ORMOND BEACH, Florida – It took a century, but tournament organizers of the South Atlantic Women’s Amateur finally secured some advertising real estate across Granada Boulevard, Ormond Beach’s main thoroughfare. Usually, such signage is reserved for businesses or organizations along the bustling street, though with The Sally (as the championship is affectionately known) celebrating its centennial, an exception was made.
So, as motorists approach the Granada Bridge from the west, they’ll spot a banner spanning five lanes of traffic, promoting the upcoming Sally, which runs Wednesday-Saturday at Oceanside Golf and Country Club.
Literally, a banner year.
“The first 100 years are behind us, and now we’re into the second 100,” said Chuck Grant, who has chaired the championship for over a decade.
The Sally, established in 1926, is believed to be the world’s longest running amateur golf tournament at a single venue, with only a four-year break from 1943-46 because of World War II. That makes this week’s championship the 97th edition. The New Year’s Invitational, a men’s amateur event at St. Petersburg Country Club on Florida’s West Coast, has actually been contested more, 100 times last weekend, though its inception came a year later than The Sally, in 1927.
Past champions of The Sally include LPGA founders Babe Zaharias and Patty Berg, as well as fellow major winners such as Lexi Thompson, Cristie Kerr, Brooke Henderson and Grace Park. Current world No. 2 Nelly Korda is a veteran of the championship, and her older sister, Jessica, is another former winner. Look at an LPGA leaderboard, longtime tournament committee member Joe Eggers says, and “you’re going to see that half of them up there probably played in The Sally at some point.”
“That was a big deal to be able to get into The Sally if you were a golfer,” said Pat Meyers, a longtime Ormond Beach resident who won her lone Sally title as a 21-year-old in 1976, by five shots, two years after 23-year-old Debbie Massey captured the first stroke-play edition. “You would read about it in the paper. It was always on my calendar. … When I finally won it, it has marked my career.”
Oceanside dates to 1911, when it was constructed, initially as the Hotel Ormond Golf and Country Club, which accompanied the hotel founded by industrialist Henry Flagler. The course changed ownership – and names – twice, first to Ellinor Village Country Club in 1951 and then to Oceanside in 1962. Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller was a frequent guest of the hotel and golf course, and he later bought a home across the street called the Casements, where he’d winter until his death in 1937, at age 97.
Rockefeller was also instrumental in the early success of The Sally, which was part of the original Orange Blossom Circuit. In its heyday, the barnstorming tour spanned nearly a dozen stops around Florida, including Miami, Palm Beach and St. Augustine. In part because of Rockefeller’s influence, The Sally was arguably the belle of the ball, known not just for the competition but the party. The very first Sally gala was held in 1926 at the Hotel Ormond, where the Daytona Beach News-Journal described the scene:
The table was tastefully arranged with three bowls of pink sweet peas and a runner of sweet peas and ferns on the entire length of the table, and the entire room was decorated with flags and red, white and blue colors. Sterling silver pins were given as favors, paper caps were worn by all present, and the hotel orchestra provided music during dinner.
The festivities evolved over the decades with multiple evening events, including dinners and what became a famous karaoke night, though eventually, “it got to be too much,” said Connie Foley, the tournament chairman for most of the 1990s. “As our field got better and better, we started weeding those things out.” Now, Sally week kicks off with a Monday pairings party and Tuesday member-am event before Wednesday’s opening round.
This year, there will also be a celebration of 100 years on Saturday evening after the final round. Grant expects six or seven past champions to attend, including Gianna Clemente, who won the 2023 Sally and recently turned pro at 17 years old.
“I’ve kind of grown up here,” said Clemente, who played her first Sally at age 11. “We’d always go up right after New Year’s and make a whole week out of it. It became one of my statement events.”
The Orange Blossom circuit has existed more recently as a four-event slate: The Sally, along with the Harder Hall Invitational in Sebring, Ione D. Jones/Doherty Women’s Amateur in Fort Lauderdale and Women’s International Four-Ball in Hollywood. But these days, the Orange Blossom is a shell of its former self, arguably not even a tour at all.
The Harder Hall’s longtime home was sold for residential development, and the event was just contested for a fourth straight year as the Citrus Golf Trail Invitational.
