Alexa Stirling

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

Unlike Bobby, Alexa actually served in World War I as a driver in the motor corps. Part of her duties included driving an ambulance for the American Red Cross in the southern states. She acquitted herself well, reaching the rank of sergeant and ultimately second lieutenant. Her experience and interest in car engines probably kept her in a good stead with the “grease monkeys.” She must have been an encouraging inspiration to those around her. After the war, Alexa began a serious quest for championship success. In 1919 she initially faced 60 year old veteran Mrs. Caleb Fox, who had appeared in all 20 consecutive Women’s Amateur Championships. Playing at Shawnee Country Club in Pennsylvania, Alexa executed glorious recovery strokes enabling her to win the Amateur 3 and 1. Each succeeding match was a nail-biter until the final against Mrs. Margaret A. Gavin which Alexa won handily, 6 and 5. Her play was described in the New York Times: There is positively no American woman golfer close enough to the champion to be called a dangerous rival. She plays as near a perfect game on the links as any woman golfer who ever addressed the ball. She has that debonair nature, that championship quality over the course which is typical only of a great master of any game. (Quoted in “Illustrated History of Women’s Golf.”) Alexa’s poise and grace were evident at the 1919 Woman’s Amateur awards presentation. Although she had tied Mrs. Fox for low medal honors and was entitled to share the medal, Alexa insisted that Mrs. Fox should enjoy the medal all by herself. It was a special moment indeed. On October 9, 1920, Alexa won her third consecutive U.S. Women’s Amateur title at Mayfield Country Club in Cleveland, Ohio. ONLY FIVE WOMEN PLAYERS HAVE EVER WON THREE CONSECUTIVE AMATEURS: BEATRIX HOYT (1896, 1897, 1898) ALEXA STIRLING (1916, 1919, 1920) GLENNA COLLETT (1928, 1929, 1930) VIRGINIA VAN WIE (1932, 1933, 1934) JULIE INKSTER (1980, 1981, 1982) In the 1920 finals, Alexa met Mrs. Dorothy Campbell Hurd who was perhaps the most distinguished of early women golfers. Mrs. Hurd got her start in 1888 at North Berwick, Scotland at age 5. She won the U.S. Woman’s Amateur in 1909, 1910 and 1924, and she won the British Ladies Championship in 1909 and 1911. Alexa won the 1920 final match at Mayfield 5 and 4. The championship provided more than a few unforgettable moments. Golf writer O.B. Keeler asked Alexa several years later to share her “greatest shot in golf.” Alexa responded as follows: A good shot in golf, as I understand it, is one that behaves as you intend it to, and I cannot recall one that behaved better for me than my tee shot at the seventeenth hole of the beautiful Mayfield course at Cleveland, where we played the women’s national championship of 1920. That was the last year I won it, and I think I never played so well before or since. The match in question was with Elaine Rosenthal, now Mrs. Reinhardt, and we had had some fine battles previously, both in tournaments and in the Red Cross matches of the war period. As I recall it, we had both gone

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