Vivienne Smith tells the story of the doctor’s daughter from Stonebroom who went on to become one of the country’s leading lady golfers.

WHEN Enid Wilson’s despairing parents sent her away to public school, little did they know then that their mischievous daughter would one day become a golfing great. Enid, recently awarded a place in the ranks of the top 200 golfers of all time, didn’t have the most auspicious starts in life.

But, as a teenager in the 1920s, two of her sporting ambitions were to become British champion and go to America.

Remarkably, she had achieved them both by the age of 21.

Enid was born in Stonebroom, near Alfreton, on March 15, 1910. Her parents, local doctor Thomas Francis Wilson and his wife Beatrice Mary, had apparently wanted a son.

Young Enid made up for this shortfall by becoming a mischievous little madam. On one occasion, aged four or five, she used her own toy set of carpenters’ tools to remove the heads from her father’s golf clubs.

And her antics did not end there. The Wilsons later sent their daughter away to be educated at Harrogate Ladies’ College, a boarding school in North Yorkshire. But, by the age of 13, Enid had succeeded in getting herself expelled for being “a damned nuisance”.

She later claimed it was for swearing at a housemistress who would not allow her to play golf. The four-letter words the young girl resorted to were ones she had overheard from some of her father’s patients back home.

Despite the disgrace, she consoled herself with the fact that there would now be more time to devote to golf.

Enid’s passion for the sport had begun at an early age, her first lessons being from her father. Later came coaching from Tom Williamson, at Nottinghamshire Golf Club, Hollinwell, where she proved a model pupil.

A tall, sturdy girl, she opted to hit from the men’s tees at the club which were further back than the women’s.

Enid was just 14 when an uncle suggested she enter the Girls’ British Open Amateur Championship at Stoke Poges, in 1924.

With only three days to go until the closing date, she had to complete three rounds at speed at her home course to qualify. During the contest, the pig-tailed lass from Derbyshire did remarkably well and reached the semi-finals.

She was knocked out by French girl Simone de la Chaume who went on to take the title.

Enid returned a year later and won the championship herself.

She also became Derbyshire Ladies’ Champion that year. Victories in other regional championships soon followed and the trophies won were highly prized by the young golfer.

Enid recalled in later life how, after winning the Midland Championship for the first time at 16, she slept with the gold medal under her pillow. Although not the most graceful of players, the teenager was blessed with a very sound swing.

Her main problem, at first, was with putting. But, thanks to her carpentry skills, she was able to improve matters by making the appropriate adjustments to her putter.

At 17, Enid was runner-up in the English Ladies’ Championship and went on to win the title in 1928 and 1930.

By the age of 21, she had also played four times for England in the Home Internationals.

Her only singles defeat in this particular competition came at the hands of Jean McCulloch, at St Andrews, in 1929, where the behaviour of the spectators upset her game.

Towards the end of the match, the crowd surged onto the green. The players had barely enough room to swing their putters.

As Enid later commented: “It was the only time I have ever felt scared on a golf course and the rumpus contributed to my loss.”

Such defeats were rare, however, and the young woman from Stonebroom was fast becoming one of the top lady golfers of the day.

In 1931, at Portmarnock, she beat Wanda Morgan to take the British Ladies’ Championship for the first time.

Further victories followed, at Saunton in 1932 and at Gleneagles in 1933, making it a hat trick for the young woman.

Enid Wilson now joined Lady Margaret Scott and Cecil Leitch as the only ladies to win the championship three times in succession.

The chance of becoming only the second woman to achieve the coveted double of the British and American Championships in the same year was now within her grasp.

With this in mind, she travelled to the United States in 1931 and, again, in 1933. But, unfortunately, she lost in the semi-finals on both occasions.

In the meantime, Enid had the honour of playing for the British team in the first official Curtis Cup match between the United States and Great Britain and Ireland.

It was the golfing highlight of 1932.

A crowd of 15,000 turned up at Wentworth, on May 21, to watch the contest, which consisted of a round of foursomes in the morning followed by singles in the afternoon.

The British side, under the captaincy of Joyce Wethered, was widely hailed as “the team of all the talents”. But the Americans soon proved their worth by winning all the morning foursomes.

As the visitors disappeared back to their hotel for lunch, another disaster loomed. No refreshments had been laid on for the home team.

As Enid reminisced years later: “When we got into the club, there were no tables set aside or any food for the teams. The spectators had eaten the lot.”

They could hardly cope with an afternoon of competitive golf on an empty stomach, so Enid went round all the tables searching for left-over bread rolls and bits of cheese for her team-mates.

That afternoon, in torrential rain, she faced a tough game against the reigning American champion Helen Hicks.

Rising to the challenge, the Derbyshire golfer left the best till last. In the words of one report: “Enid struck a splendid three-yard putt firmly and decisively into the hole to win.”

But, although team-mates Joyce Wethered and Diane Fishwick also won their matches, the first Curtis Cup went to the Americans.

Enid Wilson was at the height of her game when, in 1934, the Ladies’ Golf Union declared her a “non-amateur”.

Having received money for writing instructional captions to a series of golfing photographs, she had to retire from competitive amateur golf at the grand old age of 24.

But the sport did not lose its biggest fan.

A born handywoman, Enid was soon busy designing a full range of golf equipment. The clubs she devised were made available in four different weights, graded to the height and strength of the player.

She also developed her journalistic skills by writing her own column for Golf Illustrated and contributing to various other journals.

In 1935, she collaborated with Robert Allen Lewis on a coaching textbook entitled So that’s what I do!

The format was quite ground-breaking for its day, as the book was packed with photographs of golfers of varying abilities attempting different shots. During the Second World War, Enid served in the WAAF.

Then, in 1948, a fresh writing opportunity came her way. Starting with a retainer of £200 and a fee of two guineas (£12.10) per article, she took up the post of women’s golf correspondent with the Daily Telegraph.

The appointment proved a tremendous boon for the ladies’ game.

As well as keeping her readers entertained, Enid also championed advances in the sport.

Not one to mince her words, she was not always popular with the players, selectors and various governing bodies who found themselves the target of her wonderfully frank comments.

The Derbyshire woman was particularly outspoken when it came to the encouragement of younger players.

In 1952, for instance, when the Americans arrived for the Curtis Cup match, she organised a special tournament for the juniors so they could gain valuable experience against the visitors.

A new training initiative launched in the early 1960s by the Ladies’ Golf Union also received her hearty support. The aim was to produce young British and Irish female golfers to match the talent of the United States.

Enid Wilson became the most famous ladies’ golf writer of the day and attached far greater importance to other people’s golf than to her own.

In her book A Gallery of Women Golfers, published in 1961, she wrote biographies of all the top players, yet modestly excluded herself.

When she retired as Daily Telegraph correspondent in the early 1970s, it was mainly with the aim of playing more golf.

Well into her eighties, she could be seen on the fairways of her local golf course in Sussex in her “timeless tweed skirt”.

Even as a young woman, she had never been particularly fashion-conscious. Indeed, the golfer recalled with amusement, in later life, how a fellow competitor had turned up for the Girls’ Championship “dressed in silk stockings and white buckskin shoes – all from Bond Street”.

Enid Wilson was 85 when she died at her home in Crowborough, East Sussex, on January 14, 1996. She never married.

Her many friends in the golfing world agreed that she had made an outstanding contribution to women’s golf through her playing, reporting and pure enthusiasm for the game. The doctor’s daughter from Stonebroom had proved herself a champion in more ways than one.

• Golfing roll of honour

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