The Jones/Doherty is taking place the same week as The Sally for the second straight year – and with a decidedly lesser field.
And the Four-Ball, set for late January, is only open to competitors aged 18 or older and typically draws a mid-am-dominant field. In 2013, after not being held the year prior, the Four-Ball switched host venues for the first time, and last year, it moved out of South Florida altogether, to Ocala.
Meanwhile, The Sally has withstood. Sure, there were some lean years, particularly in the late 1980s, which forced Foley to tighten the reins on the handicap requirement. Grant has left his mark as well, creating the 12-person Rockefeller flight to give older players and local juniors the chance to still compete without diluting the main field. He also helped transition the event away from “carts and cocktails” to put the focus back fully on the competitors, and starting in 2017, he moved the dates up a week to avoid conflicts with college players returning to school, an issue that had made filling fields increasingly difficult.
“That was the turning point,” Grant said of the date change.
This year’s field includes Ohio State senior Kary Hollenbaugh, winner of the past two editions, who can join Virginia Van Wie and Tish Pruess as the only players to win three straight Sally titles. Also competing are three members of the U.S. National Development Team – Amelie Zalsman, Zoe Cusack and Mia Hammond – and in total, 20 players ranked in the top 400 of the World Amateur Golf Ranking, a solid number for a wintertime tournament.
These competitors will not only be tested on a demanding layout that has often produced a winning score of over par but exposed to world-class hospitality. Foley calls it a “family-like atmosphere,” saying that Oceanside’s members will “do anything for the players,” like the time she gave a competitor from South Africa her wind suit because the girl had forgotten to check the weather forecast. Oh yes, Sally weather – cold, windy and often wet.
“Everyone in Ormond jokes that the coldest week of the year will be the week of The Sally,” Foley adds, before recalling the time one player ended up in a pond near the 14th green after her metal spikes lost traction on some icy turf.
The Sally, Grant hopes, will continue to gain traction.
“I think we’ve got something going here,” Grant said, “other than sometimes you can’t predict the weather in January in Florida.”
Adds Eggers: “There’s no commercial driver. There’s no profit motive. It’s just true amateur sports at a really high level and for the love of the game.”
It’s been that way for 100 years.
To mark the special anniversary, here is a collection of a century’s worth of Sally stories:
And the first Sally goes to...
Golf tournaments at Oceanside predate the inaugural South Atlantic Women’s Amateur, including the 1925 Ormond Beach Women’s Tournament, which was won, coincidentally, by a gal named Sally.
Mrs. H. David Sterrett, as she was called in newspaper articles, beat a 16-year-old Van Wie, an eventual three-time U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, in the 18-hole final, 2 and 1. The match was played in a “cold spray,” wrote Daytona Beach writer Ed Sullivan, and in front of 200 “enthusiasts.” Sterrett shot a “brilliant” 85 in her win, three shots worse than her course-record 82 to take the stroke-play qualifier. Sterett then defeated in the semifinals, Dorothy Klotz, nicknamed Dot, who would capture the first Sally that next year.
Glenna Collett was the pre-tournament favorite for the 1926 Sally. Collett, later Collett-Vare and a World Golf Hall of Famer regarded by many as the greatest female golfer of the pre-WWII era, had already won two of what would be six U.S. Women’s Amateur titles. She shattered the course record in qualifying, firing 79, after which Rockefeller handed her one of his famous dimes; he’d given her one the previous year during an exhibition at Oceanside, but Collett lost it, the dime falling out of her bracelet during some overseas travel.
But Collett was upset by Klotz in the semifinals, setting up Klotz to meet Mary Kendall Browne in the final match. Earlier in the tournament, Browne had discovered a rusty horseshoe on the 13th hole and decided to carry it around in her sweater and later her golf bag for good luck, though that luck ended against the long-hitting Klotz, who had only taken up golf at 16 years old. Klotz nearly aced the par-4 seventh in the back-and-forth bout before winning three of the last four holes in a 4-and-2 victory.
Klotz successfully defended her Sally title the next year before Van Wie rattled off three straight wins, from 1928-1930.
