We've Come a Long Way Ladies.....
by Susan Hafner
Susan, is a contributing writer to Tee Time Magazine. This article appeared in Tee Time Magazine in the Fall of 1997.
 If you think women’s golf has only existed since World War II, guess again. The game of “golfe” actually developed much earlier, and women played a major role in increasing its popularity. In the four hundred years since Mary, Queen of Scots, had the urge to hit a small, feather-filled ball with a crooked stick, women have slowly but steadily created a golf world of their own, in the face of resistance and hostility from men.
Today’s women golfers can thank a small but determined group of pioneers, many of whom will never be known, who loved the game and worked to ensure that the sport could be as enjoyable and competitive as men’s golf.
Although not much is written about how she popularized the game, Mary, Queen of Scots, is known for her introduction of caddies to the sport. When she returned to Scotland from France, Mary brought along a number of her French court attendants, among whom were young men known as Cadets. Queen Mary, as royalty, could not carry her own clubs, so a cadet carried them for her. The word cadet soon became known as caddie.
In the very early days of golf in Scotland, the game was played primarily by the middle and lower social classes. Players decided the course by walking the sheep pasture lands and cutting holes in the “greens” with a long knife. No rules, no fairways, not even a stated number of holes. Greens consisted of acres cropped short by grazing sheep. No doubt women sneaked away from chroes and played a few rounds in the deserted highlands when no one was watching!
Unfortunately, history does not record much regarding women in golf for almost two hundred years, from the mid-1600’s to the mid-1800’s. But in 1842, women were given credit for a change in one of the original thirteen rules of golf as determined by the Society of St. Andrews Golfers in 1744. The rule states that you cannot move “stones, bones, or any break-club” in order to play your ball. Women suggested that lifting and dropping a ball is sometimes necessary when a ball comes to rest against an immovable object, such as a wash tub, or laundry left out to dry. Women also introduced the idea of an “unplayable lie” and the penalty stroke resulting from such a shot.
Women broke into the ranks of the elite St. Andrews Golf Club when a Mrs. Wolfe-Murray came to play one day in 1855. Despite beging outnumbered by horrified men, she played frequently, and although she was only permitted to use a putting stroke, her presence invited other women to play. Within a few years, women had “forsaken the gentility of the putter for strokes that demanded full swings”, according to Rosalynde Cossey, in her book, Golfing Ladies and by the 1800’s, golf had become the premier Victorian pastime for the wealthy and upper classes of British society. Rules dictated that women play on shortened courses and wear appropriate attire. Standards of that time insisted that women’s bodies be clothed from head to foot, so in order to golf, a woman wore a wide-brimmed hat, long cloth skirts covering layers of petticoats and belted at the waist, a long-sleeve blouse with high-necked collar, and high-buttoned shoes. In addition to outerwear, a woman also wore the required corset, camisole, stockings and garters. It is no wonder that women could only putt with such an array of heavy clothing!
 Women throughout golf history have demonstrated how their practicality and sense of fairness improved the original concept of golf, first with the use of caddies and then with modifying rules to allow for unexpected obstacles on a course. Thanks to the efforts of Issette Pearson Miller and the Ladies Golf Union, organized in London in 1893, a system of ‘handicapping’ allowed any group of players to compete fairly, regardless of ability. Handicapping evolved at a time in history when men forced women to develop and support their own golf courses, because men believed that women could not physically compete on longer courses. The ladies of the LGU created a system of rating women’s golf courses by setting a par score for each hole. Scores were a par three for 120 yards or less, par four for 280 yards, and par five for 320 yards. No handicap greater than 25 was given, and the group reviewed and renewed members’ handicaps annually. The three lowest scores were averaged and formulated into a ‘handicap’ for each LGU member. The handicap system spawned a series of improvements that now make the game of golf fairer and more enjoyable for everyone, including teeing areas of varying distances and course ratings that evaluate the difficutly of any given golf course.
The women pioneers of golf didn’t stop there with new ideas. A ladies’ golf group called Westward Ho! in 1870’s England invented the golf bag to carry the increasing number of clubs needed to play. Caddies and players originally struggled with perhaps up to six clubs in hand or under arm, and perhaps out of sympathy, the Westward Ho! group designated a bag suitable for a dozen clubs, from the brassie (number 2 wood) to a cleek (lofted iron).
While women’s golf expanded into more competitive matches in Great Britain, amateur women’s golf began quietly, without much fanfare, in the U.S. In 1895 the first USGA women’s amateur champtionship took place in Hempstead, NY, drawing only 13 contestants. Yet those early competitors consisted of fine women athletes who loved many sports and played them all extremely well. Harriet and Margaret Curtis, sisters from Boston, and Frances Griscom, from Phyladelphia, were considered ‘unladylike’ in their athletic ability. The Curtis sisters continued competing, however, and established close ties with the LGU and Issette Pearson in England. Margaret Curtis’ financial support and persistence eventually spearheaded the Curtis Cup matches, the highly respected amateur women’s international competition, now held every two years and alternating between Britain and the United States.
Other women began to emerge on the golf scene in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Helen Lengfeld, a wealthy philanthropist, personally sponsored and played in many women’s golf tournaments in California, long before corporate sponsors would ever consider a woman’s golf event as a potential revenue source. Glenna Collet Vare, one of the early Curtis Cup competitors, grew up as a tomboy in Providence, RI. Possessing a beautiful swing and impeccable manners, Collett Vare could really hit a golf ball, often over 300 yards, with the wooden clubs popular in those days. The Vare trophy of the LPGA, given for the lowest scoring average each year, is named in her honor.
During World War II, women golfers formed the Women’s Professional Golf Association, led by Betty Hicks, Patty Berg, Babe Didrikson, Louise Suggs, Marlene Hagg Bauer, and Shirley Sport. In that year, nine tournaments were held for a total purse of $45,000. As a nonprofit group, the LPGA is one of few organizations solely dedicated to charitable fund raising. The LPGA has now grown to include 39 events and a total purse of over $25.8 million, and with the increase in popularity, TV coverage and corporate sponsorship continues to rise.
No one did more for the game of women’s golf than Babe Didrikson Zaharias. A multi-sport Olympic athlete in the 1930’s, Didrikson began playing golf in the 1940’s and proceeded to astound the golf world in both the US and Britain with her sheer physical ability. In 1947 she won the Ladies Amateur Golf Championship in Scotland, a tournament never won by an American woman. Known for her enthusiastic antics and trick shots, the Babe made her famous remark to an elderly Scottish gentleman who wondered how she was able to hit the golf ball over 300 yards. She explained, “I just take off my girdle and beat the ball, sir!”
For all women golfers, from the weekend player to the professional, hats off to the trailblazers who made it possible.
Want to know more about the history of women’s golf? Check out these books:
Cossey, Rosalynde. Golfing Ladies. London: Orbis, 1984 Glenn, Rhonda.
Illustrated History of Women’s Golf. Dallas: Taylor Publishing, 1991 Johnson, William and Williamson, Nancy.
“Whatta-Gal” The Babe Didrikson Story. Boston: Little, Brown & Co. 1975 Nickerson, Elinor. Golf-A Women’s History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1987
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