She combined feminine grace with the type of precision no golfer of her era was able to achieve. She amazed Henry Cotton with her ball-striking, and Glenna Collett Vare with her tenacity. Joyce Wethered, who later went by the more proper married name of Lady Heathcoat-Armory, was revered as the queen of British amateur golf. Bob Jones considered her to be the best golfer, man or woman, he had seen.
Wethered won the British Women’s Amateur Championship four times, the English Ladies’ Championship five times in a row, and was a leading force in the founding of the Curtis Cup.
Jones had the opportunity to play with Wethered from the back tees before the British Amateur in 1930. With a breeze blowing off the sea, Wethered did not miss a shot, half heartedly three-putted the 17th from 12 feet after the match was over and went around the Old Course in 75. It was as clean a round of golf as Jones had ever seen.
“I have not played golf with anyone, man or woman, amateur or professional, who made me feel so utterly outclassed,” said Jones. “It was not so much the score she made as the way she made it. It was impossible to expect that Miss Wethered would ever miss a shot-and she never did.”
