Alexa Stirling

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

V . A S T I R L I N G C E L E B R A T I O N WRITTEN AND PERMISSION GRANTED BY: STAN AWTREY Golf Georgia Magazine

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The year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of Alexa Stirling’s final U.S. Women’s Amateur victory. And it was 70 years ago this fall that she returned to East Lake for her final appearance, a bittersweet journey that ended with a graceful farewell. When Alexa Stirling Fraser received an invitation to attend the 1950 U.S. Women’s Amateur, she almost cast it aside. She was a 53-year-old mother of three, then living in Canada and pleased with how her life had turned out. But there was something that caused her to pay attention. It just drew her to reply and enter the championship for the one final time. It was a chance for her to return home; she had grown up in Atlanta, the daughter of a prominent doctor. It was a chance for her to say good-bye to the rolling hills of East Lake, the Atlanta Athletic Club’s course, where she learned to play at age 11 from the legendary (and eventual Georgia Golf Hall of Famer) Stewart Maiden, who handcrafted her first set of clubs. It was an opportunity to join with a new generation of women — some of them who had not yet been born in 1920, when she won the last of three consecutive U.S. Women’s Amateur championships. It was also a chance — perhaps the most compelling reason — for her to see her childhood friend Bobby Jones, her younger running buddy and occasional playing partner and competitor. She had heard that Jones was not in good health and this would be a good excuse to check on him. So, she responded, returned the invitation and entered the U.S. Women’s Amateur — an event she helped popularize and prosthelytize — for one last time. When Jones learned Stirling was coming, he was quite pleased. A visit from Stirling might be a tonic for some of the aches and ailments that had begun to destroy his body. Despite his condition, Jones insisted on meeting Stirling at the train station and chauffeuring her to the course.

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