Royal Portrush golfer honoured with Blue Plaque

Long before Rory Mcilroy became a sensation of teenage golf in Northern Ireland, there was a “May Hezlet Path Bumen.

Londnderry County Woman has been recognized with a blue Ulster History Circle plaque at the Royal Portrush Ladies’ Clubhouse on Monday.

May, from Aghadowey, won the Ladies Championship (British) three times and the Irish Ladies Championship five times between 1899 and 1908.

First he won the Irish championship in 1899 at the age of 17 and only a week later, the British championship with the same links in Newcastle, Down Won County.

Susan Hezlet, May’s great niece, said while growing up, told him “many stories of all Golf Hezlet women.”

She with the pioneering golfer on numerous occasions during her life.

“It was not one later that I really began to realize how important it was because for me it was very kind, very gentle,” he said.

“It’s a very proud day for us as a family.”

Kath Stewart-More, former president of the Rama de Royal Portrush Golf Club, said May’s name was well known.

“She is really famous among the golfers, as special in Portrush,” he said, adding that “a blue plaque really deserves.

“It was a legend, and it was a Blazer of trails. In many ways, the Irish golf, men and women,” he said.

“From a time when he was 13, in 1895, he reached the English golfers and saw how good they were and began to practice and bring all other girls along with her.

This period of time was “near the start of the” Golf in Ireland “ladies.

“Royal Portrush was the third club to join Ladies Golf Union, two English and then Portrush. There were golf clubs throughout the place,” he continued.

“It was the beginning of golf in Ireland to some extent and certainly to the golf of the ladies.”

There are one leg many successful golfers who come from Northern Ireland over the years, both and women.

One of them is Leona Maguire, who in 2024 became the first Irish golfer to win in the European Ladies tour [LET] With a single shot in the Aramco team series in Hemel Hempstead.

Last week, Rory Mcilroy completed the Grand Slam in Golf, winning the masters dramatically at an upset in Augusta.

“May was a path, it was a pioneer,” said Stewart-Moore.

“She was responsible, in many ways, for all the success of all Irish golfers until today.

“We are all part of his legacy, in my opinion.”

It was a cloudy day in Portrush on Monday, but the spirits were high on the grounds of the Royal Portrush Golf Club where the boxes of people gather to honor May Hezlet.

Some May family members were among those who attended the presentation of the plate.

Rupert Cramsie is the great, big, great nephew of May Hezlet.

Hey, also traveled to Portush to attend the presentation of the plate.

Speaking to BBC News or, Cramsie said May was “very unpretentious” as a person.

“She was quite competitive in everything she did,” he said.

“I think, as a family, everyone stopped competing in everything they did and golf was almost a secondary show, was the only thing they did.”

As for talking about the plaque, Cramsie said: “It is pleasant as a family from a historical perspective, but I think it is good as a representation of the ladies golf, in particular and what people who can achieve it can achieve.”

Alice Kintead, former captain of ladies at the club, said May made a lot for golf, “for men” golf, but particularly women’s golf. ”

“I think it’s time for her to be honored and we are honored to have this plaque.”

Mrs. Kintead said May marked the beginning of “a certain degree of autonomy for women.”

“I was very interested in women’s clubs, women’s branches, handled their own fines, for example, not allowing men to do it for them. It was quite advanced to their time.”

Shirley Robinson, president of the Ladies branch, told BBC News or that it was a “tremendous honor for the club.”

She said May was a wonderful pioneer of Ladies’s golf and brought worldwide recognition to Portush.

“If he looked at her from above today, I am very satisfied to see that the Royal Portrush lady branch has continued to produce Curtis Cup, international players and champions.”

May Hezlet was born in Gibraltar on April 29, 1882.

In Northern Ireland, the hezlets, a golf family, lived in Bovagh’s house in the rural area of ​​Aghadowewey.

May’s mother, her three sisters and her brother were consummated players in Royal Portrush.

He published a book, Ladies’ Golf, at the age of 22.

When it comes to establishing ladies golf clubs, it is said that it can insist that women should handle their own fines, isad or the burden of mine.

By 1902, he had won the second British title in the agreement in Kent.

In 1907, with bad weather in Royal Down County, he beat his sister Florence to win her third British title.

May and Florence Hezlet had played in a British and Irish team that had tasks in an American visiting team in Royal Eating.

His last appearance as a golfer for Ireland was in the internationals of origin in 1912.

In 1909, Mrs. Hezlet married a Minister of the Ireland Church, the Reverend Ae Ross, who later became bishop or Tuam. He died in 1923.

In later years, she became president of Portrush Ladies’ Club and held the position until 1951.

May Hezlet died on December 27, 1978, at the age of 96.