The English Women's Amateur Championship is the women's national amateur

match play Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 h ...

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 ...

championship of England. It was first played in 1912 and is currently organised by

England Golf England Golf is the governing body for male and female amateur golf in England. It represents over 1,900 golf clubs with over 740,000 members and is affiliated to The R&A, the joint global governing body of golf. It was formed in 2012 as a merg ...

. The English Women's Amateur Championship is contested through two phases. It begins with a 36-hole stroke play competition, with the leading 32 competitors progressing to the knock-out match play competition. All matches in the knock-out phase are played over 18 holes except the final, which is played over 36 holes. It is a close event, entry being restricted to women born in England, or with one parent or grandparent born in England, or resident in England for five years (two years if under 18).

Joyce Wethered Joyce Wethered, Lady Heathcoat-Amory (17 November 1901 – 18 November 1997) was a golfer regarded as the leading British woman player of the inter-war period. Joyce learned the game as a child, as did her brother Roger, who lost a playoff for the ...

has been the most successful player, winning the event five times in succession from 1920 to 1924.

History

The event was initially organised by the National County Golf Alliance, an organisation formed in 1911, separate from the

Ladies Golf Union The Ladies' Golf Union (LGU) was the governing body for women's and girls' amateur golf in Great Britain and Ireland. It was founded in 1893 and was based in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland until merging with The R&A at the start of 2017. Issette ...

, with the intention of running county and national events.The first English Ladies Championship was held at

Prince's Golf Club, Sandwich Prince's Golf Club, Sandwich is a links golf course located in Sandwich in Kent in South East England. Prince's is immediately adjacent to the more famous Royal St George's golf club, and both clubs lie on the same stretch of coastline as nearb ...

in April 1912. 32 players qualified for the match-play stage, after an 18-hole stroke-play round. The final was over 18 holes and was won by

Margaret Gardner Margaret Elaine Gardner (born 19 January 1954) is an Australian academic and long serving university leader who is the current Vice-Chancellor of Monash University, in office since 2014. She was previously Vice-Chancellor and President of RM ...

who beat Beryl Cautley at the 20th hole. Gardner had been 5 up with 5 holes to play, but lost them all and the match went to extra holes. The second event was held in April 1913 at

Notts Golf Club Notts Golf Club, more commonly referred to simply as Hollinwell, is an 18-hole members golf club in Nottinghamshire, England which has hosted a number of leading amateur and professional competitions. The course has widely been reviewed as one o ...

and was won by Winifred Brown by one hole, the final being extended to 36 holes. In 1914, the

wanted to organise their own English Ladies Championship and a dispute arose with the National County Golf Alliance, leading to possibility of there being two competing events. However, the Alliance was disbanded in early 1914 and the Ladies Golf Union organised the event at

Walton Heath Golf Club Walton Heath Golf Club is a golf club in England, near Walton-on-the-Hill in Surrey, southwest of London. Founded in 1903, the club comprises two 18-hole golf courses, both of which are well known for having heather covering many of the areas o ...

in June. The event continued to be restricted to English golfers, using the same format as in 1913.

Cecil Leitch Charlotte Cecilia Pitcairn Leitch (13 April 1891 – 16 September 1977) was a British amateur golfer. She was born in Silloth, Cumberland, England, the daughter of a local physician and one of three sisters who excelled at the game of golf. ...

beat Gladys Bastin 2&1 in the final. The

continued to run the event until the

English Women's Golf Association The English Women's Golf Association (EWGA) was the governing body responsible for many aspects of women's and girls' amateur golf in England. It ran from 1952 to 2011, until it merged with the men's English Golf Union to form England Golf. It ...

was founded in 1952. The English Women's Golf Association merged with the English Golf Union in 2011. The English Golf Union was later renamed England Golf. From 2012 to 2018 the event was run as a 72-hole stroke-play event. It returned to match-play in 2019 with an 18-hole final. Since 2020 the event has been played concurrently with the men's event. From 2020 the final has been played over 36 holes.

Winners

Source:

References

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External links

England Golf
Amateur golf tournaments in the United Kingdom Golf tournaments in England 1912 establishments in England Recurring sporting events established in 1912