Dorothy Lee Campbell (24 March 1883 – 20 March 1945) was a Scottish amateur

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

er. Campbell was the first woman to win the American,

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and

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

Women's Amateurs.

Early life

She was born into a golfing family in

North Berwick North Berwick (; ) is a seaside resort, seaside town and former royal burgh in East Lothian, Scotland. It is situated on the south shore of the Firth of Forth, approximately east-northeast of Edinburgh. North Berwick became a fashionable holi ...

Midlothian Midlothian (; ) is registration county, lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area and one of 32 council areas of Scotland used for local government. Midlothian lies in the east-central Lowlands, bordering the City of Edinburgh council ar ...

, Scotland, to William Spink Campbell (1833–1900) and Emily Mary Tipper (1834–1923). She began swinging golf clubs when she was just 18 months old. Within a few years she was competing with her sisters. She was a short but straight hitter of the ball who used an unorthodox hooker's grip. Later in her career she would adopt the standard " Vardon grip". In 1896, at age 13, she joined the North Berwick Ladies Golf Club and had no difficulty holding her own against adult members. She was a pupil of golf professional Ben Sayers and learned to play the game over the North Berwick West Links. Her father died on 30 April 1900 when she was 17 and by 1904 she was living with her mother at Inchgarry House, Links Road,

, where the Campbell family had enjoyed a number of summer holidays.

1909 and 1911 British Ladies Amateurs

In 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 t ...

, contested at Royal Birkdale in 1909, Campbell forgot to report the result of her third round match—which she won on the 11th green—to the LGU officials who met to discuss whether she would be disqualified. She was allowed to continue in the championship which she won, beating Ireland's Florence Hezlet 4 and 3. That victory earned her an invitation to play in America and changed the course of her life. Subsequently, she returned to Britain only as a visitor. She moved to Canada in 1910 and three years later moved to the United States permanently and became an American citizen. In the 1911 British Ladies Amateur, she defeated Violet Hezlet, Florence's sister, in the final at

Portrush Portrush () is a small seaside resort town on the north coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It neighbours the resort of Portstewart in County Londonderry. The main part of the old town, including the Portrush railway station, railway stati ...

Golf career accomplishments

Over the course of her career, she won 11 national amateur crowns between Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Scotland, the last of which came in 1924 at the age of 41. She won over 700 first prizes during her golf career. Her short game, according to golf writer Colin Farquharson, was "out of this world". Mabel Stringer wrote of her short game, "Dorothy's best stroke was a run-up shot that she used from distances of up to 50 feet. She used her goose-necked mashie, which she nicknamed "Thomas", closing the small clubface and hitting the ball on the downswing. At Augusta Country Club in 1926, she holed two chip shots and ended up having a record low of 19 putts for 18 holes, lowering

Walter Travis Walter J. Travis (January 10, 1862 – July 31, 1927) was an American amateur golfer during the early 1900s. He was also a noted golf journalist and publisher, an innovator in all aspects of golf, a teacher, and golf course architect. Golfing ca ...

's record by two strokes for putts in one round. In the final of the (US) North and South championship she beat her opponent by twice holing out from 40 yards".

Marriages and children

She married Jack V. Hurd in Wentworth, Ontario, Canada on 11 February 1913. Hurd was a steel magnate living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a member of

Oakmont Country Club Oakmont Country Club is a golf course country club which, despite its name, is mostly located within the borough of Plum, Pennsylvania with only a small portion of the property actually in the small town of Oakmont. Established in 1903, the club ...

. She won many of her titles as Mrs. J. V. Hurd, but she and Hurd were divorced in 1923. She married Edward Howe in 1937 and divorced again in 1943. She had a son, Sigourney V. Hurd (1913–1986), with Jack Hurd. In her career she was also known in her lifetime as Dorothy Hurd, Mrs. J. V. Hurd and as Dorothy Howe. She has also been referred to by the

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

Dorothy Campbell Hurd Howe.

Death

She died in a railway accident on 20 March 1945, falling off a platform and into the path of an oncoming train. Her death certificate shows her full name to be Dorothy Lee Howe. The principal causes of death were a

skull fracture A skull fracture is a break in one or more of the eight bones that form the cranial portion of the skull, usually occurring as a result of blunt force trauma. If the force of the impact is excessive, the bone may fracture at or near the site of ...

and avulsion of her right arm.

Legacy

She was inducted to the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and the

World Golf Hall of Fame The World Golf Hall of Fame was, until recently, located at World Golf Village between Jacksonville, Florida and St. Augustine, Florida, in the United States. It is unusual amongst sports halls of fame in that a single site honored both men ...

in 1978.

Notable wins

*1905 Scottish Ladies' Amateur Championship *1906 Scottish Ladies' Amateur Championship *1908 Scottish Ladies' Amateur Championship *1909 U.S. Women's Amateur,

*1910 U.S. Women's Amateur,

Canadian Women's Amateur The Canadian Women's Amateur is Canada's annual national amateur golf tournament for women. It is open to women from all countries and is played at a different course each year. History The first championship was held from October 14 to 17, 1901, ...

*1911

, Canadian Women's Amateur *1912 Canadian Women's Amateur *1918 North and South Women's Amateur *1920 North and South Women's Amateur *1921 North and South Women's Amateur *1924 U.S. Women's Amateur *1938 U.S. Women's Senior Championship

References

External links

Dorothy Campbell Hurd memoirProfile at Canadian Golf Hall of FameDorothy Campbell
{{DEFAULTSORT:Campbell, Dorothy Scottish female golfers American female golfers Amateur golfers Winners of ladies' major amateur golf championships World Golf Hall of Fame inductees Golfers from North Berwick Railway accident deaths in the United States Scottish emigrants to the United States 1883 births 1945 deaths