Athlete Profile

Glenna Collett Vare Golf

She never won a major championship. In fact, she never played a single round of golf as a professional. But Glenna Collett Vare set the stage for the Patty Bergs, the Mickey Wrights and the Nancy Lopezs who came after her. She was without question the finest female golfer of the first half of the 20th century.
A natural athlete, Glenna Collett took up golf at 14 after accompanying her father to Metacomet Country Club near Providence, Rhode Island. It was obvious that she had a knack for the game and she was soon taking lessons from two-time U.S. Open champion Alex Smith.
In 1919, at the age of 16, Collett entered her first U.S. Women’s Amateur at Shawnee-on-the-Delaware in Pennsylvania and managed to reach the second round of match play. She was the medalist in 1921 and the following year, at the age of 19, won her first U.S. Women’s Amateur title beating Mrs. William Gavin in the championship match at the Greenbrier in Virginia. Three years later, she won a second title at St. Louis Country Club, besting Alexa Stirling Frazier in the finals.
Collett’s third triumph came in 1928 at the Homestead in Virginia. Her 13 and 12 win in the finals over Virginia Van Wie, a fine player in her own right, remains the most one-sided victory in the history of the event.
Collett went on to successfully defend her title in 1929 at Oakland Hills Country Club in Birmingham, Michigan and again in 1930 at Los Angeles Country Club.
By this time, Glenna Collett was a nationally renowned figure. She was often compared to Bobby Jones, the most prominent male golfer of that era who, like Collett, remained an amateur throughout his career.
Collett was renowned for her length off the tee. More than 50 years before Laura Davies came along she was capable of 300-yard drives, a remarkable achievement considering the equipment of the time.
Jones retired from formal competition in 1930 but Glenna Collett, now Glenna Collett Vare, reached the U.S. Women’s Amateur finals in 1931 and ‘32 before winning again in 1935 at Interlachen Country Club in Hopkins, Minnesota. Her championship victory came over Patty Berg, who was all of 17 years old at the time.
It was Vare’s sixth title, which remains a record to this day. Her eighth appearance in the finals also established a record that still stands.
Those accomplishments alone would have earned Glenna Collett Vare a place in the history of the sport but she also was instrumental in organizing the Curtis Cup matches.
The idea for a womens’ international match between the United States and Great Britain had been under discussion for some time but financial considerations got in the way. In 1930 Vare was part of the American contingent competing in the British Women’s Amateur. Prior to the tournament the Americans met a team of British players in an informal team match at historic Sunningdale Golf Club.
Two years later Vare and her fellow Americans returned to England for the first official Curtis Cup competition matching the United States against a team representing Great Britain and Ireland. Since then the matches have been played every two years except during World War II.
Vare was a part of all six Curtis Cups between 1932 and 1950. She played in 1932, ‘36 (as a playing captain), and ‘38. She served as a non-playing captain in 1934 (after the birth of her second child) and again in 1948 and ‘50.
In fact, in 1948, Vare came “off the bench” and inserted herself into the American lineup during the matches at Birkdale to help the Americans to a victory.
After 1950 Vare stepped off the international stage but she continued to play in tournaments in the Philadelphia area until she was 70. She was able to “shoot her age” when she was in her early 80’s.
Although she never turned professional she was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame and the LPGA began presenting a trophy in her name in 1953 to the player with lowest stroke average each year. In 1965 the ‘Female Bobby Jones” was presented with the Bob Jones Award by the USGA for her sportsmanship and service to the game.
Glenna Collett Vare died on February 3, 1989 at the age of 85.