Who was the first woman golfer in Ireland?
Leona Maguire
Leona Maguire (born 30 November 1994) is an Irish professional golfer. She was ranked 1st in the world on the women's World Amateur Golf Ranking from 2 August 2016 until 28 February 2018 and was also ranked first for the 52 weeks from May 2015 to May 2016. Maguire's 135 weeks at the top is the longest in history. A native of County Cavan, her parents are schoolteachers Declan and Breda Maguire. At the age of 9, she gave up a promising swimming career to concentrate on golf. She is 15 minutes younger than her twin sister Lisa Maguire who is also a professional golfer.
Lottie Dod
Dod did not compete in golf in 1901, and hardly entered major tournaments in the next two years, but she did play in the 1904 British Ladies Amateur, held at Troon. She qualified for the semi-finals for the third time in her life, and won it for the first time. Her opponent in the final was May Hezlet, the champion of 1899 and 1902. The match was very close, and the two were tied after 17 holes. Hezlet missed her putt on the final hole narrowly, after which Dod grabbed an unexpected victory, becoming the first, and to date only, woman to win British tennis and golf championships.
Christy O'Connor Snr
O'Connor first professional win was at the Swallow-Penfold Tournament held in 1955, the first £1,000 prize to be offered in British golf. He went on to win the 1956 and 1959 British Masters. In 1958, he helped Ireland to win the Canada Cup in Mexico City playing with Harry Bradshaw. A year later, he moved to Dublin and joined The Royal Dublin Golf Club. Throughout the 1960s he won at least one professional event during each year on the British Tour, a level of consistent success matched by very few other players. O'Connor rarely played professional tournaments outside Britain or Ireland, at one stage saying he forwent playing at the US Masters in Augusta because he couldn't afford to participate.
Lisa Maguire
In March, Maguire won the Spanish Ladies Open Amateur Champion in Cádiz and in July she won the European Ladies Amateur Championship at the Noordwijk Golfclub in the Netherlands, becoming the first ever Irish winner. She was chosen along with her sister Leona in the European side which earned a 12–12 draw against the US in the PING Junior Solheim Cup at Knightsbrook in Meath on 21 September. In December, she and her sister Leona were named jointly as the Women's Amateur of the Year at the AIB Irish Golf Writers' awards for 2011.
Barbara Romack
In 1955, Romack finished second to Jessie Valentine in the British Ladies Amateur played at the Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland. Her golfing performances earned her the cover of "Sports Illustrated" on April 16, 1956. In May 1957, she married Edward Wayne "Bud" Porter, an associate golf professional at course in her native Sacramento.
Edith Cummings
Edith Cummings (March 26, 1899 – November 1984) was an American socialite and one of the premier amateur golfers of her generation. She was one of the Big Four debutantes in Chicago, at the end of the First World War. She became nationally famous following her 1923 victory in the U.S. Women's Amateur. On August 25, 1924, she became the first golfer and first female athlete to appear on the cover of "Time" magazine.
List of Ireland women ODI cricketers
This is a list of Irish women's One-day international cricketers. Ireland Women played their first ODI on 28 June 1987, in a 3 match series against Australia. Overall, 86 Irish women have played in at least one women's one-day international. A One Day International, or an ODI, is an international cricket match between two representative teams, each having ODI status. An ODI differs from test matches in that the number of overs per team is limited, and that each team has only one innings. The list is arranged in the order in which each player won her first ODI cap. Where more than one player won her first ODI cap in the same match, those players are listed alphabetically by surname.
Golf in the Philippines
Filipino women joined the rows and ranks of Filipino men golf-gamers in 1938. The first Filipino woman to compete in the field of golf dominated by European and American lady golfers was Dominga Capati during the 1938 Philippine Women's Open Golf Championship. Capati took some time-off as a laundrywoman to excel in golf. It was in Capati's honor that the Dominga Capati Memorial Tournament was held at the Wack Wack Golf and Country Club on March 19, 1968.
Genevieve Hecker
In April 1903, Hecker married Charles T. Stout and in 1904 she published "Golf for Women", the first book ever written exclusively for female golfers. The book included a chapter by Irish golfer Rhona Adair who won four straight Irish Ladies Close Championships and the 1900 and 1903 British Ladies Amateurs.
Beatrix Hoyt
A member of the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York, which encouraged juniors and females to play the game, in 1896, at the age of sixteen, and after only two years of playing golf, Beatrix Hoyt won the United States Women's Amateur Golf Championship, making her the youngest woman to win until Laura Baugh's victory in 1971. She went on to win the championship the following two years as well. She was also the medalist for shooting the lowest score in the tournament's qualifying round, something she would accomplish for five straight years. 1896 was the second edition of the championship and the first year that the Robert Cox Cup was awarded to the winner. With partner William Sands, in November 1897, she won the mixed foursome championship at Westchester Country Club. At age 19, she retired from competitive golf after losing to Margaret Curtis in the semi-final round at the 1900 tournament, ultimately pursuing a career in sculpture and landscape painting.
Timeline of golf history (1851–1945)
The U.S. Women's Amateur is instituted. Mrs. Charles S. Brown (née Lucy N. Barnes) is the first winner.
Portlethen
Portlethen Golf Club was founded in 1981, and a championship course designed by Donald Steel opened for play in 1989. The club is owned by its members. The club's first professional player was Muriel Thomson who, when she was appointed in 1990, was the first female golf professional in Scotland. In December 2014 she was succeeded by Stuart Wilson.
The course is a 6,663 yards par 72 with two par 3s and two par 5s in each half (providing a par 3 and a par 5 facing each of north, south, east and west) to complement five par 4s in each half. The club has an extensive clubhouse and practice facilities, including a covered driving range, practice bunkers, short-game area and putting green.