Babe’s dominant run
Babe Zaharias won 17 straight tournaments from 1946-47, a streak that not only included the 1946 U.S. Women’s Amateur and 1947 Titleholders, one of her 10 career major titles, but also the 1947 Sally, the first edition after a four-year hiatus because of World War II.
Zaharias’ Sally win was No. 11 in a row, and it followed a dominant 12-and-10 drubbing of Margaret Gunther in the final of the Doherty Cup and a team win with Peggy Kirk at the Women’s International Four-Ball, which directly preceded the start of the Sally. There was some controversy at the latter, as a spectator was struck on the 36th hole of the final match, which also involved the defending champions Louise Suggs and Jean Hopkins. Suggs and Hopkins declared it too dark to finish the hole, which Zaharias argued against. Reports from the grounds described the situation as a “near riot,” with a divided crowd joining the argument. Zaharias threatened not to return the next day, but she ultimately did, and with Kirk carrying their team, Zaharias’ side won an 18-hole playoff, 3 and 2.
Zaharias would then meet Kirk in the championship match at The Sally. Kirk dispatched the medalist, Mary Agnes Wall, in the quarterfinals and Polly Riley in the semis, which were postponed a day because of inclement weather, to earn the meeting with Zaharias, who canned a 45-foot birdie putt on the 19th hole of her semifinal opposite Gunther. Zaharias was credited with a new course record of 72 in her semifinal bout.
“I want to be the best woman golf player in the world if I can,” Zaharias was quoted in the Palm Beach Post-Times ahead of the 18-hole final, which Zaharias would capture, 5 and 4.
The lede of the Morning Journal the next morning began: “Toying with her outclassed adversary like a master angler playing a gamefish…”
That would be Zaharias’ last Sally appearance, as she would turn professional later in 1947.
Nearly 70 years after Zaharias’ win, Grant was connected with a man named James Daniels, who had caddied for Zaharias in 1947. Daniels, who was Black, worked on an indentured plantation in Cordele, Georgia, until his father earned enough money to buy a Ford Model T with an extended bed, so that he could move 16 family members to Ormond Beach. Daniels was 11 years old when he arrived in Ormond in 1939, and he immediately started working in the kitchen at the Hotel Ormond, where he later was employed as a bellhop and longtime elevator operator. When he turned 13, he added caddying duties at the golf club.
Grant, who read the book that Daniels’ authored called “Metamorphosis: From Cotton Picker to Community Leader,” recalls one story where Black caddies weren’t allowed to be on the east side of the Halifax River, where the club was located, after dark, but they’d work late anyway, knowing that they’d get arrested and immediately released because they were kids.
Inspired by Daniels’ story, Grant asked Daniels to serve as The Sally’s honorary starter for several years until Daniels’ death in 2022 at 93 years old.
Remembering Marion Miley
Marion Miley was 21 years old when she toppled Jean Bauer, 5 and 4, in the 1935 Sally final. The “pretty brunette from Lexington, Kentucky,” as the Daytona Beach News-Journal called her, Miley shot 79 to capture medalist honors, then nearly aced the par-4 seventh in the final match. She received a bracelet for medaling and later a silver flower basket for winning the overall title, which came a year after she reached the semis in her Sally debut.
Miley, a celebrity of sorts, was once tabbed the most photographed golfer in the world, and her popularity was perhaps most evident when Bing Crosby traveled to watch her play in the 1935 Mexican Women’s Open.
At the 1935 Sally, Miley was already a three-time Kentucky Women’s Amateur championship, having captured her first of six titles when she was just 17 years old. She went on to win a couple Women’s Western Amateurs and the 1935 Women’s Trans-Miss, where she routed Patty Berg, 9 and 7. She’d lose to Berg three years later in the semifinals of the U.S. Women’s Amateur, her third loss at that championship in the quarters or later.
Miley had just bowed out in the third round of the 1941 U.S. Women’s Amateur days earlier when she returned home to Lexington Country Club, where she and her mother, Elsie, the club’s manager, lived in an apartment. Miley was about to start a job working for Standard Oil, which coincidentally was founded by Rockefeller and Flagler, and she was going over her contract while also helping her mom prepare for a dance at the club on the night of Sept. 27. Early that next morning, three men broke into the club looking to steal dance proceeds. They were met by a golf club-wielding Miley and her mom. During the struggle, Miley, 27, was shot and killed by one of the men, while Elsie, who was shot three times, died three days later at age 50. Berg was among those who attended Miley’s funeral.
