May Hezlet - the greatest ever

In the wake of Ireland's triumph in the Women's Home Internationals at Cruden Bay in 1980, Violet Hulton was moved to write to Maureen Madill, a member of the successful side. The letter, from her home near Trowbridge, Wiltshire, on September 14th, reflected a strong and remarkably steady hand, for the writer's advanced age of 97 years.

It read: "Dear Miss Madill. Just a line to say I am delighted at Ireland winning the Home Internationals. I send my congratulations to you and all the team. 72 years ago (sic) since Ireland won. I think it was the last time Mrs Ross captained the team and she and I both played in it. With all the best of luck to future triumphs, Yours sincerely."

Beneath her signature, the writer had in brackets "nee Hezlet." And the Mrs Ross to whom she referred was none other than her sister May, arguably the country's greatest ever woman golfer. As it happened, two years after writing that letter, the last of the amazing Hezlet sisters died, at 99.

On May 6th, 1907, the Belfast Newsletter carried the headline "Irish Ladies Secure Triple Crown at Newcastle." This was the occasion to which Violet Hezlet referred in her letter. And it provided a truly memorable finale to a week in which May Hezlet had made the climactic stage of the British Women's Championship a family affair, by beating her other sister, Florence, 2 and 1, in the final at Royal Co Down.

The Irish team, whose triple crown achievement was eventually equalled by their male counterparts 80 years later at Lahinch, was: Florence Walker Leigh (Foxrock), May Hezlet (Portrush), J Magill (Co Down), M E Stuart (Portrush), Florence Hezlet (Portrush), Mrs Durlacher (Romford) and Violet Hezlet (Portrush).

The image of May Hezlet as an emancipated woman golfer, long before her time, is conveyed in her book, "Ladies' Golf", published by Hutchinson in 1904. She wrote of the tensions that arose between men's and womens' clubs in these islands, especially when women were classified as less than full members and all financial matters were managed by the men.

She observed that these arrangements rendered women reluctant to ask for any "luxuries", or anything such as entertainment expenses which might be termed so, even if such monies could be afforded. In her view, the best arrangement was for women to pay a yearly rental out of their subscriptions and otherwise manage their own affairs, so avoiding "the disagreeable necessity of having to ask for anything."

Elsewhere, she wrote: "Nothing looks more untidy or unsuitable for games than a long skirt - the hem gets drabbled in mud. In wet weather, the long skirt hampers every movement; it gets soaked with the moisture off the grass and in consequence become a considerable weight."

She went on: "A short skirt - really short, not simply a couple of inches off the ground - looks infinitely nicer and more workman-life, and makes an inestimable difference in comfort." That was a time when weights were sewn into the hem in winter and wire was threaded into them in summer to keep the skirt from being blown about in the wind.

Later, a piece of elastic, known as a "Miss Higgins", kept around the waist and pulled down around the knees when playing a shot, helped prevent the skirt from being caught up in the swing. Corsets, combinations of leg-of-mutton sleeves and starched stiff collars, further impeded the player' freedom to swing.

Indeed Miss Hezlet's plea for shorter skirts was entirely understandable, given the prevailing fashion of heavy tweed or serge clothing and thick-soled boots with studs or nails, which must have been decidedly uncomfortable and tiring on fine days. On wet and windy days, however, they would have been sheer torture.

Born in 1882 in Gibraltar, where her father served with the Royal Artillery, "Miss May" as she was known to her family, was reared near Portrush where she began playing golf at the tender age of nine. By the time she was 11, she had won her first competition, playing with a cleek, mashie and putter.

From then on, her progress was dramatic, not least because of her intense love of the game. By her estimation, golf was an antidote to brooding, depression and nervous sensibility - a path to self-reliance and serenity. The right to play golf was both a prize won by emancipists and a means to further emancipation.

In developing her splendid skills, she was helped greatly by the environment created by three golfing sisters and a golfing mother. Indeed all five played together in a challenge match in April 1901 against a selected side from the other women members of Portrush, including the illustrious Rhona Adair. The outcome was a win for the Hezlets by a margin of 4 1/2 to 1/2, the whitewash being averted by a half from a certain Miss Knox against Mrs Hezlet.

A similar match took place in 1907 when May was at the peak of her powers. On that occasion, T H Millar, vice-president of the LGU was of the view that the Hezlet sisters had enjoyed so much success that it was "time to put them in their place." So, he brought over three other men from Britain to challenge the sisters at Portrush.