In 2011, Portlethen won the Aberdeen and District Pennant League for the first time. The 2012 Club Champion was Keith Horne, who went on to win the North East Champion of Champions Trophy. Club Champion in both 2013 and 2014 was Clark Brechin and the championship was won by Kevin Daglish in 2015. In 2016 and 2017, Clark Brechin won the championship again, totalling eight victories.
Irene Gilbert (fashion designer)
Irene Gilbert (19 July 1908 – 7 August 1985) (pronounced "Irini"). Margaret Elizabeth Irene Gilbert was born in Main Street, Thurles, County Tipperary to Jennie (née Knox) and William Charles, a commercial traveller in the printing and stationery trade. Irene was an Irish fashion designer based in Dublin. Ireland's first couturier, she was a member of the "Big Three" Irish fashion designers, along with Sybil Connolly and Raymond Kenna/Kay Peterson. Designing for royalty and high society, she was famous for her work and friendship with Grace Kelly. She was the first woman to run a successful fashion business in Ireland, operating out of a shop on St Stephen's Green on the southside of the city.
Dorothy Campbell
Dorothy Lee Campbell (March 24, 1883 – March 20, 1945) was a Scottish female amateur golfer. Campbell was the first woman to win the American, British and Canadian Women's Amateurs.
Irish Championship Meeting Professional Tournament
The Irish Championship Meeting Professional Tournament was a series of golf tournaments played in Ireland. The Irish Championship Meeting had been instituted in 1892 by the Golfing Union of Ireland. The main event was the Irish Amateur Open Championship but in a number of years a professional tournament was also held at the meeting. A total of 6 tournaments were held between 1894 and 1901.
Ladies Irish Open
The Ladies Irish Open was a professional golf tournament on the Ladies European Tour (LET), held in the Republic of Ireland. It was part of the LET schedule in 1983 and 1984 in Northern Ireland; the 1984 event was co-sanctioned by the U.S.-based LPGA Tour. After nearly a decade's absence, it returned in 1994 for ten editions through 2003, all in the Republic of Ireland. After a four-year hiatus, the tournament was revived again in 2008 as part of the buildup to the 2011 Solheim Cup, scheduled for late September at Killeen Castle in County Meath. Killeen Castle hosted the Ladies Irish Open in 2010 and 2011 in early August, the week following the Women's British Open. The last event was played in 2012.
Edith Cummings
Following her graduation in 1917, Cummings pursued tournament golf where she would earn the nickname "the Fairway Flapper". In 1921, she competed in the British Ladies Amateur along with other famous female golfers such as Alexa Stirling and Marion Hollins. The next year Cummings entered the U.S. Women's Amateur, where she was in match play against Glenna Collett, then an 18-year-old out of Rhode Island, who would become known as one of the greatest female golfers of the 1920s. Cummings lost on the final hole. She returned to the tournament the next year. This time, she won, earning her the cover photo on "Time" magazine, in addition to profiles in "Vogue", "Ladies' Home Journal", and many newspapers. She also won the Women's Western Amateur in 1924
Cecil Leitch
Charlotte Cecilia Pitcairn Leitch (13 April 1891 – 16 September 1977) was a British amateur golfer. She was born in Silloth, Cumberland, England, the daughter of a local physician and one of three sisters who excelled at the game of golf. Leitch won 12 national titles as well as five French Ladies Amateurs and one Canadian Women's Amateur.
The Royal Dublin Golf Club
Perhaps the greatest pioneer in the history of the game, Old Tom Morris, came to Royal Dublin and played two matches here on June 7, 1894. Also in that year, Royal Dublin hosted its first championship event, the Irish Amateur Open.
Issette Pearson
Frances Issette Jessie Pearson, known as Issette, (2 November 1861 – 25 April 1941) was an English golfer and the first honorary secretary of the Ladies Golf Union which was founded in 1893.
Lisa Maguire
On 26 April, at the age of 14, Maguire came third in the Helen Holm Scottish Women's Open Amateur Strokeplay Golf Championship played at Troon Portland and Troon Old Course. Her sister Leona won the event after a final round score of 73 for a 54-hole aggregate score of −6, 219. On 20 May, she defeated Mary Dowling of New Ross Golf Club by a 5&4 margin in the final of the Lancôme Irish Women's Close in Fota Island. On 21 June, she did the Irish double by winning the Irish Women's Open Strokeplay following a play-off with Hannah Burke after both finished 5-under-par for 54 holes at Douglas Golf Club. On 11 July, the twins were part of the four girl Ireland team which defeated Sweden 4–1 in the final of the Girls' European Team Championships at Kokkola, Finland to become European Champions for the first time in Irish golfing history. She played for Great Britain and Ireland in the Vagliano Trophy in July, becoming the second youngest player at the age of 14 ever to represent the side, along with her twin sister Leona who was the youngest player by 15 minutes. The twins were the joint top highest scorers for the GB & I side which lost to Europe 13–11. Both twins were selected for the 2009 Junior Solheim Cup Team at the Aurora Country Club, Illinois, USA in August. In December, she was named as the Women's Amateur of the Year at the AIB Irish Golf Writers' awards for 2009.
The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews
On 18 September 2014, the club voted in favour of admitting female members. In February 2015 the club's first female honorary members were announced – Anne, Princess Royal, Laura Davies, Renee Powell, Belle Robertson, Lally Segard, Annika Sörenstam and Louise Suggs. At that time the club also announced, "In addition to the honorary members, a number of women have been admitted as members of the club with more set to follow in the coming months." Also in 2015, Lady Bonallack became the first woman to take part in a match as a member of the club; specifically, she was the first woman to play in the club's annual match against the Links Trust.
