El Paso Women Pioneering Athletes: Golf
Photo Credit: El Paso County Historical Society.
In 1926, the Tuesday Women’s Golf Club was organized at the El Paso Country Club. Charter members of the organization were Mary Morgan, Reba Armstrong, Mrs. Peyton Edward, Mrs. Ernest Hiles, Mrs. A.L. Cox, Frances Vance, Mrs. Otis Cole, Mrs. Will Ramsey, Mrs. R.W. McAfee, and Mrs. Fred Ryan. The club participated in every match, tournament, and contest that was open to women. Many prominent golfers and champions came from the club’s ranks. In 1927, Adah Hadlock, along with Reba Armstrong, founded the Women’s Southwestern Golf Association. By 1952, there were 25 clubs all over the southwest.
Reba Armstrong was the first El Paso woman to win the Women’s Southwestern Golf Association’s tournament championship title in 1930. Armstrong won the Cloudcoft Tournament in 1931. Armstrong was one of the first members of the El Paso’s Golf Hall of Fame. She broke records at El Paso Country Club, scoring in the high 70s. Armstrong won nine golf championships from 1928 to 1930. She set course records in 1930, 1933, 1935 and 1936. Armstrong finished second in a state championship tournament in New Mexico. Armstrong was the first woman to play in an El Paso male tournament. She also designed and built her own house in the Spanish style near El Paso Country Club. Reba died in 1977 in California. Her husband, Otto Armstrong, was a doctor.
Other area golf champions were Frances Vance, wife of Dr. James Vance. Mrs. Vance came in second in the first Women’s Southwestern Championship Golf Tournament at El Paso Country Club in 1928. Vance won a woman’s invitational tournament in 1925. In 1926, Vance won the Championship Golf Tournament at El Paso Country Club, winning a silver flower bowl. The runner-up was Mrs. Peyton Edwards. In April 1923, in a match of El Paso Country Club’s Spring Tourney, the teams of Mrs. Drury and Mrs R.L. Ramey and Mrs. Vance and Mrs. Edwards advanced to the finals. In November 1922, in the semifinals at the Fall Golf Tournament at El Paso Country Club, Vance, Adah Hadlock, Mrs. Edwards and Mrs. Baker scored low and won their matches. In the women’s consolation category at the semifinals, Mrs. Edwards defeated Mrs. Ramey, while Mary Morgan, Mrs. Humphreys and Mrs. Moore drew a bye. A bye is a short game played over the remaining holes that are left over by players or a team that wins by a large margin. In 1933, Mrs. Ramey took first place in the Class A Low Net Tournament held at El Paso Country Club.
Christine Turner held the Country Club Women’s Championship for three years. Turner served as president of the Tuesday Women’s Golf Club and of the Women’s Southwestern Golf Association. Turner advanced to the finals in the Hilton Hotel Golf Tournament in 1948. In 1949, she took medalist honors at the annual women’s tournament at El Paso Country Club. Mrs. Turner won the second annual Acre Tournament held by the El Paso Women’s Golf Association, Jackie McNutt was the first winner of the tournament. In 1959, Turner won the President’s Cup Golf Tournament at El Paso County Club by 11 strokes and scored in the low 80s, which was considered a very high score. Turner also ran a independent tire dealer business along with her husband, J.R. The J.R. Turner Co. was one of the oldest independent tire dealerships in El Paso.
Agatha Lee defeated Christine Turner in the 1938 Women’s Country Club Golf Tournament. Turner held the title three times. Lee held a medal score of 81 in 1938 and was well on her way to winning a championship. Lee started playing golf in 1933. She began playing with her husband at Ascarate Park and remembered hitting balls above other visitors’ heads because the park did not have a very good space for golfing. Lee was El Paso Country Club Golf Champion 18 times. She was city champion seven times and the Ascarate Golf Course Club Champion twice. She won the Women’s Southwestern Golf Association and the Juarez Country Club Invitational championships twice each, among other accomplishments. In 1959 and again in 1965, she was the Texas Senior Champion. She also won championships in Cloudcoft and Ruidoso, N.M. Lee held records at the Anthony, Valdespino, Juarez and Ascarate golf courses, scoring in the low 70s. She held the record score of 74 at Juarez and Valdespino golf courses. Lee played in the U.S. Seniors and was a medalist when she was in her 60s. Lee graduated from Alta Vista Elementary and El Paso High School. She was also the first woman golfer to be inducted into the El Paso Athletic Hall of Fame.
Photo Credit: El Paso County Historical Society.
-Joseph Longo
