Alexa Stirling

I I I | A L E X A S T I R L I NG

Reporters and photographers met me at Atlanta’s Peachtree Station and told me that Bob was waiting at the top of the stairs,” Alexa later wrote. “The news came as a shock. He really couldn’t walk downstairs! Until this moment, I hadn’t quite believed it. Halfway up the stairs I saw him, and I felt as though a steel band had clamped around my chest. On the retina of my memory was impressed the picture of a handsome young man in knickers swinging a golf club with tremendous power and grace. In tragic contrast, there stood before me a man slumped on two canes, a brace on his right leg, his face gray.” Alexa did not return to Atlanta again until 1976 when the Atlanta Athletic Club hosted the U.S. Open. By then the club had abandoned the East Lake location for the northern suburbs of Atlanta, a town now known as John’s Creek. Jerry Pate, a rookie, won that championship with a spectacular 5-iron from the rough on the final hole, a shot most golf historians recall with clarity. But fewer remember the eloquent speech Alexa gave on what it meant to her and to the memory of Bob Jones to have championship golf return to their home club. Not long after returning to Ottawa, Alexa was diagnosed with lung cancer. She died on April 15, 1977. She was once again honored when she was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1978. The Fraser children were invited. But for the life of them, they couldn’t figure out why. Alexa’s daughter, Sandra, said, “We had no idea what our mother had done. We just assumed they were making a fuss because Southerners are hospitable.” When she realized all that her mother had accomplished, Sandra wept, saying that Alexa had never told them any of it. “We knew she played golf, but we had no idea,” she said.

Years later, LPGA Founder Patty Berg was asked to name the greatest champion in women’s golf. Most assumed that Berg would call out Babe Didrikson Zaharias or Mickey Wright or Kathy Whitworth. Instead, Berg said, “Alexa Stirling is the finest competitor and the finest lady the game has ever known.” To date, the World Golf Hall of Fame has yet to recognize Alexa Stirling. The house she grew up in still stands and is owned by East Lake Golf Club and the East Lake Foundation.

Source: https://www.lpga.com/news/2021/the-womens-game-greatest-forgotten-champion-stirling

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