Sybil Whigham
Sybil Whigham, also seen as Sibyl Whigham and later as Sybil Nicholson (29 July 1871 – after March 1954), was a Scottish golfer.
Glenna Collett-Vare
Collett Vare died in 1989 in Gulf Stream, Florida. In her 1977 book, "One Hundred Greatest Women in Sports", author Phyllis Hollander listed Glenna Collett Vare ahead of Babe Zaharias and Patty Berg, stating that "her career was unequaled in the annals of golf". Gene Sarazen called her "the greatest woman golfer of all time".
Renee Powell
Powell moved to the UK in the 1970s to improve her career there, playing her first round at the Old Course at St Andrews in 1975. She was briefly the first female head professional at Silvermere Golf Club. Powell later joined the British PGA and was the first woman to compete in a British men's tournament when she played in the 1977 Surrey PGA Championship. She also designed golfing outfits for Harrods. She styled herself "the lone ranger" due to being the only significant black female professional golfer.
Rhona Adair
She played several golfing exhibition matches on a 1903 tour of the United States. While there she befriended Genevieve Hecker, the two-time U.S. Women's Amateur champion. Hecker asked her to contribute a chapter on British golf for her book published in 1904 titled "Golf for Women", the first book written for female golfers. Adair defeated leading American golfer Margaret Curtis during a tournament at Merion, Philadelphia and this led the "Illustrated Sporting News" to say that she was "the foremost lady golfer in the world".
Timeline of golf history (1851–1945)
A.J. Balfour is appointed Chief Secretary (Cabinet Minister) for Ireland; his rise to political and social prominence has an incalculable effect on the popularity of golf, as he is an indefatigable player and catalyzes great interest in the game through his writing and public speaking. Alexander H. Findlay, later to become the Father of American Golf, was the first in the world to score a 72 in competition for 18 holes at the Mercantile Golf Club in Montrose, Scotland.
May Hezlet
She won the British Ladies Amateur title in 1899, becoming the youngest-ever winner of the championship—an age record that still stands. Hezlet won the British Ladies Amateur again in 1902 then in 1904 at Scotland's Royal Troon Golf Club she lost in the final to Lottie Dod. She won her third British title in 1907 and her fifth Irish Ladies Close Championship in 1908 at the Royal Portrush Golf Club.
Anne Murray
A longtime golf enthusiast, Murray made history in October 2003 at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York, by becoming the first woman to score a hole-in-one on the 108-yard, par 3, 17th hole at the Kaluhyat Golf Club. On May 11, 2007, "Golf For Women" magazine named Murray the world's best female celebrity golfer, noting her 11 handicap.
Holly Clyburn
Holly Clyburn (born 7 February 1991) is an English professional golfer who currently plays on the Ladies European Tour. She was a member of the victorious 2012 Great Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup team and won her first professional tournament at the Deloitte Ladies Open in 2013, her rookie year on tour.
Babe Didrikson Zaharias
Didrikson became America's first female golf celebrity and the leading player of the 1940s and early 1950s. In order to regain amateur status in the sport, she could compete in no other sports for three years. She gained back her amateur status in 1942. In 1945, she had participated in three more PGA Tour events, missing the second cut of the first of them, and making the cut of the other two; as of 2018 she remains the only woman to have achieved this. Zaharias won the 1946 U.S. Women's Amateur and the 1947 British Ladies Amateur – the first American to do so – and three Women's Western Opens. Having formally turned professional in 1947, Didrikson dominated the Women's Professional Golf Association and later the Ladies Professional Golf Association, of which she was a founding member. Serious illness ended her career in the mid-1950s.
Anthony Babington (politician)
On 5 September 1907, he married Ethel Vaughan Hart, daughter of George Vaughan Hart KC LLD, of Howth, County Dublin (the son of Sir Andrew S. Hart) and his wife Mary Elizabeth Hone, a scion of the Hone family. They had three children:Babington was a keen golfer. He was an international golfer from 1903 to 1913 where he achieved many awards and accolades, and his wife, Lady Babington, was also at the forefront of ladies' golf in Ireland. The Babington Room in the Royal Portrush Golf Club is named after him, as is the 16th hole on the course as a result of the key role he played in shaping its history.
Christy O'Connor Snr
Born in Knocknacarra, Galway in 1924, O'Connor caught his first glimpse of golf at the nearby Galway Golf Club, and from the age of 10 spent most of his spare time there. His foray into professional golf began with caddying, first at Galway and then over at Tuam Golf Club. He turned professional in 1951, with Tuam members funding his first tournament at the Open Championship at Royal Portrush, Antrim that same year. His 19th-place finish garnered a membership invitation from Bundoran Golf Club in Donegal, which he accepted.
Women's golf in the Republic of Ireland
Several well known female golfers from the Republic of Ireland include Philomena Garvey, Kitty McCann and Clair Redden. The first Irish woman to win the British Open was Philomena Garvey, who accomplished this in 1957. The next Irish woman to do this Maureen Madill, who accomplished this in 1979.
Margaret Curtis
Margaret Curtis (October 8, 1883 – December 24, 1965) was an American golf and tennis champion and lifelong social worker.
Geoffrey Cornish
Cornish, who was the author of numerous books on golf course architecture, wrote with co-author Ronald E. Whitten the book "The Architects of Golf" wherein they credit Ida Dixon as the first female golf architect in America and perhaps in the world for her 1904 design of the Springhaven Club in Wallingford, Pennsylvania.
Royal Montreal Golf Club
The Club's first course was a 9-hole layout on Fletcher's Field in Mount Royal Park, which the red-coated golfers shared with the public on the then outskirts of Montreal. The first woman to join, and the first female member of any golf club in North America, Mrs. William Wallis Watson, was elected in 1891. The Ladies' Branch of the Royal Montreal Golf Club followed.
