[Sean_A]

I came across this woman's name in a History of Golf in Britain and became intrigued.  Note the reference to Huntercombe and the 17th.  It suggests the hole is something similar to now.  Additionally, it seems clear that at least some of the hollows didn't have sand in them as the club refused to allow this woman's husband to fill them with sea sand at his own expense. 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article1030265.ece

Enjoy

Ciao

[Bill_McBride]

I remember those bunkers at #17 at Huntercombe well, that hole is completely different from the rest of the course.  It's interesting that it's been like that for over 60 years, it's like a hole that the green committee decided to overhaul for a change of pace or some other cockamamie reason.

As for the story of Gloria Minorio herself, it sounds suspiciously like something Forrest Richardson would write.     Who else would love to read the rest of his tour of that mysterious course in Madagascar?

[Tom_Doak]

I remember seeing a reference to her name in one of the old British books, can't remember if it was Darwin or Longhurst or who.  They did not describe the one-club style but referred to her with reverence.

There were some remarkable players back then.  Bobby Jones sought out Joyce Wethered to play golf with her a couple of times; the way she is described to have played the fourth hole at St. Andrews makes you believe she could hit a 3-iron on a string.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Great link Sean. Perhaps this belongs on another recent thread but I have long been fascinated by Gloria Minoprio. Everything about her, including her name is like a true life fantasy....

Tom I believe it’s in Golf Between the Wars by Darwin but I can't find it to confirm.  How well do you recall Seacroft? If she did indeed come walking out of the Dunes, then she had to walk across the 18th fairway to the first tee, Not such a striking image but then facts are a little superfluous to such a story.  But the same vision of her pops up in a number of books. Sunningdale claim that she was a member and that there is still a relative of hers a member there.

Confession time. A quarter of a Century ago I was looking for something to do that I would enjoy.  So I saved up some money, gave up my job and living cheaply while looking at various industries for opportunities.  At the same time I also tried to write a screenplay. I learnt that writing was not my forte (I bet you guys have come to the same conclusion much more quickly than I did) but still have 20 or so pages of my effort. Since then I’ve twice sat down with pen and paper and made notes for a new Screenplay. I’ve never taken it any further but one of those ideas concerns Miss Minoprio.

What rich themes it offers:

The modern woman unafraid to face the world in men’s clothing, seeking to best other women with only a single shaft (stop me when the symbolism becomes too obvious). Then we move indoors where we see her ‘practicing’ her magic and it’s all done as a front; with the shadowy Svengali in the background.  It’s a film I’d love to see but I now realise that sadly it’s one I’lm unlikely to  write.

[Philip Gawith]

Thanks Sean - great story and interesting tangential perspective on Huntercombe. Nowadays to be non-conformist is pretty easy I think - to have pulled it off with such style 80 years ago is amazing!

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Here's a photo of the said lady at Seacroft (taken from the club's centenary book):



In the book it is reported that Henry Longhurst, on seeing her departing in her limousine, commented Sic transit Gloria.

Thanks for the link, Sean.

[RJ_Daley]

Sic transit: 

Doesn't that mean something like, "so goes it" or "as it crosses"?

Was that a wry suggestion by Longhurst that she was a transgender?  Whatever; it is a wonderful story and thanks to Sean for posting it.  Can anyone detect a bit of an adams apple in the photo? 

Tony, man go for it!  How can a screenplay miss with all this going on.  I recently watched and enjoyed Tucci and Streep in "Julie and Julia" and it had similar dynamics.  Maybe they wore out their persona in that movie and can't do a reprise, but I immediately thought of them while reading the story, before I even read your thread about an attempt at a screen play.  I also can imagine Tucci and Hillary Swank.  Just the visual sets on some cool links courses, and gilded old "Bleak Villa" and crossings on passenger ships and some interesting card room games, along with the colonial British India would be texture.  Where is Gib or Mr. Huntley on this?  Crank it up!!!

[Mark_Rowlinson]

RJ,

Longhurst was parodying: Sic transit gloria mundi, which means so passes away the glory of the world. It's a quotation from De Imitatione Christi by Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471), and is a commentary on thr transitory nature of human vanities (to quore Brewer). The phrase is used during the Pope's Coronation.

Adam's apple or no Adam's apple she does seem to have led a heterosexual life if the Times article is correct.

Mark.

