Alexa Stirling

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

“My grandfather insisted on driving down to the train station to get her, which must have been scary because he was driving with one hand and he couldn’t use his legs,” said Dr. Bob Jones IV, the grandson of Bobby Jones. Attorney Sidney Matthew, a Jones historian and collector, wrote about the incident in the March 2002 issue of Links magazine. Stirling was stunned to see the physical condition of Jones, who could barely lift his feet at the time. Matthew wrote, “The shock Alexa had experienced at the train station gradually gave way to a new admiration. Physically, Jones was a shell of his once-magnificent self, but his superb intellect had been spared. Alexa saw a sublime new heroism in Jones’ decline. Bob managed to handle his extraordinary disease with the grace, humor and dignity he had displayed during his years of triumph.” Stirling and Jones spent a lot of time together that week. “They left the station and drove out to East Lake and Bob turned to Alexa and said, ‘Let’s go watch some of them,’” Dr. Jones said. “So, they walked up to what was then the first fairway and Alexa could see my grandfather could not walk. They got about midway up to the top of a hill and she said, ‘Bob, why don’t we just sit here under this shade tree and watch the players? So, there they sat. And Alexa was stunned to see what had happened. She knew that he had been ill, but she had no idea. “And Bob was just kind of looking off in the distance and he said, “Alexa, if you put your mind to it, you could still win this.’ He’s sitting there looking off in the distance and she reached over and patted him on the leg, which is about the sweetest thing. And then she realized he couldn’t feel it. And they stayed very good friends the rest of his life.” [ ]

Jones wasn’t wrong about much. He was a master at most things. But he wasn’t a seer, at least not this time. There were no dramatics surrounding Stirling’s final trip to East Lake. No magical victory was produced. In his book East Lake: Where Bobby Learned to Play, author Linton C. Hopkins wrote about how it ended: “A large gallery had come out to watch her play, sensing this might be their last chance. She was 53 and decided to end her career at East Lake, directly in front of the house in Atlanta where she grew up. She conceded her first-round match by picking up her ball here. “After she walked off the green, she told her friend Patty Berg, ‘This is their time, Patty. I’ve had mine.’ “Patty was quoted in the paper: ‘I only hope that when I leave competitive golf, I can be like Alexa. I’ve never met a golfer, or a woman, I thought so much of. She has the sort of sportsmanship you do not see any more on golf courses.”

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