Golf
The Royal Liverpool's club refused entry of Sir Henry Cotton's wife into the clubhouse in the late 1940s. The secretary of the club released a statement saying, "No woman ever has entered the clubhouse and, praise God, no woman ever will." However, American golfer and all-around athlete, Babe Zaharias didn't have to enter the clubhouse. She was able to prove herself on the course, going on to become the first American to win the British Women's Amateur title in 1947. The following year she became the first woman to attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open, but her application was rejected by the USGA. They stated that the event was intended to be open to men only.
Timeline of women's sports
1895 – A women's amateur golf championship, the first in the United States, was contested among 13 golfers at the Meadow Brook Club, Hempstead, New York, on November 9. The match was won by Mrs. Charles S. Brown with a 132 and the runner-up is Nellie Sargent.
Golf in Ireland
Golf in the modern world originated from a game played on the eastern coast of Scotland in the Kingdom of Fife during the 15th century. Golf was officially introduced in Scotland in 1421. The game quickly spread throughout Europe due to the royal endorsement of King Charles I who brought the game to England. One of the oldest and most popular courses at the time was the Royal Curragh Golf Club, which opened in 1856. It quickly spread to Ireland from Scotland.
Lally Segard
Lally Segard (née Vagliano) (4 April 1921 – 3 March 2018), also known as Vicomtesse de Saint Sauveur, was a French amateur golfer. She was the daughter of a Greek father, André Vagliano, and an American mother, Barbara Allen. She won 14 titles, including the British Ladies Amateur in 1950, and later became president of the World Amateur Golf Council, which is now known as the International Golf Federation. Along with Mrs. Henri Prunaret from America, Segard planned the first Women’s World Amateur Team Championship, held in 1964. She also asked her friends Ricardo and Silvia Espirito Santo to donate a trophy for the event, which they did. She was the French captain (though she did not play) in the Women’s World Amateur Team Championship from 1964 until 1972.
Sport in Ireland
Golf is regularly televised in Ireland, with both domestic and international events broadcast. Among Ireland's most famous golf courses are Royal County Down Golf Club, Royal Portrush Golf Club, Portmarnock and Ballybunion. The most prestigious tournament of Ireland is the Irish Open, which is held on courses in the four provinces. Also, the K Club in County Kildare hosted the European Open from 1995 to 2007.
Margaret Scott (golfer)
Lady Margaret Rachel Scott (5 April 1874 – 27 January 1938) was a dominant player in early women's golf, who won the first three British Ladies Amateurs in 1893, 1894, and 1895.
Kathryn Imrie
Kathryn Christine Imrie (born Kathryn Marshall 8 June 1967) is a Scottish professional golfer who played on the U.S.-based LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour.
Irish Open (golf)
The 1975 Irish Open was held at Woodbrook Golf Club, which had hosted the Carroll's International events since 1967. Christy O'Connor Jnr became the third Irish winner, finishing one ahead of Harry Bannerman, and took the first prize of £5,000.
Dorothy Donaldson
She returned to competitive badminton in 1949. Donaldson later took the Irish women's singles championship and mixed doubles title with the number one rated player in Ireland at the time, Frank Peard. She was chosen to play for the Irish international team against Scotland and kept her place until 1957. Throughout this period, Donaldson was a competitive player for the Ailesbury Badminton Club. The club displayed its appreciation of Donaldson by appointing her an honorary life member. In the late 1950s she began playing golf again by becoming a member of the Grange Golf Club, Dublin and had a small handicap in a short period of time.
Philomena Garvey
In 1946, at age 20, Philomena Garvey won the first of fifteen Irish Ladies Amateur Golf Championships. She represented Ireland at the Home Internationals, eighteen times, every year from 1947 until 1969, except 1955 when she withdrew through injury and from 1964 to 1967 when as a professional she was ineligible to play. In 1964 she became Ireland's first female professional golfer but eventually had her amateur status re-instated in 1968.
Timeline of golf history (1851–1945)
The Ladies' Golf Union of Great Britain and Ireland is founded and the first British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship won by Lady Margaret Scott at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club.
Lisa Maguire
Lisa Maguire (born 30 November 1994) is an Irish professional golfer. As of 11 September 2011, she was ranked 35th in the world on the Women's Amateur Golf rankings. A native of County Cavan, her parents are schoolteachers Declan and Breda Maguire. At the age of 9 she gave up a promising swimming career to concentrate on golf, after breaking her arm in a playground accident. She is 15 minutes older than her twin sister Leona who is also a professional golfer.
Golf
It wasn't until 1552 that the first woman golfer played the game. Mary Queen of Scots commissioned St. Andrew's Links. However, it wasn't until the 20th century that women were taken seriously and eventually broke the "Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden" rule. Many men saw women as unfit to play the sport due to their lack of strength and ability.
Willie Nolan
The first Irish Open was played at Portmarnock Golf Club in August 1927. Nolan had been the professional at Portmarnock since 1925 and led the tournament after the first round with a 72, a new course record. Erratic driving led to a second round 83 and 12th place but two useful rounds in difficult conditions on the final day left him in fifth place, earning £40.
Laura Davies
Dame Laura Jane Davies, (born 5 October 1963) is an English female professional golfer. She has achieved the status of her nation's most accomplished female golfer of modern times, being the first non-American to finish at the top of the LPGA money list as well as winning the Ladies European Tour (LET) Order of Merit a record seven times: in 1985, 1986, 1992, 1996, 1999, 2004 and 2006.
