Alexa Stirling
Encyclopedia
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n amateur golf
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....
champion.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
, Alexa Stirling was coached in golf from a young age at the Atlanta Athletic Club
Atlanta Athletic Club
The Atlanta Athletic Club , founded in 1898, is a world-renowned private athletic club in Johns Creek, Georgia, a suburb 23 miles north of Atlanta. The original home of the club was a 10-story building located on Carnegie Way, and in 1904 a golf course was built on Atlanta's East Lake property...
's East Lake Golf Club
East Lake Golf Club
The East Lake Golf Club is located in the neighborhood of East Lake which is in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. East Lake Golf Club was the home club of the legendary golfer Bobby Jones. It is also the permanent home of The Tour Championship.-History:...
course by Stewart Maiden, the club's professional, who had learned his golf at Carnoustie
Carnoustie
Carnoustie is a town and former police burgh in the council area of Angus, Scotland. It is situated at the mouth of the Barry Burn on the North Sea coast...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. Stirling was a youthful prodigy, who won three consecutive U.S. Women's Amateurs
United States Women's Amateur Golf Championship
The U.S. Women's Amateur is the leading golf tournament in the United States for female amateur golfers. It is played annually and is one of the 13 United States national golf championships organized by the United States Golf Association . Female amateurs from all nations are eligible to compete...
. She won her first in 1916. When no tournaments were held during 1917 and 1918 while the United States participated in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Stirling became one of the famous "Dixie Kids," a group of young Southern golfers which included her long-time friend Bobby Jones
Bobby Jones (golfer)
Robert Tyre "Bobby" Jones Jr. was an American amateur golfer, and a lawyer by profession. Jones was the most successful amateur golfer ever to compete on a national and international level...
, Elaine Rosenthal, and Perry Adair, who toured around the United States, giving golf exhibitions to raise money for the Red Cross. After the war, she came back to win the 1919 and 1920 U.S. Women's Amateur titles. She was also the U.S. Amateur's runner-up in 1921 to Marion Hollins
Marion Hollins
Marion Hollins was an American amateur golfer.Hollins was born in East Islip, New York. Her father, H. B. Hollins, owned a Wall Street brokerage firm, H.B. Hollins & Co....
, in 1923 to Edith Cummings
Edith Cummings
Edith Cummings was one of the premier amateur golfers of her generation. She was one of the Big Four debutantes in Chicago, at the end of the First World War. She became nationally famous following her 1923 victory in the U.S. Women's Amateur...
, and again in 1925 to Glenna Collett, a year when she broke Dorothy Campbell's
Dorothy Campbell
Dorothy Iona Campbell was the first internationally dominant female golfer. She was also known in her lifetime as Dorothy Hurd, Mrs. J.V. Hurd and as Dorothy Howe...
single-round scoring record in qualifying. Although she did not make it to the finals in the 1927 championship, in the third round she defeated Simone de la Chaume
Simone de la Chaume
Simone Thion de la Chaume was a French amateur golfer.In 1924, she became the first foreign player to win the British Girls Amateur and in 1927 the first to win the British Ladies Amateur, then the most prestgious tournament in British and European ladies' golf and an event her daughter, Catherine...
, the British Ladies Amateur
British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship
The British Ladies Amateur Golf Championship was founded in 1893 by the Ladies' Golf Union of Great Britain. Until the dawn of the professional era in 1976, it was the most important golf tournament for women in Great Britain and would eventually begin to draw golfers from continental Europe...
champion.
In 1920 she won the Canadian 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.-Winners:*2011 Rebecca Lee-Bentham*2010 Sydnee Michaels*2009 Jennifer Kirby...
, and after finishing second in 1921 and 1925 in that event, she won the Canadian title again in 1934. She married Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
doctor W.G. Fraser in 1925, and made her home in Ottawa, Ontario, where she became an honorary member of the Royal Ottawa Golf Club
Royal Ottawa Golf Club
The Royal Ottawa Golf Club is a premier private golf club located in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 1891, and has made major contributions to the development of Canadian golf right from its early years, hosting many important championships and meetings, and continues to do so. Several...
, and was its ladies' champion nine times. She was also a skilled and enthusiastic violinist.
Throughout her life Alexa Stirling Fraser maintained her interest in golf, and during the 1976 United States Bicentennial
United States Bicentennial
The United States Bicentennial was a series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to the historical events leading up to the creation of the United States as an independent republic...
celebrations she returned to Atlanta for the U.S. Open. She died the following year at home in Ottawa.
Posthumously, Alexa Stirling Fraser was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
Georgia Sports Hall of Fame
The Georgia Sports Hall of Fame is located in Macon, Georgia. It is the largest state sports hall of fame in America at .-Exhibitions:The Hall of Fame houses over of exhibit space broken down into sections including Hall of Fame Inductees, High School, collegiate sports, Olympic, Paralympic,...
in 1978, the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame
Canadian Golf Hall of Fame
The Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum and hall of fame covering the history of the game of golf in Canada, and celebrating the careers and accomplishments of the most significant contributors to the game in that country...
in 1986, and the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in 1989. She was portrayed by Stephanie Sparks
Stephanie Sparks
Stephanie Sparks is an on-air personality at The Golf Channel and a former golfer, whose best years in golf came as an amateur.-Golfer:...
in the 2004 film, Bobby Jones: A Stroke of Genius
Bobby Jones: A Stroke of Genius
Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius is a 2004 film based on the life, specifically the golfing career, of Bobby Jones, the first player in the sport ever to win all four of the men's major golf championships consecutively Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius is a 2004 film based on the life, specifically the...
.