[RJ_Daley]

Yes Mark, the multiple men-husbands-partners would seem to point to a hetero lifestyle.  And please don't misunderstand me that I am not trying to cast negative apersions by the comment I made.  Any subplot along those lines would be all the more amazing.  It isn't exactly inconceivable that such a charade could have been played out given all the other mysterious eccentricities.  It sure would make a great movie, I believe... 

[Tony_Muldoon]

Mark it seems Longhurst was very proud of that bon mot.  He later wrote more than one essay on her.  As the ladies championship started at the beginning of the week he persuaded the Evening Standard to run his report with the headline 'Sic transit Gloria Monday'.  “I repeated it shamelessly for five years with only one variation. One year she defeated a young girl who was so nervous that she could scarcely focus on the ball. So when she was beaten next day the tag became “Sic transit Gloria Tuesday”.



Dick you may have been reading a little too much into that.
Clearly he was smitten by her, not realising she was married (he wrote that came later), and made no effort to hide it.  “A Slim, graceful girl, with delicate, sensitive features and figure divine. She had bumps, to quote Mr Damon Runyon’s rudely graphic description, where a doll is entitled to have bumps.” Written in 1940 “The Ladies’ Golf Union, aghast at her first appearance, issued a proclamation that they “deplored any departure from the traditional costume of the game,” but the last laugh was against them. Nearly half the field in women’s championships today turn out in trousers.

But none of them fit like Gloria Minoprio’s.”


He adds a self depreciating afterword in  “The Best of HL”.  “When I won a continental championship in 1936, I was gratified to receive a telegram of congratulations from her and replied accordingly. It was only 15 years later that I learnt it had been sent by General Critchley”.



Dick thank you for the encouragement, if I ever write it I will name the libidinous journalist character after you.

[RJ_Daley]

Errr, I can make fit the part of a libidinous copper/Bobbie/Peeler, but journalist - I can no do laddie. 

[Sean_A]

Here's a photo of the said lady at Seacroft (taken from the club's centenary book):



In the book it is reported that Henry Longhurst, on seeing her departing in her limousine, commented Sic transit Gloria.

Thanks for the link, Sean.

Well, what I want to know is who's club is the caddy holding?  Okay, so its a spare.  That means she plays with two clubs even if they may be identical.  

Right, somehow the photos don't jive.  The pic below looks to certainly be the same woman albeit with a looser backswing and thinner than in the pic above.  I would guess the photo below is more like the 1934 appearance at Seacroft and the pic above from a later date.  That is assuming her 1933 debut at Westward Ho! is indeed accurate. 



Ciao

[Bill_McBride]

I love the trousers bit.  I spent the summer of 1962 in the Azores where my dad was building a breakwater in the harbor.  We played a lot of golf at the Lajes golf club, and were invited (brother Bob and I to play and my parents to attend) a golf match somebody arranged against the men and ladies of the Estoril Golf Club in Lisbon.

We flew from Terceira Island, where Lajes AFB is located, down to San Miguel Island where we stayed at the Terra Nostra Hotel and played the nine hole golf course at Furnas.  It was wonderful fun, a caddy and forecaddie for each player and the rough mowed by a crew of ponies.

Our ladies were strictly advised to wear skirts because the Portuguese ladies were certain to be formal.

Our ladies were very unhappy when the Portuguese ladies all showed up wearing really attractive slacks in nice pastel colors.  The American ladies looked pretty frumpy.  Maybe they were set up!

[RJ_Daley]

Gloria 1 stick

Charlie 3 sticks

I'm just sayin...

[Tony_Muldoon]

Picutre is a little puzzling. 4 at Seacroft is 185 yards dune to dune - see Ran's review - although its possible that they palyed an extended version. Could that be Formby?


 Longhurst has her all in navy blue with pancake make up at Westward Ho.

On checking the Sunningdale book its not clear she was  a member there.  It says she was a member at Littlestone.  Brigadier-General AC Critchley was a member.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Seacroft centenary book has a helpful commentary on the development of each hole from 1900 onwards. This is what is said about the 4th:

HOLE 4 "Twins" 312 yards. This hole was first played from a tee north of the present winter tee to a green south west of the modern one. The name must have referred to the bunkers facing the tee, the right hand one now a grassy hollow. There were complaints of danger, when walking from 3rd green to 4th tee until the tee was moved to its present position. The green was moved north-east in 1956, to its plateau site, shortening the hole to a par 3.

[Adrian_Stiff]

She popped up again today. She would indeed make a great story Tony.

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