Sicele O'Brien
O'Brien grew up in Dublin, London and Cork. One of the family homes was Lohort Castle, Mallow, was burned in 1921. O'Brien was living there in the census in 1911. O'Brien was initially well known as a hunter and tennis player. O'Brien was a member of the London Light Airplane Club. She got her commercial pilots licence in 1927 and was the second woman in Ireland and the UK to do that. She won the first women's air race – the Aerial Oaks in 1926.
With Lady Heath she set the 1928 British Altitude record. On 20 October 1928 she lost a leg in an accident near Mill Hill golf course Middlesex. Her leg was crushed in the crash and had to be amputated.
O'Brien was passionate about aviation, writing a number of articles and organising air rallies such as the May 1929 rally in Gleneagles. She continued to fly herself using an artificial leg. She worked on behalf of the Air League of the British Empire and was one of the two founders of the Aviation Ambulance Association of England.
However she was killed in 1931 when her plane crashed on take off at Hatfield, Hertfordshire. The plane's co-owner, the explorer Enid Gordon-Gallien, was in the plane and also died in the crash.
British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship
A match play tournament with 18 holes per match, the first tournament was played at the Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in Lytham St Annes in Lancashire, England and was won by Lady Margaret Scott (who also won the following two years). In 1927, Simone de la Chaume of France, who had won the 1924 British Girls Amateur Golf Championship, became the first foreign golfer to win the Ladies championship. The first competitor from the United States to win the title was Babe Zaharias in 1947.
Sybil Whigham
Sybil Harriet Whigham was born in Tarbolton, Scotland, the daughter of David Dundas Whigham and Ellen Murray (née Campbell). Her father was a lawyer and a cricket player. She spent part of her childhood in the home of an aunt in Edinburgh. One brother was Sir Robert Whigham; another brother was golfer and journalist H. J. Whigham. Their sister Molly Whigham also played golf. "The names of the Misses Whigham are renowned all over the world where golf is played," explained fellow player May Hezlet in 1907. "Miss Molly Whigham is perhaps the more brilliant player, but Miss Sibyl Whigham is the steadier, and the one who takes part in a greater number of meetings."
Seaton Carew Golf Club
Seaton Carew Golf Club was one of the earliest golf clubs in the UK to elect a lady captain of the Club. Jane Longhorn was appointed in December 2010 and served the Club as captain throughout 2011. Longhorn was the first lady to be elected as captain in the Club's 136-year history.
Katherine Butler
Sister Katherine Butler (27 May 1914 – 8 August 2000) was a nun with the Religious Sisters of Charity, teacher, writer, and aviator. Butler was one of the first women to get a pilot's licence in Ireland.
Leona Maguire
In January, Maguire won the Portuguese Ladies Amateur Open by 15 strokes. In April, she won a second consecutive French Under 21 title. In June, Maguire won the Irish Women's Open Strokeplay title. She played for Great Britain and Ireland in the Vagliano Trophy in June where she won all three of her matches. In August, she won the British Ladies' Open Stroke Play Championship by six shots, the youngest player to ever win the event. She was chosen along with her sister Lisa in the European side which earned a 12–12 draw against the USA in the PING Junior Solheim Cup at Knightsbrook in Meath on 21 September. She scored the maximum three points in the event. Also in September Maguire was awarded the European Ladies' Amateur Golf Ranking's silver medal. In December, Leona and her sister Lisa were named jointly as the Women's Amateur of the Year at the AIB Irish Golf Writers' awards for 2011.
Glenna Collett-Vare
Glenna Collett Vare was a member of the American team that won the first Curtis Cup played at the Wentworth Golf Club in England in 1932. She served as player-captain in 1934, 1936, 1938, and 1948. After winning 49 championships, she ended her competitive golf career at the age of 56, with a victory at the 1959 Rhode Island Women's Golf Association tournament.
Katherine Butler
Butler had become interested in aviation after seeing Sir Alan Cobham's Air Circus in the early 1930s, and so began to take flying lessons at Kildonan Aerodrome, with pilots such as John Currie. On 15 January 1936 she became the third woman in Ireland to receive a pilot's licence. She entered the novitiate of the Sisters of Charity in Milltown, Dublin five days later, on 20 January. She was given the name Sr Mary Alphonsus, though later reverted to Katherine Butler, remarking that "there were no nuns with double-barrel names."
Republic of Ireland
Golf is another popular sport in Ireland, with over 300 courses countrywide. The country has produced several internationally successful golfers, such as Pádraig Harrington and Paul McGinley.
Golf in Ireland
The Golfing Union of Ireland was established in 1891, making it the oldest national golfing union in the world. It is based out of Carton House, Maynooth. It currently represents 430 golf clubs and 170,000 members, compared with the nine original founding clubs. Union business is conducted by a Central Council and four smaller governing branches: Connacht, Leinster, Munster, and Ulster.
List of female golfers
A golfer is one who plays golf. Below is a list of female golfers, professional and amateurs, sorted alphabetically. contains lists of golfers sorted in several other ways: by , by and by won (men's, women's or senior).
Timeline of women's sports
1867 – The first ladies golf club was formed at St. Andrew's in Scotland. It gained 500 members by 1886.
Dinah Shore
Shore, who played golf, was a longtime supporter of women's professional golf. In 1972, she helped found the Colgate Dinah Shore Golf Tournament, which in its current identity as the ANA Inspiration remains one of the major golf tournaments on the LPGA Tour. The tournament is held each spring at Mission Hills Country Club, near Shore's former home in Rancho Mirage, California. Shore was the first female member of the Hillcrest Country Club in Los Angeles.
Rhona Adair
Rhona K. Adair (1878–1961) was an Irish amateur golfer. She won the British Ladies Amateur twice and the Irish Ladies Close Championships four times at the start of the twentieth century.
