Alexa Stirling

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

After winning the 1915 Southern Women’s Amateur, Alexa went tooth and nail in the U.S. Women’s Amateur contested at Onwensia near Chicago. She battled to the 22nd hole of the semi-finals only to be turned away by Florence Vanderbeck. Eight years later, Vanderbeck also stopped Glenna Collett in the semi-finals in 1923, the same Glenna Collett who ultimately collected six major championship titles and was hailed as “the female Bobby Jones.” By this time Alexa had matured well ahead of her hothead neighbor Bob Jones. Whereas Alexa had demonstrated she was wise beyond her years, young Jones was still violently repositioning clubs when a shot did not come off perfectly as he envisioned. Not only could Bob hit a driver like a man, he could also swear out the mightiest profane adult oath ever uttered on the course without repeating a syllable. One such outburst cost Bob his playing privileges with Alexa. One afternoon Alexa and Dr. Stirling came upon Jones who had just topped a drive. The blood rose in his neck as he heaved his club and screamed an epithet that was not well-received by the doctor, who was then British consul to Atlanta. The next year of 1916 found Little Bob Jones playing in his first Amateur Championship and appreciating how difficult it is to “win one of those things.” He succumbed in the quarter-finals to the wiles of veteran champion Robert A. Gardner, 5 and 3. Jones’ feminine East Lake counterpart fared much better. For the 1916 Women’s Amateur at Belmont Springs CC in Massachusetts, it was not just a perfunctory debut for Alexa. She won the dadgum title outright. Alexa had followed Kiltie’s orders and “stayed close” with Mildred Caverly who dueled tenaciously to the end. But Alexa won with a superior technique and a sound golfing philosophy. She later explained: “The player who is going to win most often is not the one who is superior in strength or distance, but the one who can make the fewest mistakes and keep out of as much trouble as possible, but when once in trouble can cope with any situation.” She tried to play in the fairway. But if the ball wouldn’t cooperate, Alexa could handle the trouble shots better than her adversaries. As Walter Hagen once remarked, “Three of those and one of those is still four.” Alexa’s coping skills featured a magical touch on the putting greens and a deadly accurate short game. Her most ardent fan was Bob Jones who nearly wore out the newspaper editors with his incessant inquiries about his friend’s progress through the matches. [ ] “That bloody shot!” Dr. Stirling recoiled to rebuke the boy, “Young man, don’t you know better than to use language like that in front of a lady?” Taking Alexa by the hand, Dr. Stirling marched his daughter off the course and out of Jones’ foursome for two years. Alexa was forbidden to associate with the petulant Jones boy. Prior to his banishment, Jones looked Alexa straight in the eye and gave her an earful about why he wasn’t upset by the episode: “A lot of good it does me to play golf with you blankety-blank girls. If I am ever going to be a golfer I’ve got to go and play with the men. I’m just glad your old man stopped you.” For two years, Alexa and Bob mingled together at East Lake’s social events. Perhaps they talked about Bob’s first success away from home at the Roebuck CC invitational in Birmingham or Bob’s winning both the East Lake and Druid Hills club championships in 1915. Off the course Jones was not only uncommonly handsome but he was also the epitome of Southern charm and etiquette. Even so, Grantland Rice observed he was a walking contradiction. Young Jones had the “face of an angel and the temper of a timberwolf.” Some of his smoldering emotions could not be endured with a golf club in his hands. One thing they didn’t discuss is the fact that Jones’ temper was an embarrassment for those around him. He was a volcano ready to erupt and often he did. But nobody dared publicly chastise him. At least, not yet.

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