terminal cancer to it, began changing their minds – and saving their lives.”
As big as Babe’s legacy helping to create the LPGA, an even bigger contribution was in her cancer fight. She was a trail-blazer whose courage confronting cancer publicly inspired the nation.
On September 27, 1956, Babe died in a Galveston, Texas hospital, just 26 months after her third and final United States Women's Open win.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” President Eisenhower said at a press conference that day, “I should like to take one minute to pay a tribute to Mrs. Zaharias, Babe Didrikson. She was a woman who, in her athletic career, certainly won the admiration of every person in the United States, all sports people all over the world, and in her gallant fight against cancer, she put up one of the kind of fights that inspired us all. I think that every one of us feels sad that finally she had to lose this last one of all her battles.”
The New York Times editorialised this way about Babe’s legacy: “Her tragic death must spur us to renewed efforts to fight the foe that cut her down. But her own terrific fight against that foe can also be an inspiration to all those who must face and overcome handicaps. It is not only the annals of sport that her life has enriched. It is the whole story of human beings who somehow have to keep on trying.”

IF YOU WANT TO READ A WARTS-AND-ALL BIOGRAPHY

CLICK HERE

E-mail from Paul Gorry
Member of the Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland
(The accrediting body for Irish genealogists

REFERENCE ARTICLE ABOUT MAY HEZLET

Hi Gillian,You might like to tell Colin that May Hezlet didn't die in her 80s in the 1960s.  She died at Sandwich in Kent on 27 December 1978, aged 96.
I wrote an article for "Ireland of the Welcomes" magazine in 1999 for the
centenary of May's first victory in the British Ladies' (the week after her
first win in the Irish Close).  Here are the last two paragraphs:

"May's last success in the British Ladies' was again at Newcastle (Co Down), in 1907, when she defeated Florence (one of her sisters) in the final.  Her form in the Home Internationals, which preceded the championship, gave no indication that she was a likely winner.  But despite May losing her matches to England and Wales, Ireland won the series.  Both Violet and Florence were also on the seven-member team.  Little did they imagine that it would be 73 years before Ireland would again be victorious in the series.  The achievements of these young Edwardian ladies were in the dim distant past by the time Irish women golfers recaptured the Home Internationals in 1980.  The Hezlet sisters were figures from history to Maureen Madill (winner of the 1979 British Ladies'), who also grew up near Portrush.  Maureen played a pivotal role in that 1980 victory and the following week she was astonished by a letter she received.It was a message of congratulations from one of the members of the 1907
Irish team to her 1980 successors.  The writer was the ninety-seven year old
Violet Hulton nee Hezlet.
"For most of her final years May had shared Violet's house and, like her,
kept an eye on current golf.  In the late 1970s she moved to a nursing home
in Kent, not far from Deal, the scene of her 1902 British win.  Then in her
nineties, she told her niece Rosemary Hoare how she still remembered a
particular putt she holed during that second victory.  
May died in the winter of 1978, almost eighty years after that eventful fortnight back in 1899.  Violet Hulton passed away in 1982, the last of the vivacious Hezlet girls who would cycle thirty miles for the opportunity to play golf."

Cheers,

Paul Gorry

MAY HEZLET AND LAUREN TAYLOR - AN UNCANNY PORTRUSH LINK

  MAY HEZLET, winner of the British women's open amateur championship three times - 1899, 1902 and 1907. Image by courtesy of Gillian Kirkwood.

By COLIN FARQUHARSON

Colin@scottishgolfview.com

Whether or not you believe in ghosts, reincarnations or whatever, there was definitely something spooky about Lauren Taylor - 16 years and just about 10 months of age - winning the 108th staging of the British women's open amateur golf championship over the Royal Portrush links in Northern Ireland last week.

By her own admission, Lauren has never played to that level of sustained brilliance previously in her young life. Apart from suggesting that the game plan devised by herself and her dad-caddie Martin to remove "stress" from the picture and play the LGU's flagship amateur championship as though it was the Woburn junior medal worked big-time, Lauren could not explain what made her play like the second coming of May Hezlet day after day.

Why May Hezlet and who was she? I hear you ask.

Gillian Kirkwood, the LGU chairman is an authority on the history of women's amateur golf and she put me in the picture.

There were four Hezlet sisters, all good golfers - May, Violet, Emily and Florence - and, wait for it, Portrush (the "Royal" prefix came later), was their home-town course.

May won the British tltle three times - 1899 (at Co Down, the "Royal" came later), 1902 at Deal and 1907 when she beat sister Florence in the final when the championship was back at Co Down.

Florence reached the final again in 1909, when Portrush was again the venue, and Violet made it to the final in 1911. Both sisters were beaten by the legendary Dororthy Campbell.

When May Hezlet won the championship in 1899, it was played in May, and she had just passed her 17th birthday by a matter of days. The championship had been played for the first time in 1893 and six years later May Hezlet was the youngest winner at that point in the early days of the tournament.

Fast forward 112 years to June 2011 and going into last week's 108th British championship, almost incredibily May Hezlet was still the youngest-ever winner of the coveted trophy.

May died in her 80s in the 1960s but I like to think that last week her spirit was still around the Portrush links she graced as a girl when a 16-year-old from England finally took over the "youngest-ever winner" tag with inspired golf.

I very much doubt if Lauren Taylor has ever heard of May Hezlet but it is an uncanny coincidence that the same golf course - on two occasions 112 years apart - witnesses the two youngest winners of a major women's amateur golf title.

I don't know about you but it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end just thinking about it.

Northern Ireland in general and Portrush in particular was a hot bed of girls/women's amateur golf in those long-ago days when only a fraction of the current number of female golfers would have played the game.

Hard to believe but May Hezlet was not the only Portrush lady member who won the British title over her home course back in those distant days when they probably never thought anything of it.

Rhona Adair was the British champion in 1900, was beaten in the final in 1901 and won it for a second time in 1903 when Portrush was again the venue (Portrush had hosted the British championship three times by 1911

E-MAIL FROM LAUREN TAYLOR'S MUM, JACKIE

Colin

What a fantastic article about Lauren and May - it certainly made me think.  Even more spooky is that Lauren's great grandfather was Irish; born in Clones I definitely believe she had the luck of the Irish with her last week.  

Lauren has written a lovely card to Royal Portrush – thanking them – I think she can’t wait to go back and see her name on the board; she remembers every shot.  The Ladies of the IGU were also really supportive of Lauren and  she appreciated their and your support all week.  Thank you again; the articles have been brilliant.

From a very proud Mum.

Jackie

 

BRITISH GIRLS' CHAMPIONSHIP STARTED IN 1919, NOT 1950

*Gillian Kirkwood has also put me right on the history of the British girls' open championship. I stated it was played for the first time in 1950 in one of my recent articles. Wrong! Gillian tells me that it was started in 1919 wen Audrey Croft was te first winner. The Ladies Golf Union has run the Under-18s' championship since 1950, which explains why the LGU Yearbook only lists the finalists in the British girls from that year on.

"Many famous names, such as Simon de La Chaume, Enid Wilson, Jessie Valentine and Lally Vagliano, won the British girls' title before World War II," says Gillian.

My fear, given that there is a whole list of winners between 1919 and 1949 I have never seen, that perhaps Mickey Walker (1972) and Belen Mozo (2006) are not the only players to have won the British women's and British girls' titles in the same year.

But Gillian Kirkwood has gone over the full list of British girls champion and confirms that only Walker and Mozo have done the double.