The Story of Gloria Minoprio, the Mysterious Golfer in Black Who Dared Wear Trousers on the Course
On the eve of the 1933 English Ladies Championship at Royal North Devon Golf Club one of the contestants, Miss Gloria Minoprio, entered the Ladies Clubhouse and announced to those present that she planned to play in the tournament with only one club.
Then she departed, as the room buzzed. One club? Impossible. At the time, there was no limit on the number of clubs one could carry, although many only used nine or ten clubs, but just one? Miss Minoprio’s statement must have been a joke or a misstatement.
However, the next morning the area around the first tee was filled with members of the press who wanted to see what Miss Minoprio would have in her bag.
The starter called her name, but Miss Minoprio did not appear. A shout was given inside the Ladies Clubhouse in case she hadn’t heard the starter, but she was not there either.
The starter called her name again and was about to disqualify her when a yellow Rolls Royce made a speedy entrance and pulled to a stop. Out stepped Miss Minoprio. Her caddie appeared with a small “pencil” bag containing two clubs. On quick examination, both were determined to be hickory shafted cleeks, equivalent to a 1- or 2-iron today.
But that wasn’t the cause of the mumbling, and even a state of shock, among the assembled reporters and ladies. Miss Minoprio had applied so much powder to her face it appear to be stark white contrasted with her bright red lipstick. She wore a black toque (a tight fitting hat), a pair of white kid gloves and a scarlet jacket over a black blouse and tightly tailored black trousers.
Ladies did not wear trousers on the golf course. It just wasn’t done. Ladies wore long skirts, maybe mid-calf, a blouse and a sweater or jacket. Even rolling up the sleeves of a blouse on a hot day was considered out of place.
When Jessie Anderson Valentine, who would win three British Ladies Championships and become a Curtis Cup star, asked her father, golf professional Joe Anderson, if she could borrow some trousers to play in foul weather conditions in an upcoming tournament at North Berwick, he replied, “If ye canna win wi’oot breeks [trousers], y’ll no win at a’.” In other words, no trousers!
One shocked observer said Miss Minoprio dressed like Mephistopheles, the devil to whom Faust sold his soul, while another announced Miss Minoprio had looked like an executioner.
Enid Wilson, one of the best lady golfers of the time, commented, “Had she arrived in the nude, the effect on the officials and other competitors then present could not have been more profound.”
English journalist Henry Longhurst said Minoprio was a slim graceful girl, with delicate, sensitive features and a devine figure, and borrowing a phrase from Damon Runyan, said “she had bumps where a doll is entitled to have bumps.” Maybe that contributed to the dust up.
None of this bothered Miss Minoprio. She walked over to her opponent, Miss Nancy Halstead, and while shaking her hand, said, “Good morning” in a whisper. She took off her scarlet jacket and gave it to her young caddie, and then took her cleek and tapped the ground indicating to her caddie where she wanted her tee placed. It, too, was unusual, a conical piece of plastic with a red silk rose attached by a red string so the tee would not fly away and could be used again.
There was a small burn crossing the fairway about 50 yards out. Miss Minoprio waggled her club over the top of the ball several times. Many were betting she wouldn’t even reach the water, but Miss Minoprio made a smooth swing, good contact and her ball, a new Silver King, carried the burn easily and flew down the fairway. She left the crowd stunned, either by her trousers or by how well she hit the ball or, perhaps, by both.
A large gallery followed the Minoprio-Halstead match, ignoring many of the finer contestants who played their matches in solitude.
Minoprio’s approach shots were good, running along the ground to the green and her putting was sound. The greens of the time weren’t cut as closely as today and were slower. Many putters had a bit of loft to get the ball up and running on top of the grass, and putting with a cleek was not unheard of.
Out of bunkers with loose sand, Miss Minoprio was quite good, laying back the face of the cleek and sliding it under the ball, popping it up and out. Bunkers with packed or wet sand were almost impossible for her, as were pitch shots. Nonetheless Miss Minoprio was a pretty strong golfer.
Miss Halstead played a good game and Miss Miroprio’s weakness’s gave away some holes. Miss Minoprio lost the match 5&3 at the 15th hole. Miss Minoprio congratulated her opponent with a cordial handshake, walked back toward the clubhouse and into her waiting Rolls Royce and drove off. She was never seen again that week which also went against tradition. All contestants were expected to stay through the end of the tournament, join the galleries or have lunch with other contestants. The event was as much social as it was the English Ladies Championship.
Henry Longhurst came up with a classic headline for Gloria Minoprio’s arrival and quick loss in the first round: Sic Transit Gloria Monday, a takeoff on Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, a Latin phrase meaning “Thus passes worldly glory.”
As for Gloria Minoprio’s choice of attire, the head of the Ladies Golf Union released a statement, “I much regret that there should be this departure from the usual golfing costume at this championship.”
Gloria told the Boston Globe, “Trousers are freer than skirts, and they aren’t blowing in the breeze and taking my mind off a shot.”
At this point in time, Gloria Minoprio was one of those people everyone knew about, but no one had actually met. On the golf course she never spoke to her opponent, but she played a proper game and strictly by the rules. She was ready to hit when it was her turn, she played quickly but her manner was definitely off-putting. Gloria explained later she had studied with an Indian Yogi and learned how to concentrate and not be affected by outside influences.