Golf in Ireland
Although most historians agree that the birthplace of golf occurred in Scotland, the sport has a rich and colorful history in Ireland. Dating back to the mid-1800s, one of the fascinating aspects of Ireland's golf history is that many of its oldest courses are still around today, giving players and tourists a first hand account of its history. Today, Ireland is one of the nations with the most golf courses per capita in the world.
Ariya Jutanugarn
Ariya Jutanugarn (, , ; born 23 November 1995) is a Thai professional golfer who plays on the American-based LPGA Tour. She was born in Bangkok. She is the first golfer, male or female, from Thailand to win a major championship. She became the number one ranked golfer in the Women's World Golf Rankings in June 2017.
Samantha Giles (golfer)
Samantha Jo Giles (born 28 October 1994) is a Cornish professional golfer who has represented England at the highest amateur level. Giles is the first female amateur golfer to hold all three major English women's amateur titles, English Women's Mid-Amateur, English Women's Open Stroke Play and the English Women's Amateur Championship. She has also been Cornwall's women's county champion as recently as 2015.
Enid Wilson
Enid Wilson (15 March 1910 – 14 January 1996) was an English amateur golfer. She was a semi-finalist at her first British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship in 1927 and won the Championship three years in a row between 1931 and 1933.
Coatbridge
There are two golf courses: the municipal course bordering Drumpellier Country Park and the nearby private member's club Drumpellier Golf Course. Clare Queen, Scotland's number one female golfer on the women's European tour, is from Coatbridge.
Ida Dixon
The Ida E. Dixon Cup golf tournament—established on September 25, 1917—has been held every year since 1917 with the exception of 1943 during World War II, and 1975, when the event was cancelled due to rain. The winner of the golf tournament is awarded the Ida E. Dixon Memorial Cup, which is named in her honor. Dixon is best remembered for being the first female golf course architect in the United States.
Timeline of golf history (1851–1945)
Mrs. Gordon Robertson, at Princes Ladies GC, becomes the first female professional.
Golf in Ireland
Ireland has twenty-six different counties, seven different types of regions, and nearly 300 different courses to suit any golfers needs. Courses in the West offer views alongside the Atlantic Ocean which symbolize links-style golf instead of the standard Country Club "tree-lined" look. Then there are courses with great history such as Portmarnock in the Dublin region, which was home to fifteen Irish Opens. If you are looking to play what our golfing forefathers played on, then there are courses that were established in the 19th-Century such as Lahinch in County Clare (1894) and the Royal Curragh Golf Club in Kildare (1858) that still receive great amounts of play and tourism. Here is a list of notable courses in Ireland;
Margaret Scott (golfer)
In her first two championship wins, Lady Margaret Scott beat Issette Pearson, the founder and first Secretary of the Ladies' Golf Union. She won by 7 & 5 in 1893 and 3 & 2 in 1894, then beat Emma Lythgoe 5 & 4 in 1895. Thereafter, Scott retired from competitive golf.
Northern Ireland
The Golfing Union of Ireland, the governing body for men's and boy's amateur golf throughout Ireland and the oldest golfing union in the world, was founded in Belfast in 1891. Northern Ireland's golf courses include the Royal Belfast Golf Club (the earliest, formed in 1881), Royal Portrush Golf Club, which is the only course outside Great Britain to have hosted The Open Championship, and Royal County Down Golf Club ("Golf Digest" magazine's top-rated course outside the United States).
Michael Moran (golfer)
Moran played in the first Irish Professional Championship which was played on Monday 20 and Tuesday 21 May 1907 at Royal Portrush Golf Club. At this time Moran was at Dundalk Golf Club. An Ireland–Scotland Professional Match was played on the prior Saturday, 18 May. On the day before the international, a 36-hole stroke-play competition was arranged for the Irish and Scottish professionals, Moran winning by four strokes from Bertie Snowball. In the international, Moran won his singles match but, playing with Alfred Toogood, lost his foursomes. Ireland won by 13 matches to 4. In the championship Moran was one of the leading 8 who qualified, through an 18-hole stroke-play contest, for the knockout match-play stage. He reached the semi-finals where he lost to Bertie Snowball by 1 hole.
Ann Gregory
Gregory learned to play golf while her husband was away serving in the Navy during World War II. In 1948 Gregory won a tournament in Kankakee, Illinois, during which she defeated former United Golf Association champions Lucy Mitchell, Cleo Ball, and Geneva Wilson. In 1950 she won the Sixth City Open in Cleveland, the Midwest Amateur, and the United Golf Association's national tournament, as well as tying the women's course record at a Flint, Michigan tournament. On September 17, 1956, she began competing in the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship, thus becoming the first African-American woman to play in a national championship conducted by the United States Golf Association.
Daphne Pochin Mould
Dr Daphne Desiree Charlotte Pochin Mould (15 November 1920 - 29 April 2014) was a photographer, broadcaster, geologist, traveller, pilot and Ireland's first female flight instructor. She had a strong interest in archaeology and took thousands of oblique aerial photos across most of southern Ireland. The collection created is private but is catalogued and some photos may be available.
Ireland at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Ireland entered four golfers (two per gender) into the Olympic tournament. Pádraig Harrington (world no. 148), Séamus Power (world no. 290), and Leona Maguire (world no. 353) qualified directly among the top 60 eligible players for their respective individual events based on the IGF World Rankings as of 11 July 2016. Meanwhile, Stephanie Meadow received a spare Olympic berth freed up by the Dutch golfers, as second replacement, to join Maguire in the women's tournament. Paul McGinley is the non-playing team leader.
