Notes
The U.S.
Girls' Junior Championship was established in 1949, one year after the
Junior Amateur Championship. Philadelphia (Penn.) Country Club, one
of the oldest golf courses in the nation, was the host club for the
USGA's newest championship. The Club's Bala Course had been constructed
in 1891, three years before the birth of the USGA.
The inaugural
Girls' Junior drew a starting field of 28 girls from 17 states, although
10 of the players were from the Philadelphia area.
More impressive
than the size of the field or the styles of play was the wonderful spirit
and sportsmanship the contestants brought to the game, and their complete
lack of pretense.
The first
champion, Marlene Bauer, 15, came all the way from Los Angeles to win
her first national golf title. While golf for girls, beyond the club
level, was still a novelty, Marlene had been encouraged by her father,
a golf professional, since the age of three. Her victory in the first
Girls' Junior was the springboard for a long and distinguished career.
The Championship
has also helped launch the careers of such outstanding players as Mickey
Wright, who won in 1952, and later captured four U.S. Women's Open championships,
and JoAnne Gunderson Carner, who won the first of her eight USGA titles
in the 1956 Girls' Junior. Nancy Lopez won in 1972 and 1974, interupted
in 1973 by Amy Alcott, who went on to win the Women's Open in 1980.
Considering
the brevity and time limitations on a junior golf career, Hollis Stacy's
record of three consecutive Girls' Junior Championships, from 1969 to
1971, is among the most remarkable accomplishments in USGA history.
Hollis, however, never made it easy. The final matches of her first
two championships went 18 holes. In her last victory, in 1971, Hollis
needed four-under-par golf to eventually defeat Amy Alcott at the 19th
hole. From the third through the 17th hole, neither player made a bogey;
between them they made nine birdies. The match is regarded as one of
the finest in USGA history.
With her
last victory, Stacy became only the seventh golfer to win USGA championships
in three successive years. She later won the Women's Open Championship
in 1977, 1978, and 1984.
Kay Cornelius,
the 1981 winner, is among the other noteworthy champions. Her mother,
Kathy Cornelius, won the 1956 U.S. Women's Open. They remain the only
mother-daughter team to have captured USGA championships.
While
victory in the U.S. Girls' Junior by no means guarantees a successful
career in women's golf, Girls' Junior champions have won the Women's
Amateur and the Women's Open a remarkable ten times each.
Furthermore,
17 Girls' Junior champions have gone on to represent the United States
on the Curtis Cup team.
