Frances Stephens Smith: Bio of English Curtis Cup Hero
Date of birth: July 26, 1924
Place of birth: Bootle, Lancashire, England
Date and place of death: July 23, 1978, in Southport, England
Nickname: Bunty
Also known as: Before marrying, she was known as Frances Stephens, Bunty Stephens, or Frances "Bunty" Stephens. After marrying, she was called Frances Smith, Frances Stephens Smith, or Mrs. Roy Smith.
Her Biggest Wins
- 1948 English Women's Amateur
- 1949 Worplesdon Mixed Foursomes (partnered by Leonard Crawley)
- 1949 French Women's International Match Play
- 1949 British Women's Amateur
- 1950 Worplesdon Mixed Foursomes (partnered by Leonard Crawley)
- 1954 British Women's Amateur
- 1954 English Women's Amateur
- 1954 Worplesdon Mixed Foursomes (partnered by Tony Slark)
- 1955 English Women's Amateur
- 1961 Worplesdon Mixed Foursomes (partnered by Bruce Critchley)
Stephens in the British Ladies Amateur
Her best showings in the British Ladies Amateur (now known as The Women's Amateur Championship) happened before she married, when she was known as Frances Stephens.She gained early notice in 1947 when, in the quarterfinals, she lost to Babe Didrikson Zaharias, 3 and 2. That was the closest score of any of Zaharias' matches that year en route to the title, and a match Zaharias herself called her toughest.
Stephens won her first British Ladies title in 1949. After beating Philomena Garvey, 5 and 4, in the semifinals, she defeated Claire Reddan for the championship by the same score.
She fell in the championship match in both 1951 and 1952, losing 4 and 3 to Kitty MacCann in 1951; and 1-down on the 38th hole to Moira Paterson in 1952.
The second of Stephens' two wins happened in 1954. In the semifinals she knocked out defending champion Marlene Stewart, 1-up on the 22nd hole. In the final, Stephens beat her good friend and frequent Curtis Cup partner Elizabeth Price, 4 and 3.
Curtis Cup Star and Captain
Her British Ladies Amateur titles were her biggest individual wins, but Stephens Smith's Curtis Cup play made her even more famous in her day. She appeared in the USA vs. Great Britain & Ireland competition for amateur women golfers eight times, six times as a player and twice as a team captain.Her playing appearances were in 1950, 1952, 1954, 1956, 1958 and 1960. She posted an overall match record of seven wins, three losses and one draw, a record that, in the early 1980s, Peter Alliss wrote was "arguably the best record of all-time by a British player" in the Curtis Cup.
She was unbeaten in five singles matches, winning four of them. She was part of the first GB&I team to win, the first GB&I team to retain the Cup, and scored the clinching point in the final match on the course in two consecutive Curtis Cups.
This is Stephens Smith's record in each of her playing appearances:
- 1950 Curtis Cup: The only two matches GB&I didn't lose were Stephens' matches. With partner Elizabeth Price, she beat Helen Sigel/Peggy Kirk in foursomes, 1-up. In singles, she halved Dorothy Porter, coming back from 3-down with three holes to play.
- 1952 Curtis Cup: After a loss in foursomes, Stephens defeated Marjorie Lindsay in singles, 2 and 1. Team GB&I earned its first-ever win in the Curtis Cup (first played in 1932) this year.
- 1954 Curtis Cup: Another foursomes loss, but Stephens beat Mary Lena Faulk in singles, 1-up, by sinking a 20-foot putt on the final green.
- 1956 Curtis Cup: Now Frances Smith after marrying, she and partner Price beat Polly Riley/Barbara Romack in foursomes, 5 and 3. The outcome of this Cup came down to the singles match between Smith and Riley, which was the final match left in play. Smith went 1-up with three holes left, Riley squared it on the following hole. On the second-to-last hole, both missed putts for the lead. Then on the last, Smith hit her 5-iron approach close and won the hole, the match and the tournament for GB&I.
- 1958 Curtis Cup: Partnered with Janette Robertson in foursomes to win over Joanne Gunderson (Carner)/Anne Quast, 3 and 2. In singles, Smith and Riley once again found themselves the final match on the course with everything riding on it. Smith had to win the match for GB&I to tie Team USA and, for the first time ever, retain the Curtis Cup. Smith led 1-up going to the last, then won that hole for the 2-up victory.
- 1960 Curtis Cup: Smith's final appearance as a player was a foursomes loss. She withdrew from the singles due to illness.
Stephens Smith's 4-0-1 record in singles is a winning percentage of .900, which remains today the highest winning percentage by any GB&I player in Curtis Cup history with a minimum of four singles matches. Her 7 overall match wins was the GB&I team record as of 1958, shared as of 1960, not bettered until the 1980s.
More About Frances Stephens Smith
The British editors of the 1975 The Encyclopedia of Golf (affiliate link) wrote that Frances Stephens Smith "for 10 years and more after World War II was the outstanding competitor in British women's golf." They continued:"No golfer of that period, man or woman, played more perfect shots under severe pressure."Herbert Warren Wind had complimented her pressure play decades earlier when he wrote, after the 1958 Curtis Cup, that Smith, "holds onto her timing in the most nerve-wracking situations because she has superb concentration. She holds onto her concentration because she has a purposefulness that never wavers and a wondrous heart."
