Alexa Stirling

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

Stewart. He knows the evil golf habits into which I am to fall, and with certainty can put his finger on them and fix them. She was more inclined to practice, and as they grew up she had a positive influence on Bobby. In her chapter about him, she described being embarrassed by his outbursts but did not mention his reaction when her father separated them. She also left out the credit he gave her for correcting his temper. When he heard that her father had decided to keep her away from him, Bobby blew up again: A lot of good it does me to play golf with you @#$%&!!!^# girls. If I’m ever going to be a golfer, I’ve got to go and play with men. I’m just glad your old man stopped you (Matthew 1999). He was aware of her disapproval of his behavior and eventually

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controlled himself, although it took a long time. In 1917, when she finally did confront and berate him at Brae Burn in Boston, she was twenty. She was the reigning U.S. Women’s Amateur champion and known in golf circles throughout the country. She would turn twenty-one during the first week of September. Bobby had become sixteen in mid-March. In 1916, at age fourteen, he won the Georgia Amateur and made his first appearance in a national championship, the U.S. Amateur. He did better than expected, losing in the third round. In 1917, he won the Southern Amateur. When he was a teenager, he probably could have beaten his older friend every time in golf. But when it came to behavior on the course he was no match for Alexa. After he conquered his temper on the course, he remembered her:

I read the pity in Alexa’s soft brown eyes and finally settled down, but not before I had made a complete fool of myself. That experience had its proper effect. I resolved then that this sort of thing had to stop. It didn’t overnight, but I managed it in the end, at least in tournaments (Jones 1959). Alexa’s game developed quickly. She took up golf in 1908 and won her first U.S. Women’s Amateur in 1916, one month after her nineteenth birthday. She had gone from beginner to national champion in eight years. The high point of her career came in 1920. She won her third straight U.S. Woman’s Amateur only one week after the first of her two Canadian titles. Her reputation soared. Bobby would receive much more attention ten years later, but for now, the spotlight was all hers. The press was drawn to her because she was quiet and attractive with a natural, easy smile. When she spoke, she was eloquent. Her lofty status was illustrated by the tone taken in the New York Times in October 1920: At least once each autumn there is a wanton waste of United States Golf Association funds, a leakage that should be plugged up. It seems that despite all advice to the contrary from the experts, the USGA moguls insist upon paying transportation costs, insurance fees and other expenses for safeguarding the huge silver trophy emblematic of the women’s golf championship of the United States and moving it from Atlanta, Ga. to some temporary exhibition counter in a golf club. The point is that the valuable old cup always returns to Atlanta the following week. Why therefore disturb it? Miss Alexa Stirling, that happy, smiling, auburn-haired daughter of

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