Dorothy Lee Campbell (24 March 1883 – 20 March 1945) was a Scottish amateur

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

er. Campbell was the first woman to win the

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and

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Women's Amateurs.

Early life

She was born into a golfing family in

North Berwick North Berwick (; gd, Bearaig a Tuath) is a seaside town A seaside resort is a town, village, or hotel that serves as a vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on th ...

Midlothian Midlothian (; gd, Meadhan Lodainn) is a historic county, registration county, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh, ...

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, to William Spink Campbell (1833–1900) and Emily Mary Tipper (1834–1923). She began swinging golf clubs when she was just 18 months old. Within a few years she was competing with her sisters. She was a short but straight hitter of the ball who used an unorthodox hooker's grip. Later in her career she would adopt the standard " Vardon grip". In 1896, at age 13, she joined the North Berwick Ladies Golf Club and had no difficulty holding her own against adult members. She was a pupil of golf professional

Ben Sayers Bernard "Ben" Sayers (23 June 1856 – 9 March 1924) was a Scottish professional golfer, who later became a distinguished golf teacher, golf course designer and manufacturer of golf clubs and equipment. Sayers had a reputation for making good q ...

and learned to play the game over the

North Berwick West Links One of two golf courses within North Berwick, the West Links is by far the more renowned. It regularly holds various championships and is used as a qualifying venue when The Open Championship is held at Muirfield (most recently 2013). It was ope ...

. Her father died on 30 April 1900 when she was 17 and by 1904 she was living with her mother at Inchgarry House, Links Road,

, where the Campbell family had enjoyed a number of summer holidays.

1909 and 1911 British Ladies Amateurs

In the

British Ladies Amateur The Women's Amateur Championship, previously known as the Ladies' British Open Amateur Championship, was founded in 1893 by the Ladies' Golf Union. It is organised by The R&A, which merged with the Ladies' Golf Union in 2017. Until the dawn of th ...

, contested at

Royal Birkdale Royal Birkdale Golf Club is a golf course in the United Kingdom in North West England, located in Southport, Merseyside. It is one of the clubs in the rotation for both the Open Championship and Women's British Open and has hosted the Open Champ ...

in 1909, Campbell forgot to report the result of her third round match—which she won on the 11th green—to the LGU officials who met to discuss whether she would be disqualified. She was allowed to continue in the championship which she won, beating Ireland's Florence Hezlet 4 and 3. That victory earned her an invitation to play in America and changed the course of her life. Subsequently, she returned to Britain only as a visitor. She moved to

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in 1910 and three years later moved to the United States permanently and became an American citizen. In the 1911 British Ladies Amateur, she defeated Violet Hezlet, Florence's sister, in the final at

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Golf career accomplishments

Over the course of her career, she won 11 national amateur crowns between

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, the United States, Canada, and Scotland, the last of which came in 1924 at the age of 41. She won over 700 first prizes during her golf career. Her short game, according to golf writer Colin Farquharson, was "out of this world". Mabel Stringer wrote of her short game, "Dorothy's best stroke was a run-up shot that she used from distances of up to 50 feet. She used her goose-necked mashie, which she nicknamed "Thomas", closing the small clubface and hitting the ball on the downswing. At Augusta Country Club in 1926, she holed two chip shots and ended up having a record low of 19 putts for 18 holes, lowering

Walter Travis Walter J. Travis (January 10, 1862 – July 31, 1927) was an American amateur golfer during the early 1900s. He was also a noted golf journalist and publisher, an innovator in all aspects of golf, a teacher, and golf course architect. Golfing ca ...

's record by two strokes for putts in one round. In the final of the (US) North and South championship she beat her opponent by twice holing out from 40 yards".

Marriages and children

She married Jack V. Hurd in Wentworth, Ontario, Canada on 11 February 1913. Hurd was a steel magnate living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a member of

Oakmont Country Club Oakmont Country Club is a country club in the eastern United States, located mostly in Plum with only a very small portion of the property located in Oakmont, suburbs of Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania. Established in 1903, its golf course i ...

. She won many of her titles as Mrs. J. V. Hurd, but she and Hurd were divorced in 1923. She married Edward Howe in 1937 and divorced again in 1943. She had a son, Sigourney V. Hurd (1913–1986), with Jack Hurd. In her career she was also known in her lifetime as Dorothy Hurd, Mrs. J. V. Hurd and as Dorothy Howe. She has also been referred to by the

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsskull fracture A skull fracture is a break in one or more of the eight bones that form the cranial portion of the human skull, skull, usually occurring as a result of blunt force trauma. If the force of the impact is excessive, the bone may fracture at or near ...

and avulsion of her right arm.

Legacy

She was inducted to the

Canadian Golf Hall of Fame The Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum and hall of fame covering the history of the game of golf in Canada, and celebrating the careers and accomplishments of the most significant contributors to the game in that country. Operated by ...

and the

World Golf Hall of Fame The World Golf Hall of Fame is located at World Golf Village near St. Augustine, Florida, in the United States, and it is unusual among sports halls of fame in that a single site honors both men and women. It is supported by a consortium of 26 go ...

in 1978.

Notable wins

*1905 Scottish Ladies' Amateur Championship *1906 Scottish Ladies' Amateur Championship *1908 Scottish Ladies' Amateur Championship *1909 U.S. Women's Amateur,

*1910 U.S. Women's Amateur,

Canadian Women's Amateur The Canadian Women's Amateur is Canada's annual national amateur golf tournament for women. It is open to women from all countries and is played at a different course each year. History The first championship was held from October 14 to 17, 1901 at ...

*1911

, Canadian Women's Amateur *1912 Canadian Women's Amateur *1918

North and South Women's Amateur The North and South Women's Amateur Golf Championship is an annual golf tournament held since 1903 at the Pinehurst Resort in Pinehurst, North Carolina. An invitational tournament, participants are chosen based upon their performance in national am ...

*1920 North and South Women's Amateur *1921 North and South Women's Amateur *1924 U.S. Women's Amateur *1938 U.S. Women's Senior Championship

References

External links

Dorothy Campbell Hurd memoirProfile at Canadian Golf Hall of FameDorothy Campbell
{{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Dorothy Scottish female golfers American female golfers Amateur golfers Winners of ladies' major amateur golf championships World Golf Hall of Fame inductees Golfers from North Berwick Railway accident deaths in the United States Scottish emigrants to the United States 1883 births 1945 deaths