Marion Hollins, one of the most influential women in golf history, will join Tiger Woods in the Class of 2021 that will be inducted in the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Fla.
Hollins, who died of cancer in 1944 at the age of 51, captured the 1921 U.S. Women’s Amateur and was captain of the first American Curtis Cup team in 1932, was elected through the contributor category.
“When you start reading about Marion Hollins, you realize what a trailblazer she was,” said World Golf Hall of Famer Annika Sorenstam of Sweden. “In her era, she didn’t have many resources with the status of women in sports and golf.
“To be that kind of trailblazer with that kind of enthusiasm and energy and get into course development and design is very inspirational. She was an advocate for women and changed the landscape of the game.”
Hollins played a major role in the development of golf on the Monterey Peninsula, helping developing Cypress Point Golf Club in Pebble Beach and Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, in addition to designing The Women’s National Golf and Tennis Club on Long Island in New York at the age of 30 after traveling to Great Britain to do architectural research.
She was influential of Alister MacKenzie being hired to design Cypress Point and Pasatiempo, and is credited by MacKenzie for the famed par-3, 16th hole at Cypress Point.
“I was in no way responsible for the hole,” MacKenzie wrote. “It was largely due to the vision of Marion Hollins.”
While the hole was being designed, Hollins showed that even women could play the 200-yard hole, belting a golf ball over the Pacific Ocean and onto what would become the heart of the 16th green.
In addition, she was friends with the great Bobby Jones and traveled with MacKenzie to consult on the design of Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters, in Augusta, Ga.
Pebble Beach founder Samuel Morse hired Hollins in 1922 as athletic director, and she helped create the Pebble Beach Championship for women, winning the first edition of the tournament.
Hollins was born in Dec. 3, 1892 in East Islip, N.Y.
Additional members of the Hall of Fame Class of 2021 are expected to be announced in the coming days.