Sport in Europe
Notable male golfers include Nick Faldo, Colin Montgomerie, Rory McIlroy, Pádraig Harrington, Ian Woosnam, Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson, Bernhard Langer, Martin Kaymer, Seve Ballesteros, José María Olazábal and Miguel Ángel Jiménez. Notable female golfers include Annika Sörenstam, Laura Davies and Suzann Pettersen.
Lydia Hall
Lydia Gail Hall (born 14 December 1987) is a Welsh professional golfer and currently plays on the Ladies European Tour. In 2012, she won the ISPS Handa Ladies British Masters, her first Ladies European Tour win. In 2016, she won the Welsh National PGA Championship, the first woman to win a PGA national tournament. She is the daughter of Wayne Hall, a rugby union player, who played one match for Wales in 1988.
1955 All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship
As a result of her performance, Sophie Brack became the first camogie player to be awarded the Irish Independent sports star of the week on the Friday after the final. Angela Lane’s brother Mick Lane of Dolphin, her brother in law Tom Kiernan and her son, Michael Kiernan were Irish rugby internationals. Eileen Duffy’s brother Billy played first team soccer for Arsenal. Cork goalkeeper, Sheila Cahill, married Donie O'Donovan who won Railway Cup medals with Munster and coached Cork to win the 1973 All-Ireland senior football title. Joan Clancy married West Ham soccer player, Jackie Morley and their son Pat Morley played soccer for Cork City, Shelbourne, Limerick and Waterford United. Sophie Brack captained Dublin to win six All-Ireland championships. Eileen Cronin married Paddy Hogan, who hurled for Laois in the 1949 All-Ireland final. Eileen Bourke was a sister of GAA historian, Marcus De Burca.
Irish Open (golf)
In 2018, Ballyliffin Golf Club became the 19th venue to host.The first Irish Open in 1927 was played at Portmarnock Golf Club from 16 to 18 August. There were 18 holes played on the first two days with the leading 60 players and ties playing a further 36 holes on the final day. In a stiff breeze local professional Willie Nolan led after the first day with a course record 72. On the second day Nolan faded after an 83 and the lead was taken by Henry Cotton on 146 with Jack Smith a shot behind. The cut was 165 and exactly 60 players qualified, including 6 amateurs. Conditions were very poor on the final day with the refreshment and press tents blown down and rain falling in torrents. Jack Smith had an excellent 77 in the morning and with Henry Cotton taking 86, Smith had an eight-shot lead over Cotton and Archie Compston. Smith, however, went to pieces and had a final round of 91 and was overtaken by Cotton, who took 81. George Duncan, starting the final round 14 shots behind, scored 74 and finished with a total of 312, beating Smith by three and Cotton by one. Duncan's score of 74 was remarkable in that it was only two strokes over the new course record, on a day when his 74 and Smith's 77 in the morning were the only two rounds under 80 on the final day. Duncan took the Championship Gold Medal and the first prize of £150. Nolan was the leading Irishman, finishing fifth.
Greenlees Trophy
Ysobel Greenlees became West of Scotland Ladies Champion in 1932, and became a regular member of the Scottish Ladies Team.
She was a leading member of the first-ever international British Ladies Team which toured Australia and New Zealand, in 1935, playing en route in India; and captained Britain playing France in 1938, to success in France.
From 1939, due to World War II, the League was suspended for ten years until 1949, when Troon won. 
She advertised in the Glasgow Herald inviting more clubs to join in – creating a second division in 1954, and a third division followed in 1986. She was a vivacious, powerful golfer, and when playing in the Open competitions newspapers reported “her golf gives more aesthetic pleasure to the spectator than any other of the competitors.”
Northern Ireland Ladies Open
The Northern Ireland Ladies Open was a professional golf tournament on the Ladies European Tour (LET). It was held in 2007 though an LET event called the BT Ladies Open in association with Northern Ireland Events Company was staged in 2003. The 2007 tournament took place at Hilton Templepatrick Hotel and Country Club, Belfast from 1–3 June with a prize fund of €200,000. As well as the LET professionals, the field will feature 12-year-old local twins Lisa and Leona Maguire. Lisa won the Girls 11 [year old] World Championship at Pinehurst in 2006.
Michael Moran (golfer)
From 1910 the Irish Professional Championship became a 72-hole stroke-play event. It was played in early June at Royal Dublin Golf Club. Moran pulled 7 ahead at the end of the first day after a second round 72, a course record. On the second day Moran set another course record of 70, extending his lead to 13. A final round of 76 gave him a 10 stroke win over Michael Cahill and 23 ahead of the rest of the field. Later in June he travelled to St Andrews for the Open Championship. There was no qualifying and everyone played one round on each of the first two days. Moran had rounds of 77 and 75 to tie for fourth place at the halfway stage. On the final day he had rounds of 79 and 81 to drop into a tie for 14th place. The main domestic event of 1910 was the Portmarnock Professional Tournament, played in early July. This had prize money of £250 and attracted most of the leading British professionals. The field of about 70 was reduced to 32 through a 36-hole stroke-play contest after which there was a match-play contest on the remaining three days. Moran had a first round 89 and only just qualified. He won his two matches on the second day, including a surprise win over Ted Ray in the last-16 round. On the following day Moran, the last remaining Irishman, lost 2&1 in the quarter-final to George Duncan. Moran failed to qualify for the News of the World Match Play. Only one Irish golfer qualified and Moran lost in a playoff to Hugh McNeill.
Timeline of women's sports
1811 – The first women's golf tournament is held at the Royal Musselburgh Golf Club, Scotland.
Jessie Valentine
Jessie Valentine (née Anderson) (18 March 1915 – 6 April 2006) was a Scottish amateur golfer who won the British Ladies Amateur in 1937, 1955 and 1958. In 1937, after winning the British Ladies title at Turnberry she was the world number one ranking ladies golfer. In 1959, Valentine was the first woman golfer to be appointed as an MBE for services to golf and was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame in 2003.
