🏛️ Section 2: Amateur Heritage – Building the Foundations

This section continues naturally from Junior Heritage and explores how women organised, competed, and governed themselves as amateurs — laying the structural and cultural groundwork for everything that followed in women’s golf.

Introduction

Amateur women’s golf sits at the very heart of the game’s history. It is here that women first built governing structures, defined competition standards, and claimed their right to organise independently.

From the formation of the Ladies’ Golf Union (LGU) in 1893 to the international championships that followed, amateur women established both the rules and the culture of modern women’s golf.

Their leadership not only shaped sport, but also challenged broader assumptions about women’s ability to govern, compete, and represent themselves on equal terms.

1️⃣ The Founding Era – Organisation and Identity (1890s–1910s)

By the 1890s, women’s golf in Britain was flourishing at club level, but without coordination or standardisation.
In 1893, Issette Pearson, alongside other leading players and club captains, founded the Ladies’ Golf Union (LGU) — the world’s first national body to govern women’s golf.
Their vision was bold and practical: to standardise handicapping, organise championships, and give women a unified administrative voice.

That same year, the first British Ladies’ Amateur Championship was held at Royal Lytham & St Annes — establishing a model for national amateur competition that would soon spread across the world.

In an era when women could not vote or hold professional posts, the LGU was quietly revolutionary. It was run entirely by women, for women — and it worked.

2️⃣ International Growth and the Spirit of Amateurism (1910s–1930s)

As golf spread globally, women formed their own national unions and associations — often inspired by the LGU model.

• U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship (1895) under the newly founded USGA
• Canadian Women’s Amateur (1901)
• Australian Women’s Amateur (1894)
• Scottish and Irish Ladies’ Championships followed closely behind

These competitions gave women new mobility and visibility, with players travelling internationally to compete. The best-known figures of the period — Joyce Wethered (England) and Glenna Collett Vare (USA) — became sporting icons, admired not just for their play but for their poise and professionalism.

The 1920s and ’30s were the golden age of amateur rivalry and respect — a time when women’s golf was defined by courtesy, integrity, and skill rather than prize money or publicity.

3️⃣ The Curtis Cup and International Friendship (1932–Present)

In 1932, the Curtis sisters, Margaret and Harriot, donated a trophy to symbolise goodwill and competition between the amateur women of Great Britain & Ireland and the United States. The Curtis Cup, first played at Wentworth, became the pinnacle of women’s amateur team golf.

Its legacy endures not just in sporting prestige, but in the values it represents: friendship, international respect, and the belief that women’s golf could build bridges across cultures and generations. The Curtis Cup remains a defining event in women’s amateur sport, preserving the essence of what amateur competition means — representing one’s country for pride, not profit.

4️⃣ Modern Transformation – The LGU, R&A, and Beyond (1990s–Today)

The later 20th century brought both opportunity and change. As the sport professionalised, amateur women’s golf risked losing visibility — yet the LGU continued to champion equality and access.
In 2017, the LGU merged with The R&A, marking both an end and a beginning: the integration of women’s amateur governance into the game’s global structure.

Meanwhile, new international bodies like the World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR) (2007) brought recognition to amateur players on a global scale. Modern women’s amateur golf is now a blend of tradition and innovation — grounded in the LGU’s pioneering ideals but connected by digital systems, scholarships, and global competition.

5️⃣ Key Figures in Amateur Heritage

6️⃣ Commentary – Foundations of Leadership and Legacy

Amateur women’s golf was never just about competition — it was a statement of capability and self-determination.

Long before professional tours existed, women had already proven they could organise international events, administer complex systems, and lead sporting institutions.

This foundation of self-governance, mutual respect, and integrity remains one of the great legacies of women’s sport.
Every female golfer today, from juniors to seniors, inherits this legacy — one built not on prize money but on purpose.

The modern structures that support girls, mid-amateur, and senior women all trace their origins to the amateur pioneers who refused to wait for permission.
Their message endures: that women’s golf is not a subset of the sport, but its equal and enduring heart.