May Hezlet

Who was May Hezlet?

Mary Linzee "May" Hezlet was a British amateur golfer.

Born in Gibraltar, she and her sisters Florence and Violet Hezlet grew up in Ireland and became top golfers in their era. In 1899, at the golf course in Newcastle, County Down, May Hezlet defeated Rhona Adair to win the first of her five Irish Ladies Close Championships, three of which came in succession from 1904 to 1906. In two of those victories her sister Florence was the runner-up. That same year, she became the youngest-ever winner of the British Ladies Amateur, an age record that still stands.

Hezlet won the British Ladies Amateur again in 1902 then in 1904 at Scotland's Royal Troon Golf Club she lost in the final to Lottie Dod. She won her third British title in 1907 and her fifth Irish Ladies Close Championship in 1908 at the Royal Portrush Golf Club.

Hezlet published a book titled Ladies Golf in 1904 that was immensely popular and a 2nd edition was published 1907 with an additional updating chapter. In 1912, she contributed to The New Book of Golf by Horace G. Hutchinson.

In 1909, she married Arthur Edwin Ross. Her brother Charles O. Hezlet was runner-up in The Amateur Championship in 1914, played in the Walker Cup, and won several Irish amateur titles.