Some years later, May Hezlet recalled that although she had beaten the said Millar by a whopping 10 and 8, he insisted that they should continue playing until he had won at least one hole. But there was to be no respite. Millar was 16 down after 16 and though he succeeded in halving the remaining two holes, we can assume this had to do more with Miss Hezlet's generosity than his own resurgent skills.

In fact all four men were beaten, the other three losing by less disastrous but nonetheless comfortable margins to Adair, Violet Hezlet and May Hezlet, who played a second match against a certain E C Millar, probably a relation of the prime mover behind the ill-conceived venture.

As a 15-year-old May Hezlet was runner up to J Magill at Malone in the Irish Women's Close Championship of 1898. Then came one of the highpoints of her career. At 16 she beat Adair by 5 and 4 to capture the Irish Close at Newcastle in 1899.

Modestly, she later wrote: "In the morning, Miss Adair was not quite up to form and at the end of the first round, Miss May Hezlet was four up. During the afternoon, a close struggle took place but Miss May Hezlet eventually proved the victor. A driving competition held during the meeting was won by Miss Adair."

A week later, having celebrated her 17th birthday, she captured the British Championship, which meant that both trophies resided at her home club, Portrush. In fact May was presented with the winner's medal while her mother, the then Lady President of Portrush, accepted the trophy on behalf of her and her daughter's club. Shortly afterwards, the men's council at Portrush commissioned the artist Harry Douglas to paint a portrait of the young champion with her trophies, which hangs to this day in the Royal Portrush Ladies Club.

May won further Irish Close titles in 1904, 1905, 1906 and 1908 and was British champion in 1899, 1902 and 1907. As it happened, Adair won the British title in 1900 and 1903 and captured four successive Irish Close titles from 1900 to 1903. So it was hardly surprising that herself and May were frequently referred to as the "Golden Girls" in golfing circles at that time.

Hezlet's was noted for her stamina, which was developed through regular, 24-mile round trips on a bicycle from her home, to her golfing activities at Portrush. Though lacking the prodigious length of Adair, she had a classic swing which delivered splendid accuracy tee to green. In fact she was widely acknowledged as "the most finished golfer, man or woman, of her day."

This was quite an accolade at a time when the men's amateur game in this part of the world was dominated by such luminaries as John Ball and Harold Hilton. A further achievement came in 1905 when May and Florence played in a British and Irish side which beat a visiting American line-up by 6-1 at Royal Comer.

As it happened, May played Margaret Curtis, whose sister Harriet was also a member of the visiting team. And after the match, a lengthy discussion which May and Florence Hezlet had with the Curtis sisters is said to have prompted the Americans, years later, to donate the Curtis Cup for biennial, transatlantic competition.

That match at Royal Comer, incidentally, was prompted by a triumphant visit which Adair had made to the US two years previously, when she won no fewer than 16 trophies.

At the peak of her powers, May had a domestic handicap of plus seven and she was held in such esteem by the LGU that in 1913, they listed the handicaps of herself and Adair as scratch, for life. All other women players of that time, whatever, their achievements, were given scratch handicaps for up to six years, at the most.

In 1909, she married the Rev A E Ross, the Church of Ireland minister at Portrush and it was as Mrs Ross that she represented Ireland for the last time in the Home Internationals of 1912. Her husband, who was an army chaplain during the First World War, later became bishop of Tuam, but he died in 1923, leaving May as a 41-year-old widow.

She later moved to England where she worked for the Society of the Propogation of the Gospel and, though childless, she also became president of the Mother's Union. All the while, she kept in touch with happenings at her beloved Portrush. Sadly, all of her trophies and golfing memorabilia were destroyed by a fire in a Belfast warehouse after the Second World War.

Having been captain at Portrush Ladies in 1905, she became the first president in 1922 and held the post until 1951. She was also a life vice-president of the ILGU.

In a charming article in the current issue of "Ireland of the Welcomes", Paul Gorry informs us that for most of her final years, May shared Violet's house before moving to a nursing home in Kent about 25 years ago. As it happened, it was situated not far from Deal, the scene of her second British triumph in 1902.

"Then in her nineties, she told her niece, Rosemary Hoare, how she still remembered a particular putt she holed during that victory." She died in the winter of 1978, having been the most influential figure in Irish golf through the formative, early years of this century.