AGAINST the spectacular backdrop of Lough Leane, the first competitors go into action on Friday morning in the biennial Curtis Cup matches at Killarney.
Though Judy Bell will have seen it all before, both as a player and administrator, this time is different. Making her own contribution to an historic occasion, she will be officiating as the first woman president of the US Golf Association.
But there is another reason why she wouldn't dare miss the opening shots of the first Curtis Cup to be staged in the Republic of Ireland. At 59, she still loves beginnings. "Golf is elusive," she explains, "like chasing a butterfly. You never quite catch it."
Perhaps that is why the administrative side of the game holds so much appeal for her. Either way, totally against the odds, she assumed the top office in February, with responsibility for about 25 million players spread throughout the United States, its territories and Mexico. She works with a USGA staff of 188, more than 1,600 volunteers, serving on 30 committees and with her 15 fellow members on the Executive Committee.
When we met in the professional shop at Augusta National during the US Masters in April, I offered my congratulations. She seemed embarrassed that it should be considered worthy of mention and promptly changed the subject, expressing her delight at the prospect of going to Killarney. Then, with some emphasis, she said: "We want that cup back."
"That cup" is a silver rose bowl of Paul Revere design which was presented by her compatriots, Margaret and Harriot Curtis, in 1927. The idea was that it should stimulate friendly rivalry among the women golfers of many lands." Instead, it went on to become the coveted trophy for a biennial clash in which the US took on the combined strength of Britain and Ireland.
With four straight victories, the Americans had established a firm dominance of the fixture by the time Judy Bell started golf as a seven year old, gripping hickory shafted clubs given to her by an aunt and cut down by a club professional in Wichita, Kansas. At 10, she won the first event she entered.
"The good news is that I shot 72 and won the tournament the girls' division: The bad news is I was the only girl and it was nine holes," she recalled, self deprecatingly.
Soon, tournaments were filling her teenage years, then spreading into college and beyond. Through solid application, a natural talent blossomed to the extent that from 1959 to 1964, she was acknowledged as one of the eight best amateurs in the US. Indeed in one glorious round in the 1964 US Women's Open, she shot a sparkling 67 to beat the professionals at their own game.
By that stage, she had gone into business in partnership with her best friend, Barbara McIntire. In 1962 they chose as a location the Broad moor club in Colorado Springs, where Judy's family played, golf every summer. With the princely capital of $300, the two women opened a clothing business in the basement, selling golfing shorts to the club's women players.
They called the shop "The Short Story" and the general prediction was that it would be just the short lived enterprise. But right from the start it was a run away success, though Bell waited eight years before she dared expand. Since then, however, it has been joined by a men's shop, a shoe store, a delicatessen and a catering business.
"When Barbara and I first started in business, there weren't too many women who were good at it," she said of their 33 year partnership. "I was lucky, because I had grown up with it. I'm a born retailer. From the time I was in high school I thought, `If I'm not married before I get out of college, I'm going to open a clothing store.'"
She went on: "The truth is that I always wanted to get married and have six children. But I've had a lot of things happen that probably wouldn't have happened if I were married and had six children."
The seeds of her elevation to the highest office in the American game, were sown exactly 10 years ago when behind the scenes in the administration of the USGA in 1986, five men with a shared love of the game set about choosing new members for the 1987 Executive Committee.
Harton S (Bud) Semple, who died in 1990, was chairman of the nominating committee and he had a staunch ally in Bernard H Ridder Jnr, who had been the association's treasurer and secretary more than 20 years previously. At Semple's prompting they decided to pick a woman.
So it was that on September 30th, 1986, arguably the most revolutionary decision in the 90 year history of the USGA, was announced: Judy Bell had been nominated, unopposed, as the first woman member of the Executive Committee, on which she served for nine years. And though a continuous line of 53 men had served before her, she was also considered to be the best candidate as 54th president of the USGA.
Ridder and his colleagues chose well. Her administrative qualities were tested as chairperson of the USGA's women's committee for four years. "I grew up in the game, I've been playing the game a long, long time and I'm familiar with its traditions," said Bell. "We're (USGA) 100 years old, so I don't think you come along when you're president and say `Well, we've got to change all this.'"
Against that background, it is not surprising to discover that while officiating at the US Open at Oakland Hills last weekend and on from there to next week's Curtis Cup, the thing that matters least to her is the historic nature of her election. "What matters is that I can still be part of a game that I have loved and built my life around since childhood," she said.