Her father, Fred Stephens, was pro and teacher at Bootle Golf Course in greater Liverpool. He shaped his daughter's swing and approach to the game when she started playing seriously at age 14. Accuracy, especially straightness off the tee, was a hallmark of her game. But with a small physique, she lacked distance. On the greens, Stephens Smith was deadly. Enid Wilson, writing in the early 1960s, called her, "day in, day out ... the best putter in British women's golf."
Her first big tournament win was the 1946 Daily Graphic Women's National Tournament, then a 36-hole stroke play event, but one that grew into the more prestigious Spalding Women's Open Stroke Play Championship. Stephens won the Daily Graphic tournament five consecutive years, 1946-50. After Spalding took over sponsorship and expanded the tournament to 72 holes, Stephens won again in 1953 (via a countback playoff against Jean Donald), and, for the final time, in 1958.
Stephens Smith won her first Lancashire County Championship in 1948. It was a title she took 10 times total, last in 1960. She won eight consecutive years, 1948-55, plus twice more in 1959 and 1960.
The year 1949 was her real breakout into stardom. Stephens Smith won her first British Ladies Amateur title that year. Plus she won the French Ladies Match Play Championship. After having lost in the French final in 1947, Stephens in 1949 beat Moira Paterson (who later beat Stephens in the title match at 1952 British Ladies Am) 6 and 5 in the championship match. She also finished sixth in the U.S. Women's Open that year, one of her rare times playing (outside the Curtis Cup) in America.
The English Amateur Championship was another big tournament Stephens Smith won multiple times. The first of her three victories was in 1948. And she beat her Curtis Cup teammate Elizabeth Price in championship matches in back-to-back years in 1954-55, winning on the 37th hole in 1954 and by a 4-and-3 score in 1955. She reached the final again in 1959 but fell to Ruth Porter, 5 and 4.
Stephens Smith also won the Worplesdon Mixed Foursomes four times. She was partnered to victory by Leonard Crawley in 1949 and 1950, by Tony Slark in 1954 and by Bruce Critchley in 1961. She also reached the championship match in 1952 with Slark.
In 1954, when Stephens Smith she won all three of the British Am, English Am, and Worplesdon Mixed titles, she received the Golf Writers Trophy as the player of the year from the British Golf Writers Association.
In addition to her Curtis Cup play, Stephens Smith repped Team GB&I six times in the Vagliano Cup, and was the team captain in 1971. She played for Great Britain in the Commonwealth Trophy in 1959 and 1963.
Frances Stephens became Frances Smith in 1955 when she married Roy Smith, an airline pilot. Their daughter was born in 1957. Tragically, shortly after their daughter's birth, Roy Smith was killed in a plane crash in Libya in 1957. Frances curtailed her playing career from that point to raise their daughter. She never remarried.
Stephens Smith did have a few more wins, though. Those included, in 1962 and partnered by Jean Donald, the Northern Foursomes. A kind of last hurrah for her as a player was her runner-up finish at age 46 in the 1970 British Ladies Strokeplay.
From the 1960s on, Stephens Smith was very involved in promoting junior golf in England and on the administrative side of women's golf. In 1974, she organized the Lancashire Girls' Golf Association. In 1977, she became president of the English Ladies Golf Association. She received the OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 1977, too.
Stephens Smith was only 53 years old when she died of cancer in 1978.
At Royal Birkdale, which was her home club, the Bunty Stephens Mixed Foursomes tournament has been played annually in her memory since the 1980s. And the Frances Smith Trophy tournament is one of the big events every year in Lancashire County golf.
Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Alliss, Peter. The Who's Who of Golf, 1983, Orbis Publishing.
Encyclopedia.com. "Stephens, Frances (1924-1978)," https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/stephens-frances-1924-1978.
French Golf Federation. "French Women's International," https://www.ffgolf.org/golf-amateur/toutes-categories/grands-tournois/internationaux-de-france-dames.
Glasgow Herald. "England-Ireland Final," May 26, 1949, https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=cm5RAAAAIBAJ&pg=1406%2C1896265.
Glasgow Herald. "Women's Champion Beaten at Twenty-Second," July 1, 1954, https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=gj1AAAAAIBAJ&pg=2033%2C38093.
Lancashire Golf. Roll of Honour, Past Women's County Championships, https://www.lancashiregolf.org/roll_of_honour.
Lancashire Ladies County Golf Association. "Frances 'Bunty' Smith," https://web.archive.org/web/20180213022028/http://www.old.llcga.org/Core/Lancashire-Ladies-County-Golf-Association/UserFiles/Files/Frances%20Smith%20web.pdf.
Royal Birkdale Golf Club. "Frances 'Bunty' Smith nee Stephens," https://web.archive.org/web/20230531031119/https://members.royalbirkdale.com/frances_smith_nee_stephens_-_bunty.
Steel, Donald, and Ryde, Peter. The Encyclopedia of Golf, 1975, The Viking Press.
USGA. Curtis Cup Media Guide, Curtis Cup Records.
Wilson, Enid. A Gallery of Women Golfers, 1961, Country Life Limited, London.
