Alexa Stirling

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

R O B E R T T Y R E J O N E S I V JANUARY 14, 2022

Dear Members of the Committee: I am writing to express my support and the support of the Bobby Jones family for the nomination of Alexa Stirling to the World Golf Hall of Fame. Six years my grandfather’s senior, Alexa was his lifelong friend. Her first victory came in a six-hole tournament at East Lake Country Club in 1908. Playing with my grandfather, Perry Adair, and Frank Meador, the foursome made their way around the course with Frank Meador’s mother keeping score. At the end of the tournament, Mrs. Meador tallied the scores and announced that my grandfather had won the small silver cup for the winner. My grandfather believed to his dying day that Alexa had actually won the cup but that Mrs. Meador didn’t want to award the trophy to a girl. History doesn’t record Alexa’s reaction to this but I suspect she bore it with the grace and poise that she showed throughout her life. What history does record is her top-notch championship record. In 1916, she won the first of three United States Women’s Amateurs. She would win again in 1919 and 1920. I have always suspected that she could have easily won in 1917 and 1918 had World War I not intervened. Had she, in fact, done that, Alexa Stirling would now be acknowledged as the dominant player that she truly was. She additionally won the 1920 Canadian Women’s Amateur. I had the pleasure of meeting Alexa in 1976 when she came to Atlanta for the United States Open. I was struck by her personal grace and kindness. I truly believe that she deserves a place in the World Golf Hall of Fame both for her skill as a golfer and the strength of her character.

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