Glenna Collett Vare

Born: June 20, 1903, in New Haven, Conn.
Died: Feb. 3, 1989
Nickname: It wasn't really a nickname, but she was often called "the female Bobby Jones" ... also called "Queen of American Golf."

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Amateur - 6
U.S. Women's Amateur: 1922, 1925, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1935

• Member, World Golf Hall of Fame
• Member, U.S. Curtis Cup team, 1932, 1938
• Player-Captain, U.S. Curtis Cup team, 1934, 1936
• Captain, U.S. Curtis Cup team, 1948, 1950
• Recipient, USGA Bob Jones Award, 1965

• Glenna Collett Vare: "To make oneself a successful match player, there are certain qualities to be sought after, certain ideas must be kept in mind and certain phases of one's attitude towards the game that come in for special notice. The three I have taken are these: love of combat, serenity of mind and fearlessness."

• Bobby Jones: "Aside from her skill with her clubs, Miss Collett typified all that the word 'sportsmanship' stands for."

• Former USGA president Richard Tufts: "Glenna was the first woman to attack the hole rather than just to play to the green."

Her sixth and final U.S. Women's Amateur title came when she defeated 17-year-old Patty Berg in the championship match.

Glenna Collett Vare dominated women's golf in America during her time, and a did it with a reputation for good sportsmanship and class that earned her the sobriquet, "the female Bobby Jones." In fact, thirty years after the last of her six U.S. Women's Amateur titles, the USGA awarded Vare the Bob Jones Award in recognition of her contributions to golf and the classy way in which she made them.

The young Glenna Collett received instruction as a teen from former British Open champion Alex Smith, the pro at Metacomet Club in Providence, R.I. She started playing golf at age 14, and by 19 she won her first U.S. Women's Amateur (1922).

She went on to win the U.S. Women's Amateur five more times, and was runner-up twice more. Her final win in the event came in 1935, when - now known by her married name of Vare - she defeated the 17-year-old Patty Berg in the final.

Vare also won two Canadian Women's Amateurs and one French Women's Amateur (but never the British Women's Amateur, where she twice lost to nemesis Joyce Wethered). She also won the prestigious North and South Championship six times and the Eastern Amateur seven times.

Perhaps her most dominant year was 1924, when Collett Vare won 59 of 60 matches played. But she didn't win the U.S. Women's Amateur that year: her one loss was on the 19th hole of her semifinal match in that event.

In the early 1930s, Vare played a role in initiating the Curtis Cup matches between teams of women amateurs representing American and Britain. Collett Vare took a team to Britain in 1930 for unofficial matches. The following year the British Ladies Golf Union and USGA agreed to the new competition, and Collett Vare was on U.S. team at the first Curtis Cup in 1932.

Glenna Collett Vare continued playing competitively into her mid-50s, with her final victory coming at the 1959 Rhode Island Women's Golf Association championship.

Vare was known as a powerful, aggressive striker of the ball, a woman who fired at the pins and hit the ball a long way - rarities in her time.

She published two books in the 1920s, "Golf for Young Players" and "Ladies in the Rough," the latter with a forward by Bobby Jones.

Since 1953, the golfer with the lowest scoring average on the LPGA Tour each year has received the Vare Trophy. And the winner of the U.S. Junior Girls Championship is awareded the Glenna Collett Vare Trophy.

Vare was among the first people inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.