JWGA’s first play day was Wednesday, November 9, 1927 at The Municipal, a Donald Ross designed golf course. Our first President, Winnie Holmes, gives credit to Miss Mary Clark, a municipal links golfer, who organized the first meeting at the YMCA to form JWGA and was the first temporary President.
There was no handicap limit to join, and there were about 15 women at the first playday. It was said “we all had handicaps in the millions”! Men were also members as there was no other organized golf in the area. Glad we got that straightened out!
Their greatest handicap was the wearing of long skirts. As time went on, the shorter the skirts got, the better the scores got! One JWGA member remembers being thrown off a golf course for daring to wear shorts to practice!
Who Was Winnie B Holmes? Winnie was the first JWGA President (1927) and founded the Florida Women’s State Golf Association.That same year, she also won the inaugural Florida State Championship, one of many victories throughout her long golfing career which began at Timuquana Country Club.
At 88 years of age, Winnie qualified for the Championship flight in her hometown city tournament in Jacksonville, and became the oldest woman in the country to record a hole-in-one. Her husband described Winnie as devoted to her family, golf & church work.
Winnie was inducted into the FSGA Hall of Fame on Nov. 16, 2012.
Miss Francis Owen, JWGA Champion Powerhouse
Miss Owen dominated the JWGA Championships in the 1930s, winning six times, a record which still stands today.
She won her first of many State Championships in 1936.
Miss Owen was a tough, highly skilled scrambler who built a reputation for recovering from trouble. But in 1933, a snake briefly broke her concentration and the resulting missed short putt cost her the State Championship.
“Loosen Your Girdle”: 1930s Women’s Golf Fashion Breaks Free
Influenced by “The Flapper Era”, women golfers moved away from restrictive early-20th-century corsets and floor-length skirts, and embraced styles that allowed a freer, more athletic swing while maintaining traditional modesty.
The typical JWGA look favored matching knee-length skirts, tailored blouses, layered with hand-knitted sweaters and vests.
Babe Didrikson Zaharias famously advised: “Loosen your girdle and really let the ball have it.”
JWGA’s Legacy of Charitable Giving
JWGA’s members have a long history of giving back through golf .During World War II members found ways to combine their love of golf to support service members and wartime causes including:
Furnishing a day room for service members at Camp Blanding.
Adding a $1 surcharge to tournament entry fees and donating the proceeds to the American Red Cross and local USO chapters.(That is the equivalent of $20 today.)
Phasing out silver-plated trophies and luxury prizes and replacing them with U.S. War Bonds and Defense Stamps, directing members’ fees toward the war effort.