Ladies Golf History
Way back many hundreds of years ago, a group of shepherds, bored with minding their flocks on the wind ravaged links of the Scottish Highlands, invented a game to pass the time. The game involved hitting a stone into a hole with an upturned crook. This game was the very first, raw version of what later became known as golf.
By the 15th Century, the crook and stone game had become so popular that King James II of Scotland actually banned it because it was preventing his archers from practising. Despite the ban however, the game grew in popularity and in 1744 at Leith Links in Scotland thirteen rules were set down by the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers.
16th Century Ladies’ Golf
The first mention of ladies golf came in the 16th Century when Mary Queen of Scots famously played a game on Scotland’s east coast with her attendant, Mary Seton. The Queen lost, and Seton’s winner’s prize was a necklace.
19th Century Ladies’ Golf
Somewhat vague, the next two hundred years went undocumented as far as women in golf were concerned but in 1867 the first ladies’ club was set up at St Andrews and a year later England followed suit with clubs at Westward Ho! and Devon. But women were limited to dedicated ladies’ courses which generally had a few short putting holes and around two long holes needing nothing but an unchallenging 80 yard drive; the reason? Their clothes! Awkward garments which did little for the full swing.
The Ladies' Golf Union (LGU) was formed in 1893 as the overall governing body for lady’s amateur golf in the UK and Ireland and in the same year the first Ladies' British Amateur Championship was played at the links course of Royal Lytham & St. Anne’s. The tournament was played hole-by-hole and won by Lady Margaret Scott, the prize being the Amateur Trophy. In 1895 England beat Ireland in the Ladies’ amateur international at Royal Portrush Golf Club.
20th Century Ladies’ Golf
In 1907, British amateur champion May Hezlet commented in her book, "It is now generally acknowledged that golf is a game — par excellence — for women. It is essentially a game for women: the exercise is splendid without being unduly violent, as is sometimes the case in hockey or tennis".
A year after this, some 10,000 people followed the 1908 British Ladies’ Championship final which was won by Maud Titterton on the nineteenth hole. Around the same time, an exceptional lady golfer called Rhona Adair became admired for her firmness of play.
In 1919 the first girls' Open Golf Championship was held at Stoke Poges Golf Club and meantime, Joyce Wethered, a lady golfer who believed that advances in ladies’ golf fashions had resulted in an improvement in scoring levels, had been dominating British women’s golf for some ten years and would continue to do so for another decade, winning the 1929 Ladies’ Championship and becoming known as the finest lady golfer of all time when she defeated Glenna Collett in what is often considered the best ladies’ match ever played.
Moving on to the 1930s, a series of international fixtures was played, including the Vagliano Trophy match in 1931 between the UK and France, which is now played between the UK and Europe. In 1932, the Women's International Cup took place between Great Britain, Ireland and USA amateurs.
1946 saw the start of the US Women’s Open and in 1947, Babe Zaharias spurred the inauguration of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) which played 14 events in the first season. By 1952 this had increased to 21 events and today the LPGA hosts 34 tournaments with purses worth approximately $40 million.
In 1949 the first British girls' Championship played at Beaconsfield Golf Club and in the same year, ladies’ golf went worldwide courtesy of the first Girls' International Matches.
A notable date came in 1969 when the first British Ladies' stroke play championship was played at the Northumberland Golf Club. In 1976, the Women's British Open became a fixture on the growing ladies’ golf calendar, and from 1981 senior ladies were able to enjoy their own Championship.
21st Century Ladies’ Golf
The latest historical event in ladies’ golf took place in 2003 with the first ever Senior International match taking place at Staffordshire's Whittington Heath Golf Club.
Nowadays, the Ladies Golf Union, formed some 115 years ago, has more than 220,000 registered members and 2009 will see the best female golfers in the world meeting on the Old Course at St Andrews Links for the Ricoh Women’s British Open.
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