After that magical tee shot, Collett-Vare was hooked and slowly gave up her other pursuits in favor of golf. But her beginner’s luck ended with that first swing. Her first 18-hole score was a disappointing 150 and by the end that first summer, Collett-Vare could only manage a 130 at best. Collett-Vare’s preternatural prowess off-the-tee, though encouraging, wasn’t enough just yet.

Luckily, Collett-Vare got her first professional instructor just a year later thanks to golf historian H.B. Martin. He wrote about the moment they met in 1930: “A slim young lady with a large red picture hat was playing at Apawamis in the Eastern Women's Championship. She drove astonishing balls from the tee with a graceful well-balanced swing. I happened to observe her tee shots and asked if she played the rest of her game as well. She admitted that she did not.”

At that admission, Martin introduced Collett-Vare to Scottish golfer and two-time U.S. Open Champion (1906, 1910) Alex Smith. The Scotsman watched her hit tee shots and quickly decided to take the youngster under his wing. According to legend, Smith said, “If I can’t make a champion out of her, I’ll be a disgrace to the Smith family.”

But luckily for Smith’s reputation, she was indeed a champion. Smith’s lessons were a turning point in Collett-Vare’s career. She credits him with developing her raw talent. When she was at the height of her game in 1928, Collett-Vare wrote: "Smith taught me a sound philosophy as well as a better way of handling the mashie and the putter. He strengthened my driving to such a degree that when I was eighteen, standing five-feet six-inches tall and weighing 128 pounds, I drove a ball a measured distance of 307 yards, at that time, the longest drive ever hit by a woman."

No women had ever hit the ball as hard as Collett-Vare and her style captivated the nation as she rose through the ranks. After she won her first U.S. Women’s Amateur title in 1922 at just 19-years-old – just the second teenager to do so after Alexa Stirling – journalist J. Lewis Brown wrote, “Undoubtedly, Miss Collett is the greatest driver of them all.”

Collett-Vare also carded extremely low scores with remarkable consistency. Between 1928 and 1931 she won 19 events straight, including three consecutive U.S. Women’s Amateur titles. And if she didn’t win the event, she at least came away with the medal for lowest qualifying score. Though she lost in the final round of the 1924 championship – her only loss of the 60 matches she played that year – she became the first woman to break 80 in the qualifying round of the U.S. Women’s Amateur.

Reluctant Legend Glenna Collett-Vare Remains Vivid in LPGA Memory

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