Helen Holm: Bio of Scottish Amateur Star
Birth name: Helen Warren Gray
Date of birth: March 14, 1907
Place of birth: Partick, Scotland
Date and place of death: December 14, 1971, in Ayr, Scotland
Also known as: After marriage went by Helen Holm, was sometimes referred to as Helen Warren Holm, Mrs. Andrew Holm, or Mrs. A.M. Holm.
Her Biggest Wins
- 1930 Scottish Women's Amateur
- 1932 Scottish Women's Amateur
- 1934 British Ladies Amateur
- 1937 Scottish Women's Amateur
- 1938 British Ladies Amateur
- 1948 Scottish Women's Amateur
- 1950 Scottish Women's Amateur
More About Helen Holm
Helen Holm first came to national notice on the golf scene in 1928. At age 21, not yet married and so playing as Helen Gray, she won the inaugural playing of the Lanarkshire Ladies' Championship (still played today). It turned out to be the only important title she won under the name Gray, as she married the following year. And she went on to win that title again in 1929 and 1932.She was a two-time winner of the biggest tournament available to British (or European) golfers in her era, the British Women's Amateur (then known as the British Ladies Amateur). Holm's first victory was in 1934, when she beat the estimable Pamela Barton in the championship match, 6 and 5. That victory made Holm the first Scottish winner of the British Women's Amateur since Dorothy Hurd in 1911.
Holm won the British Women's Amateur a second time in 1938, beating Elsie Corlett in the final, 4 and 3.
An article in the Glasgow Herald after the semifinals of the 1938 British Ladies Amateur stated that "every stroke left (Holm's) club with precision and controlled power." The Herald's golf reporter wrote of Holm's "attitude of detached calm which, as one earlier opponent put it, 'breaks her opponents and is worth two holes of a start in every match'."
Holm was "renowned for her mental and physical toughness," according to the Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women.
By the time of her second British Am victory in 1938, Holm was already a three-time winner of the Scottish Ladies Amateur, and she went on to two more wins in that event.
She won the Scottish title in 1930, chose not to defend in 1931 but then won again in 1932. She won it in 1937, 1948 and 1950, too.
The biggest championship match, in terms of star power, was the last one, in 1950, when Holm, with four Scottish Am victories to that point, met another four-time winner, Charlotte Beddows. Holm and Beddows, who was 62 years old at the time, shared the tournament record with four wins each.
But Holm took that record for herself by beating Beddows, 6 and 5.
Holm reached the championship match 10 times total in the Scottish Women's Amateur, winning five and losing five. She made the final in 1933, 1938, 1949, 1956 and, at age 50, in 1957. One of those losses was to Jean Donald, two were to Jessie Anderson Valentine.
Just like the Holm-Beddows final in 1950, when Holm and Valentine met in 1956 they shared the tournament record for most wins. Each had five. Valentine won to set a new record with her sixth victory. Belle McCorkindale Robertson (who went on to win the inaugural Helen Holm Trophy) eventually won a seventh and is the current record-holder.
Holm played for Team Great Britain & Ireland in three Curtis Cups, 1936, 1938 and 1948. She was also selected to play in 1950, but declined because the Cup was in America that year and she did not want the long time away from her young son.
In the 1936 Curtis Cup, Holm won both her matches. She teamed with Jessie Anderson in a foursomes victory over Opal Hill/Charlotte Glutting. And in singles, Holm beat future LPGA legend Patty Berg, then 18 years old, 4 and 3.
Holm won another foursomes match in the 1938 Curtis Cup, but lost to Estelle Page in singles, 6 and 5. Page got the better of her again in the 1948 Curtis Cup, downing Holm, 3 and 2.
Holm also played many times for Team Great Britain & Ireland in matches against France and against Belgium that were forerunners of today's Vagliano Trophy competition. She played in those matches each year from 1933 through 1938, and again from 1947 through 1949, and captained the GB&I team in 1951 matches.
And she represented Scotland in the Women's Home Internationals (vs. England, Wales and Ireland) 13 times from 1932 to 1957.
Holm often participated in golf tournaments in Scotland as both a player and official, or later, as an official only, especially at her home course of Royal Troon. She would serve as a match referee, rules official or a course marshal.
And she kept playing in the Scottish Women's Amateur into the late 1960s. In 1968, at age 61, she advanced into the fifth round. At age 62 a year later, Holm made it into the fourth round.
Holm was only 64 years old when she died in 1971. Two years later, Royal Troon helped create a new tournament in her memory: The women's amateur stroke play championship of Scotland is named in honor of Holm.
Inaugurated in 1973 as the Helen Holm Trophy, the name eventually became Helen Holm Scottish Women's Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship. Today it is usually called the Helen Holm Scottish Women's Open (although it is "open" only to amateurs). It is played annually at Royal Troon.
Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Ewan, Elizabeth; Innes, Sue; Reynolds, Sian; Pipes, Rose. Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women, 2007, Edinburgh University Press.
Bristol (England) Evening Post. "Scottish champion recovers to win," May 22, 1969.
Glasgow (Scotland) Daily Record. "Marigold in super form," May 24, 1968.
Glasgow (Scotland) Herald. "New record in sight for Mrs. Holm," May 20, 1938.
Hull (England) Daily Mail. "Helen Holm," December 15, 1971.
ScottishGolf.com. "Helen Holm Scottish Women's Open Championship," https://www.scottishgolf.org/tournament-detail?competitionid=5159.
Steel, Donald, and Ryde, Peter. The Encyclopedia of Golf, 1975, The Viking Press.
