Around the Green

History of the Spring Lake Cup

Part of the spoils of winning the Women’s Texas Amateur is getting your name engraved on the championship’s historic trophy, the Spring Lake Cup. Slender, silver and standing 25½ inches tall, the trophy is nearly 100 years old.   

 

The trophy’s name comes from its place of origin, Spring Lake Country Club in Waco. Back in the late 1920s and ’30s, Spring Lake was an elegant resort frequented by Waco’s most affluent citizens. It’s long since gone now, having shut down prior to 1950. The club’s legacy, however, lives on through the Spring Lake Cup and Women’s Texas Amateur. 

 

Priscilla Rogers Scott won the 1924 Women’s Texas Amateur at Spring Lake Country Club. She would be the first winner to hold the eponymous trophy, which was presented to her by then-club president Henry Smith. In a somewhat surprising twist, given its connection with the championship, it was the only time the club would ever host the Women’s Texas Amateur.  

 

Scott was one of the leading players in the early days of Texas Women’s golf. In 1922, she advanced to the final match of the Women’s Texas Amateur before losing to Pauline Striping Hedrick. Scott reached the semifinals in 1923.  

 

Her third attempt to win the coveted championship was successful the following year. She won medalist honors early in the week, which earned her the top seed in the match play bracket. One by one, Scott defeated all her opponents, including May Whitley in the final match. 

 

Scott never won the Spring Lake Cup again, although she earned medalist honors in 1925 and reached the final match in 1926 and ’29. In that 1926 edition, Scott defeated six-time champion and future Texas Golf Hall of Fame member Edna Lapham in the semifinals. It was Lapham’s first defeat in Texas amateur play. 

 

When the members of Spring Lake Country Club donated the trophy in 1924, it came with several conditions. The first of which was, “That the Women’s Texas Golf Association be, and continue to be a permanent organization, properly and efficiently officered, governed and controlled by a suitable constitution and by-laws, whose general policy shall be in accord with the best traditions and highest ideals of the game, and always mindful of promoting the highest standards of sportsmanship among its members.” 

 

To this day, the Spring Lake Cup still represents the highest standards of sportsmanship and excellence in women’s amateur golf. Who will win the sparkling trophy this year? Find out at the 101st Women’s Texas Amateur from July 12-16 at the Golf Club of Houston.