Mary Elizabeth Linzee "May" Hezlet (29 April 1882 – 27 December 1978) was a British 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 and sports writer. She has been called "probably Ireland's greatest woman golfer".

Early life

Hezlet was born in

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, the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Jackson Hezlet. She and her sisters

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

and Violet Hezlet grew up in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

and became leading golfers.

Golf career

Irish Ladies Close Championship

In 1899, at the golf course in

Newcastle, County Down Newcastle () is a small seaside resort town in County Down, Northern Ireland, which had a population of 7,672 at the 2011 Census. It lies by the Irish Sea at the foot of Slieve Donard, the highest of the Mourne Mountains. Newcastle is known fo ...

, May Hezlet defeated

Rhona Adair Rhona Kathleen Adair (2 September 1881 – 27 March 1961) was an Irish amateur golfer. She won the British Ladies Amateur twice and the Irish Ladies' Close Championships four times at the start of the twentieth century. Life Adair was born ...

to win the first of her five

Irish Ladies' Close Championship The Irish Women's Amateur Close Championship is the women's national amateur match play golf championship of Ireland. It was first played in 1894 and is currently organised by Golf Ireland. The Irish Women's Amateur Close Championship is contest ...

s, three of which came in succession from 1904 to 1906. In two of those victories her sister Florence was the runner-up. It was

Janet Jackson Janet Damita Jo Jackson (born May 16, 1966) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and dancer. She is noted for her innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows. Her sound and choreog ...

who surpassed her record of five championships, by winning six between 1913 and 1925.

British Ladies Amateur

She won 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 ...

title in 1899, becoming the youngest-ever winner of the championship—an age record that still stands. Hezlet won the British Ladies Amateur again in 1902 then in 1904 at

Scotland's Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

Royal Troon Golf Club Royal Troon Golf Club is a Links (golf), links golf course in Scotland, located in Troon, South Ayrshire, southwest of Glasgow. Founding and early years The club, which now has a total of 45 holes, was founded in 1878, initially with five holes ...

she lost in the final to

Lottie Dod Charlotte Dod (24 September 1871 – 27 June 1960) was an English multi-sport athlete, best known as a tennis player. She won the Wimbledon Ladies' Singles Championship five times, the first one when she was only 15 in the summer of 1887. She ...

. She won her third British title in 1907 and her fifth

in 1908 at the

Royal Portrush Golf Club Royal Portrush Golf Club is a private golf club in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The 36-hole club has two links courses, the Dunluce Links (the championship course) and the Valley Links. The former is one of the courses on the rota of the Ope ...

Writer of golf books

Hezlet published a book titled ''Ladies Golf'' in 1904 that was immensely popular. A second edition was published 1907 with an additional updating chapter. In 1912, she contributed to ''The New Book of Golf'' by Horace G. Hutchinson.

Family

In 1909, she married Rev.

Arthur Edwin Ross Arthur Edwin Ross (18 December 186924 May 1923) was a cleric in the Church of Ireland. Ross was born in 1869 in Montenotte, Cork, the son of David Ross of Glenageary and Anne Maria (''née'' Neligan). He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin ...

. Her brother

Charles Hezlet Charles Owen Hezlet, DSO (16 May 1891 – 22 November 1965) was an Irish amateur golfer and part-time soldier. He was runner-up in the 1914 Amateur Championship and was in the British Walker Cup team in 1924, 1926 and 1928. Military career Hezl ...

was runner-up in

The Amateur Championship The Amateur Championship (sometimes referred to as the British Amateur or British Amateur Championship outside the UK) is a golf tournament which has been held annually in the United Kingdom since 1885 except during the two World Wars, and in 19 ...

in 1914, played in the

Walker Cup The Walker Cup is a golf trophy contested in odd-numbered years by leading male amateur golfers in two teams: United States, and Great Britain and Ireland. The official name is the Walker Cup Match (not "Matches" as in Ryder Cup Matches). It is ...

, and won several Irish amateur titles.

Death and legacy

Hezlet died on 27 December 1978 at

Sandwich, Kent Sandwich is a town and civil parish in the Dover District of Kent, south-east England. It lies on the River Stour and has a population of 4,985. Sandwich was one of the Cinque Ports and still has many original medieval buildings, including sev ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. In 1999 the Irish Times noted that May Hazlet was probably Ireland's greatest woman golfer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hezlet, May Female golfers from Northern Ireland Gibraltarian female golfers Winners of ladies' major amateur golf championships Golf writers and broadcasters 1882 births 1978 deaths