Alexa Stirling

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

final match to Mary K. Browne in the Women’s National Amateur championship. Glenna’s star was on the rise. Alexa was changing positions with the girl who ten years earlier had watched her in awe that afternoon at Wannamoisett during the Red Cross matches. It was Glenna’s turn to win three consecutive Women’s Amateurs beginning in 1928. Except for one final hurrah, Alexa’s new role was that of spoiler. The setting was the 1927 Women’s Amateur contested at the Cherry Valley Club in Long Island, New York. Glenna met her aging rival and found her awesome as ever. Alexa prevailed 2 and 1. Eleanor Keeler watched the match and pronounced Alexa to be a true marvel: It was the same Alexa Wednesday who, several years ago, won so many worthy titles for the Atlanta Athletic Club; same fine woods and matchless irons; same determination to win and the same magnificent composure. There is not a golfer in the field who can match the splendid calmness of Alexa under fire any more then they can match her iron shots. It was a battle royale and Alexa was indeed impressive. Where Glenna needed a wooden spoon to reach the long par four holes, Alexa could bang home a long iron. In the semifinals, Alexa was not so fortunate. She was eliminated in the semifinals by Miriam Burns in a tempestuous display of shot making. Alexa came to the final hole 1 down. She almost drove the 207-yard “home hole” with an iron. She made her three, but Burns did the same and that was that. Eleanor Keeler consoled Alexa in the locker room, “I will weep with you if it will help any.” Actually, Alexa was more relieved with the ordeal than anything else, “I feel like weeping myself but we won’t do it. ... Don’t forget the golf she shot at me the first ten holes. It was really wonderful.” It was a classic example of Alexa’s character: modest in victory and gracious in defeat. The handwriting was on the wall for her in terms of the changing of the guard in women’s championship golf. Alexa had one last hurrah in defeating her old Canadian rival Ada MacKenzie in the 1934 Canadian Women’s Open Amateur. It was her swan song in competition and she retired to raise her family. She continued to play casually with her husband and friends, but declined thereafter to publicly display her game until 1950. From September 11-16, 1950, the Golden Fiftieth Anniversary of the U.S. Women’s Amateur was played at East Lake. The U.S. Women’s Curtis Cup team had just defeated their British counterparts at the Country Club of Buffalo, New York. There was great excitement at the prospect of reuniting Bobby Jones with Alexa at the championship. Jones was named honorary general chairman of the event. He was perceived as a lion in winter. A special invitation was issued encouraging Alexa to attend and play. Earlier in the year, Alexa had been named one of North America’s six greatest golfers, and she was elected to the Ladies Professional Golfer’s Association Hall of Fame. The others were also three-time winners of the U.S. Women’s Amateur (Beatrix Hoyt, Margaret Curtis, Dorothy Campbell Hurd, Glenna Collett Vare and Virginia Van Wie). Alexa had written the following letter to Pop Keeler thanking him for sponsoring her into the Hall of Fame: Dear Mr. Keeler: I am writing you as an old friend, to thank you for your share in selecting me for the “Hall of Fame.” You and the other judges have done me a great favor, and I appreciate it most sincerely. The announcement in the papers here has caused quite a stir, and coming as it has after a long period of inactivity in the golfing world has been most exciting. All during the war I was very tired with my growing family and lack of domestic help. So my golf went fully well into the discard and I now play but little I’m afraid, but only for pleasure in any event. Our family now consists of one girl and two boys. Our daughter is in the midst of studying for the third-year

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