The thieves, which included a club greenskeeper named Raymond Baxter and gunman Tom Penney, escaped with merely $140. They were later arrested, convicted and in 1943, executed via electric chair.
A gentle, helping hand
The final of the 1972 Sally matched a 24-year-old, tall blonde named Carol Semple against a 5-foot-3, University of Texas freshman in 19-year-old Nancy Hager, who had her boyfriend on the bag. Hager’s caddie also played golf for the Longhorns, was the reigning NCAA champion and would go on to win two Masters titles. Yes, Hager’s boyfriend at the time was Ben Crenshaw.
With Crenshaw looping in a driving, cold rain, Hager turned a 1-up lead at lunch into a convincing, 7-and-6 triumph of Semple, who would go on to win seven USGA championships and play on a dozen U.S. Curtis Cup teams. In 1971, Semple lost to her mom, Phyllis, in the Sally’s quarterfinals.
“I thought a couple times about quitting, but I just couldn’t conceive of doing that,” said Semple, who shared champagne on the floor with Hager after the match.
Hager, who was described by the Orlando Sentinel as a “cute, teenage Texan,” said of her victory: “This is the first major win I’ve ever had.”
Crenshaw, who would play his first Masters later that year and earn low-amateur honors with a T-19 finish, said of Hager: “Nancy played pretty good; chipped too strong at times but hit the ball well.”
Hager would attend the 1972 Masters, and she was quoted in the Sentinel bemoaning some mistakes by Crenshaw in Round 2:
“That was kind of dumb,” she said, referencing a missed 5-footer for par at No. 10. “He came up short on the slowest green on the course. He should have known to hit it harder there.”
“He missed the green six times and never got up and down. It’s pretty sad when you know you’re not going to make par unless you hit the green.”
“I’m sorry to see he used a putter,” she said after Crenshaw’s shot from just off the green at No. 12.
The Sentinel columnist, Jim Warters, coined Hager as “Crenshaw’s backseat golfer.” Hager also shared with Warters that her mom called Crenshaw’s coach, Harvey Pennick, to set she and Crenshaw up, and that Hager cut Crenshaw’s hair – “He’d kill me if he knew I told you,” Hager said. She added, “He’d probably have some fun if I weren’t here,” and the column closed with another incredible quote: “I’d rather watch Ben,” Hager said when asked if she’d follow Arnold Palmer that afternoon. “As far as I’m concerned, Palmer’s had it.”
In the birdie-making business
Lancy Smith won a record six Sally titles and is the only player to claim the tournament in both match- and stroke-play eras. Smith, first a Sally champ in 1970 and lastly in 1989, never won more than two in a row, though, a feat accomplished by Van Wie (1927-30) and Pruess, who also took three consecutive Sallys, from 1965-67, part of a run that saw Pruess win five times in seven years.
Smith was a dental technician for her father’s practice when she first showed on the Sally scene, but when her dad retired in 1980, Smith transitioned to running her own business – carving birds out of wood.
“I took classes at a craft school and started carving in 1977,” Smith said in 1989. “I had built up the business a little when my father retired. The change was that all of a sudden, I was my own boss. … I’m partial to chickadees. They’re very friendly birds.”
The good kind of hook
As Katie Peterson stood over her 6-foot par putt on the final hole to win the 1990 Sally, she had luck on her side.
Earlier in the week, however, she didn’t.
Peterson usually sported a fishhook on the brim of her hat, but during one of the early rounds, she lost the good-luck charm. She was devastated, Foley recalled, so Foley and Daytona Beach News-Journal writer Ken Willis, who covered The Sally for years, teamed up to look for the hook.
“We ended up finding it in the ladies’ bathroom out on the course,” Foley said. “She was very happy about that, and she had it back for the final round. That was a big find.”