Gloria Minoprio.
Royal North Devon Golf Club
Gloria came from a well-to-do middle class family, but her father died when she was young and her mother had a nervous breakdown. Gloria was raised by her grandmother and two aunts. Her real name was Dorothy, but Gloria was apparently a family nickname which she used.
After Gloria attended finishing school she met William Gavin and married him in Paris in 1929; he was 64 and she was 21. They settled in London. Gavin was a bit of a con man, passing himself off as Gloria’s uncle. Gavin was in the business of providing affordable housing and sought the backing of a wealthy widower, Herbert Weld. Weld hired Gloria as his secretary, and was shortly besotted with her. He showered lavish gifts on Minoprio and Gavin, and transferred valuable stock in a brewery to them which they quickly sold. It was then Gloria took up golf.
She played at Huntercombe Golf Club at Henley-On-Thames, 37 miles west of London. Thanks to the generosity of Gloria’s employer, she took lessons from the club’s highly regarded professional, Jim Morris, every morning and then played 18 holes with him in the afternoon. Gloria and her “uncle” took a cottage on the Huntercombe course along the third and fourth holes which paralleled each other. Gloria would play those holes back to back daily to improve her game.
The story of Seve Ballesteros playing with a single club as a boy, a 3-iron, is well known and he credited using a single club with teaching him how to manufacture shots, but Seve soon graduated to a full set. It’s hard to imagine an esteemed professional like Jim Morris teaching a student to play with only one club.
Miss Minoprio joined Littlestone Golf Club in the Southeast of England on the English Channel. She played there off a four handicap, but never played in club or local tournaments. Her entry in the English Ladies at Royal North Devon was Minoprio’s first foray into tournament golf. After her defeat in the first round, she wasn’t to play in any golf tournament again until 1934, when she again entered the English Ladies Championship at Seacroft Golf Club in Skegness in the East of England on the North Sea.
Miss Minoprio didn’t arrive at Seacroft for her first round match in a Rolls Royce, but made a startling entrance as a small figure in black trousers and a black top coming over the dunes in the distance toward the first tee, carrying but a single club.
As before, she just made her starting time, shook hands with her opponent, Miss Betty Sommerville. It was the first time Sommerville played in a major event, and she was shaken by Minoprio’s cool demeanor, dramatic costume and the two stymies laid her by Minoprio. The result was a 2&1 victory by Miss Minoprio, the first time on record that anyone had won a match in a major golf tournament using a single club, with that club being one of the hardest in the bag to master.
In the second round match, Minoprio was soundly defeated 7&6 by Miss Mary Johnson who wasn’t intimidated by Minoprio’s costume or her single club.
Her loss gave Henry Longhurst an opportunity to modify his earlier use of the old Latin phrase to, “Sic Transit Gloria Tuesday.”
While the Ladies Golf Union didn’t approve of Gloria’s wearing trousers and didn’t mention her in their summary of 1933 tournaments or use her photo in the large number of pictures, the trouser battle was over. Helen Holm won the 1934 British Ladies Championship wearing trousers, and in 1935 almost all contestants wore rain pants because of dreadful weather in the English Ladies at Birkdale.
Miss Minoprio continued to play in the English Ladies and qualified at stroke play to play in the British Ladies. She won a few more matches, and still drew large galleries who came to see her play, not for her costume, but to see the lady who played with one club and won matches in major champions played over Britain’s hardest links courses. The farthest Gloria ever got in a major tournament was the third round, and that was by virtue of a bye followed by a forfeit.
Gloria, it turned out was a practiced magician and great with card tricks and close up magic. She would practice for hours in front of a mirror. As her golfing career moved along during the 1930s, she became more friendly with her competitors and entertained them with card tricks.
Mr. Weld, who remained in thrall to Gloria, proposed to her, but she declined. She was, after all, still married to her “uncle.” Then in the late 1930s, Mr. Weld died and the spigot of ever flowing money stopped. Mr. Weld’s solicitors were shocked to find most of his fortune had been dissipated by the money he’d given to Gloria and her “uncle.” Because the transfers were gifts (and all the money had been spend in a luxurious lifestyle by the couple), the solicitors decided not to pursue Gloria or her “uncle.”
Gloria’s last golfing event was the 1939 British Ladies Championship at Royal Portrush where she went down 7&6 in the first round. When World War II started, serious golf stopped. It was thought Gloria had been killed in the blitz, but it was discovered that she’d divorced her “uncle,” gotten married again and was in Vancouver working in a hotel her new husband managed. She died in Nassau of septicemia at age 50.
She left behind many unanswered questions. Why did she dress in such an outlandish manner? Why did she make such dramatic entrances? And why didn’t she use a full set of clubs? She had a good swing and could handle a variety of shots with her cleek; think what she could have done if she’d worked with more clubs.
Was it a publicity stunt? Part of a bet? A dare? An advertising gimmick? To be the center of attention? No one knows the answer, but she was the first lady to wear trousers in a major golf tournament and broke a barrier which the women who followed greatly appreciated.
And she remains the only golfer, man or woman, to compete in top tournament golf with a single club.