Florence Hezlet
Florence Eugenia Hezlet ( – 2 November 1945) was an Irish amateur golfer who played in the early 20th century.
John Lumsden
Sir John Lumsden was born in Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland, the son of John Lumsden, a bank manager, and Florence Isabella Groom Lumsden (née McKearn). The father had come from Scotland via India to work in a bank in Armagh and later moved to Dublin in 1867 to work for the Provincial Bank. Lumsden's father was a keen golfer and Lumsden worked with his father and his brother in setting up a rough and ready golf course in 1885 west of the Phoenix Cricket Club, thus establishing Ireland's second oldest golf club, the Dublin Golf Club, which became the Royal Dublin Golf Club in 1891.
Greenlees Trophy
The League was founded by Ysobel Greenlees – a member of the Greenlees Scotch Whisky family - to encourage competitive golf for ladies on a scratch basis, and the first year 1930/31 was won by Prestwick St Nicholas. Ysobel Greenlees (née Findlay) was born in Glasgow in 1902 and brought up in Troon.
She learned golf at Prestwick St Nicholas Golf Club, becoming Ladies Champion, before moving to Troon Ladies Golf Club]].
Rhona Adair
Along with May Hezlet, Adair is the most famous Irish golfer from the turn of the 20th century. She was 17 years of age when she played in her first British Ladies Amateur in 1895. In 1899 she nearly beat the 77 year old "Old Tom Morris" who had designed the St Andrews Links where they were playing. Morris was quoted as having said "I'll no' be licked by a lassie", but only won on the final green. Adair went on to win the British Ladies Amateur in 1900 and again in 1903. She also won four straight Irish Ladies Close Championships from 1900 to 1903.
Patricia Bridges
Patricia Marie Bridges (; 30 December 1921 – 5 August 2017) was an Australian golfer and sports administrator. She was the first, and currently only, life member of Golf Australia.
Tuam Golf Club
In 1948 Christy O'Connor Snr came to the club as a professional, and gave local golf lessons. In 1951 he was encouraged by friends in Galway and Tuam to play in the British Open at Royal Portrush Golf Club. He finished as leading Irishman in the championship and later that year was invited to take up the position as professional at Bundoran Golf Club.
Portmarnock Golf Club
Women are welcome to play at the north Dublin course, with full access to the facilities but are not granted the ability to become a full member. Pormarnock Golf Club is one of only two top golf clubs in Ireland that still prohibits women from becoming members. The 2019 Amateur Championship will be staged at Portmarnock, having been allocated the tournament before a review by the Royal & Ancient of their policy around assigning events to clubs which only admit men as members.
Lydia Ko
Lydia Ko (born 24 April 1997) is a Korean-born New Zealand professional golfer who became the No. 1-ranked woman professional golfer on 2 February 2015 at of age, making her the youngest player of either gender to be ranked No. 1 in professional golf. Upon winning The Evian Championship in France on 13 September 2015, she became the youngest woman, at age , to win a major championship. Her closing round of 63 was a record lowest final round in the history of women's golf majors. On 3 April 2016, she won the ANA Inspiration, for her second consecutive major championship, where she also became the youngest player to win two women's major championships. Since turning professional in 2014, Ko has career winnings of $7,774,276 as of 26 June 2017. Additionally, she is the first LPGA Tour player to win at least $2,000,000 in each of her first three full seasons on Tour.
Rhona Adair
In 1907, Adair married Algernon Cuthell, an army Captain from West Yorkshire and gave up her career in competitive golf to raise two children in Aldershot. Cuthell was killed in action in the Dardanelles during World War I. After he died she returned to Ireland where she remained supportive of women's golf and rose to be president of the Irish Ladies Golf Union; she was president in 1961 when she died at Portrush in County Antrim.
Golf in Ireland
The Royal Curragh Golf Club was the first golf club built in Ireland in 1853. Golf in Ireland continues to enjoy a healthy patronage rating fourth in the Top Ten Most Popular Sporting Activities of 2008. Also in 2008, membership in the Golfing Union of Ireland was at 166,419 and membership in the Irish Ladies Golf Union was 49,822, making them third and seventh in the Top Ten Sports by Club/Association Membership respectively. Golf ranks third in Euros spent on activities in Ireland by overseas travelers bringing 183m in 2012. In the same year, the game of golf contributed over 15b Euros to the total European economy. In 2007, Pádraig Harrington became the first golfer from Ireland to win The Open Championship, the oldest of the four Men's major championships.
Timeline of women's sports
1893 – The Ladies' Golf Union, the governing body for women's and girls' amateur golf in Great Britain and Ireland, was founded in St Andrews, Scotland and the first British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship was won by Lady Margaret Scott at Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club.
Jane Frances Winn
She was a pioneer golf writer, editor for the women's sports because she was one of the few newspaper women in the 1900s to be familiar with the game. She covered the principal women's golf events: The Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on Long Island admitted women in 1891, the first ladies golf tournament in the United States was held in 1894 and the Amateur Golf Association of the United States, soon to be renamed the United States Golf Association, was formed in 1894. As early as 1903 she was recognized as a journalist to whom even men paid their homage: "The Journalist", a New York City weekly periodical devoted to the interests of newspaper people and their work, profiled Winn in its series of prominent writers: "Among the feminist contingent of the Globe-Democrat's staff, a lady whose work is attracting particular attention, is Miss Jane Frances Winn, who writes of women's clubs, golf, whist, botany and kindred subjects. Under the pen name of "Frank Fair" her brilliant articles are widely read, as well as are her clever contributions each week in the magazine section."