Competitors battled crazy winds on the last day, so bad that Peterson, up by three after 54 holes, closed in 81 and still won. She bogeyed seven straight holes at one point and lost her solo lead multiple times. Runner-up Virginia Derby, who would later win Sally titles in 1998 and 2006, missed a 3-footer for par at No. 16 to drop a shot back.
Peterson prevailed at a whopping 12 over for the week.
“When I sank that putt, all I could do was smile,” Peterson said. “I knew it was over. I really concentrated about it going in, and it went in. I was so relieved.”
Goetze’s triple crown
Vicki Goetze was a phenom. At just 16 years old, she became the third-youngest U.S. Women’s Amateur champion in history when she beat Brandie Burton in the 1989 final at Pinehurst. She also was named the AJGA’s player of the year three straight times, from 1988-90.
In 1991, Foley desperately wanted Goetze to play in The Sally, so she phone Goetze’s mother, Irene, and offered to house Goetze for the week. With Irene and her husband, Gregg, both working in education, Vicki often traveled alone and needed host families at tournaments.
Goetze not only won The Sally that year, but she won it the following year, too. In 1992, she began the final round with a missed par putt from inside 2 feet, bogeyed her second hole and hit her tee shot out of bounds on the 11th to fall three shots behind local favorite Laura Brown. But Goetze clawed back, posting 73 to edge Brown by a shot.
“I don’t know what happened; all I know is it was ugly,” Goetze said afterward.
Amazingly, the two players who tied for third, Sarah Ingram and Carol Semple Thompson, finished 11 shots back of Goetze.
Goetze’s second Sally victory in as many tries – she ended her amateur career 2 for 2 in the event – sparked a run in 1992 that also saw Goetze capture the NCAA Championship and U.S. Women’s Amateur. She beat Annika Sorenstam in the final of the latter. To this day, Goetze remains the only player to win those three tournaments in the same year.
Goetze turned pro in 1993 as a two-time national player of the year and went on to play 16 years on the LPGA, though she never won. The closest she came was a playoff loss to Betsy King at the 2000 Corning Classic. Now Goetze-Ackerman, she serves as the LPGA’s player president.
Through the years, she’s also kept in touch with the Foleys. They attended her wedding, and she stayed with them several times as a pro, including for Q-Schools. On Monday evening, Goetze-Ackerman returned to Oceanside for the first time in over two decades to speak at the pairings party.
“I really didn’t know, back when I played, the history of this tournament,” Goetze-Ackerman said via phone on Monday night. “To know now that Babe Zaharias won this, and Patty Berg. That’s amazing. That’s amazing to be included on a list with them. It’s amazing to think that someone 100 years ago took the time and effort to put together this tournament at a time when women’s golf was not popular, when women’s sports was not popular, and for Oceanside to then embrace it for 100 years. Oceanside and The Sally really do a tremendous job of embracing all their players.
“I couldn’t tell you one single shot from the tournament, but I could tell you about my experiences with the Foleys and the other people here at the club, and that’s what it’s all about. It starts as you coming to a golf tournament, and then you develop relationships and those continue well beyond the tournament.”
Lexi wins by her age
Before she was Lexi Thompson, a 13-year-old Alexis Thompson put together a spirited run through the Orange Blossom circuit in 2009. She was the reigning champion of both the U.S. Girls’ Junior and Girls Junior PGA – and Golfweek’s top-ranked junior and amateur – when she finished second at the Harder Hall, a week before arriving at Oceanside.
Thompson, who would go on to capture the Jones/Doherty the following week, turned in a record performance at The Sally, winning by 13 shots, which remains the largest margin of victory in tournament history.
“There’s no limit for her, in my opinion,” Thompson’s instructor at the time, Jim McLean, told Golfweek. “By getting a few things cleaned up, she’s got the potential to be a top-5 player in the world, to be No. 1 in the world. I don’t know if that’s putting too much on her shoulders right now, but she has that kind of talent. She could do very well in LPGA events right now.”
Record-breaking Korda
The year after Thompson’s prolific victory, Jessica Korda achieved two Sally records of her own, shooting 13 under to win the 2010 edition. Korda’s 13-under total included a tournament-record 62 in the third round; both remain tournament-best marks.
