Phyllis Wade Wylie – “Phil” to her many friends – the oldest surviving Curtis Cup team player, celebrated her 100th birthday on Friday in Troon, where she has lived for many years.
Phil played for Great Britain &Ireland against the United States in the fourth Curtis Cup match at Essex County Club, Massachussets in 1938.
The GB & I team, which included legendary Scots Helen Holm and Jessie Valentine, had crossed the Atlantic by ship in those pre-commercial flight days.
In 1938 the Curtis Cup ties, foursomes and singles, were all played over 36 holes. GB & I led 2 ½- ½ at the end of the first-day foursomes but an American team, with Patty Berg in its line-up, won five of the six singles on Day 2 to claim the Cup 5 ½-2 ½.
“The United States won the match but my abiding memory is how happy I was to be playing in a Curtis Cup match and what great fun we had,” recalls Phil.
“I think that’s the biggest difference between players of then and now. We all enjoyed ourselves, win or lose, and we weren’t afraid to show it.”
In 1939, Phyllis Wade married Surgeon-Capt J I Wylie, a Scot who was a naval officer. They had one son, Ian.
“I have been a widow for many years but living happily in Troon,” says Phil whose home overlooks the 17th green of the Royal Troon course.
"I don't get about so much these days; I'm a bit unsteady on my feet."
But she has a twinkle in her eye.
She had a dream come true at the 2008 Curtis Cup match at the Old Course, St Andrews where she entered the hallowed Royal & Ancient clubhouse to attend the Past Curtis Cup Players’ Dinner and was able to hold the Curtis Cup in her grasp.
She was English women’s amateur champion as Phil Wade in 1934 and 1936 and was Hampshire county champion in 1933, 1935, 1937 and 1938. By now rated as one of England’s leading players, she was first reserve in attendance for the 1936 Curtis Cup match at Gleneagles.
Remarkably, she did not take up golf until she was 16 or 17 years old and not until she was 18 (1929) when she left school did she play regularly.
“Father was a keen golfer and got me lessons with Reg Whitcombe (the pro at Parkstone Golf Club) who had been a Ryder Cup player,” said
Phil played regularly in international matches against France from 1934 to 1949.
She toured Australia and NewZealand with the GB team in 1935- it took the party some time to reach there by ship and the tour lasted more than a couple of months – and Phil won the New Zealand women's foursomes with Mrs. Greenlees in 1935.
Having moved up to Scotland, Phil became Ayrshire champion in 1954, which was no mean feat with players of the calibre of Helen Holm to beat, and is currently the Hon. President of the Ayrshire Ladies County Golf Association.
The members of her “next-door neighbours” Troon Ladies Golf Club planned a celebration tea for Phil which was by another Troon resident, Shona Malcolm, CEO of the Ladies Golf Union.
Ladies Golf News in Scotland, the West of Scotland and Renfrewshire
