Before grabbing your bag of clubs and heading to your local links, you might think about some of the great contributions that women have made to golf throughout history. These pioneers not only made major contributions to the game itself but also made contributions concerning your right to participate in a great sport that was once open only to men.
First, we should thank Mary Queen of Scots. She was, in spite of being a woman, permitted to play golf whenever she felt like it (it’s good to be the queen). She is believed to have coined the term “caddy,” derived from her pet name for those indispensable golf assistants – “Cadets.” Furthermore, although women would not be allowed to play there for almost four hundred years, her reign saw the construction of St. Andrews, the world’s most celebrated golf course.
The earliest known mixed-gender foursome hit the links in 1890. This was a banner event for women golfers and included Carrie Low and John Reid versus Mrs. John Reid and John Upham (Low and Reid won). This new way of arranging a foursome created major interest among women, and a year later Long Island’s Shinnecock Hills Golf Club was the first to welcome the female duffers. There was such an overwhelming response that two years later the course’s management built a 9-hole course specifically for women. Around the end of 1893, the first of an ongoing series of British Ladies’ championships was sponsored by the British Ladies Golf Union, where the winner Lady Mary Scott represented the Royal House.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, the United States held the first golf tournament for women in Morristown, NJ, on a course of seven holes in 1894. Hollard A. Ford won the event, beating her nearest opponent by 14 strokes, with a score of 97. The year 1894 also saw the creation of the Women’s National Golf Championship in Australia.
By 1895, women were a common site on the links almost everywhere. Courses in most of the so-called civilized nations had started allowing women to play. Even in Hempstead, NY, the stuffy Meadow Brook Club got into the act and sponsored the first Women’s Amateur Championship, in which 13 women golfers competed for a trophy, which Mrs. Charles S. Brown won by finishing with a score of 132.
Moving to the present, it’s unlikely that any woman golfer can remember back far enough to the days when “No Women Allowed” signs were the norm at their local greens. These days, younger girls are active in the sport, which is a great way to keep fit and develop coordination. As a matter of fact, if you are a woman and want a role model in golf, you don’t have to look any further than 19-year-old Michelle Wie, who turned pro when she was 16 and has been going great guns ever since. From the ability she’s shown to date, Michelle has already become a major entry in women’s golf records.