“I love breaking records,” Korda said then, decked out in Curtis Cup gear. “There’s nothing better than knowing you have broken a record and your name will always be at the top until someone else beats it.”
Thompson shot 75 in the final round to miss out on back-to-back titles.
“I just don’t seem to have it right now,” Thompson told reporters afterward. “I’m not trusting shots, not hitting it where I want, and am not dedicated to the shot.”
And speaking of Kordas, Nelly is a Sally alum who made her debut in 2011 at just 12 years old – and finished her age. Her best finish came in 2015, when she finished second, four shots back of winner Sierra Brooks. Nelly, 16 at the time, was nine back of Brooks to start the final round before closing in 69.
“I went after every pin,” said Nelly, who had won the Harder Hall the previous week.
Sister act
Korda’s winning total was nearly matched in 2012 as Moriya Jutanugarn shot 12 under to beat her younger sister, Ariya, by three shots in a week that also included some scrutiny of the Thai sisters’ amateur statuses.
During the second round, the Jutanugarns’ parents met with USGA officials at Oceanside regarding concerns about the star amateurs potentially receiving financial sponsorship from and sporting logos for Siam Cement Group, a construction company out of Bangkok. The sisters were unaware of the meeting until after their rounds. Obviously, the rules of amateur status have since evolved majorly, though at the time, the SCG logos gained the attention of the governing body, which ultimately did not determine any wrongdoing.
The Jutanugarns, who would both turn pro toward the end of 2012, arrived at Oceanside having switched to Thai flags on their polos.
“It’s a team, but many people thought they gave the money for us,” Moriya told Golfweek. “I don’t want the problem anymore, so that’s why we just changed.”
With the USGA departed, Moriya started her final round bogey-double, falling a shot back of her sister, who was ranked as Golfweek’s top junior, a spot ahead of Moriya.
“It wasn’t fun the first two holes,” Moriya said. “I couldn’t do anything.”
But then she settled in, birdieing Nos. 5, 6 and 7 and retaking the lead for good. She birdied the ninth as well.
Moriya later said of Ariya: “She told me, ‘My putting’s so bad.’ I said, ‘Yes, I know. I see it.’ Her irons are pretty good. Every time, she hit closer than me, but she missed a lot of putts.”
Charley Hull, who had won that month’s Harder Hall, placed third, a year after finishing runner-up in her Sally debut.
Pair of future Canadian major winners
While Sandra Post was the first non-American winner of The Sally, in 1968, just months before she won the Women’s PGA as an LPGA rookie, she isn’t the only future major champion from Canada to lift the Sally’s trophy.
Two-time major winner Brooke Henderson captured The Sally in 2014, winning by four shots over runner-up Annabel Dimmock despite bogeying two of her last three holes. It was a wire-to-wire victory for the 16-year-old Henderson, who would turn pro at the end of that year but at the time said she was keen on playing college golf. In fact, Henderson visited both Florida and Miami while in the Sunshine State, and the month after winning at Oceanside, she verbally committed to the Gators.
“It’s a big decision, and now I can focus on the SATs and getting ready to go there,” Henderson told the Ottawa Citizen.
But Henderson found more success in 2014, finishing as the low amateur at the U.S. Women’s Open, runner-up at the U.S. Women’s Amateur, and then winning the World Amateur Team Championship. In December, she announced she was turning pro instead.
“I told the coach [Emily Glaser at Florida] a little while ago that it wasn’t going to be the right fit for me at this time,” Henderson told Golfweek. “I’ll always continue to be a fan and support their golf team there.”
‘A class act’
Clemente entered the final round in 2023 with a two-shot lead before promptly bogeying two of her first three holes. As Morgan Ketchum rallied with a flurry of late birdies, Clemente stood on the 18th tee box, just a shot clear of the field and knowing she needed to clutch up.
“I hit probably my best tee shot of the week,” said Clemente, who then wedged to 18 feet and two-putted for the narrow win.
What happened after that, Grant says, is something he’s rarely seen, especially from a 14-year-old.
“We hand her the trophy, do all the pictures, and then she asks, ‘Do you mind if I just walk around?’” Grant recalled. “She pulls out a dozen golf balls from her bag, signs them, and then starts handing them out to members. Talk about a class act.”