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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 \u201cfamily-like atmosphere,\u201d saying that Oceanside\u2019s members will \u201cdo anything for the players,\u201d 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 \u2013 cold, windy and often wet.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone in Ormond jokes that the coldest week of the year will be the week of The Sally,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
The Sally, Grant hopes, will continue to gain traction.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019ve got something going here,\u201d Grant said, \u201cother than sometimes you can\u2019t predict the weather in January in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adds Eggers: \u201cThere\u2019s no commercial driver. There\u2019s no profit motive. It\u2019s just true amateur sports at a really high level and for the love of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been that way for 100 years.<\/p>\n
To mark the special anniversary, here is a collection of a century\u2019s worth of Sally stories:<\/p>\n
And the first Sally goes to…<\/p>\n
Golf tournaments at Oceanside predate the inaugural South Atlantic Women\u2019s Amateur, including the 1925 Ormond Beach Women\u2019s Tournament, which was won, coincidentally, by a gal named Sally.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Amateur champion, in the 18-hole final, 2 and 1. The match was played in a \u201ccold spray,\u201d wrote Daytona Beach writer Ed Sullivan, and in front of 200 \u201centhusiasts.\u201d Sterrett shot a \u201cbrilliant\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Amateur titles. She shattered the course record in qualifying, firing 79, after which Rockefeller handed her one of his famous dimes; he\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Klotz successfully defended her Sally title the next year before Van Wie rattled off three straight wins, from 1928-1930.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Babe\u2019s dominant run<\/p>\n Babe Zaharias won 17 straight tournaments from 1946-47, a streak that not only included the 1946 U.S. Women\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Zaharias\u2019 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\u2019s 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 \u201cnear riot,\u201d 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\u2019 side won an 18-hole playoff, 3 and 2.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to be the best woman golf player in the world if I can,\u201d Zaharias was quoted in the Palm Beach Post-Times ahead of the 18-hole final, which Zaharias would capture, 5 and 4.<\/p>\n The lede of the Morning Journal the next morning began: \u201cToying with her outclassed adversary like a master angler playing a gamefish\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n That would be Zaharias\u2019 last Sally appearance, as she would turn professional later in 1947.<\/p>\n Nearly 70 years after Zaharias\u2019 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.<\/p>\n Grant, who read the book that Daniels\u2019 authored called \u201cMetamorphosis: From Cotton Picker to Community Leader,\u201d recalls one story where Black caddies weren\u2019t allowed to be on the east side of the Halifax River, where the club was located, after dark, but they\u2019d work late anyway, knowing that they\u2019d get arrested and immediately released because they were kids.<\/p>\n Inspired by Daniels\u2019 story, Grant asked Daniels to serve as The Sally\u2019s honorary starter for several years until Daniels\u2019 death in 2022 at 93 years old.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Remembering Marion Miley<\/p>\n Marion Miley was 21 years old when she toppled Jean Bauer, 5 and 4, in the 1935 Sally final. The \u201cpretty brunette from Lexington, Kentucky,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s Open.<\/p>\n At the 1935 Sally, Miley was already a three-time Kentucky Women\u2019s Amateur championship, having captured her first of six titles when she was just 17 years old. She went on to win a couple Women\u2019s Western Amateurs and the 1935 Women\u2019s Trans-Miss, where she routed Patty Berg, 9 and 7. She\u2019d lose to Berg three years later in the semifinals of the U.S. Women\u2019s Amateur, her third loss at that championship in the quarters or later.<\/p>\n Miley had just bowed out in the third round of the 1941 U.S. Women\u2019s Amateur days earlier when she returned home to Lexington Country Club, where she and her mother, Elsie, the club\u2019s 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\u2019s funeral.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A gentle, helping hand<\/p>\n 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\u2019s caddie also played golf for the Longhorns, was the reigning NCAA champion and would go on to win two Masters titles. Yes, Hager\u2019s boyfriend at the time was Ben Crenshaw.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s quarterfinals.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought a couple times about quitting, but I just couldn\u2019t conceive of doing that,\u201d said Semple, who shared champagne on the floor with Hager after the match.<\/p>\n Hager, who was described by the Orlando Sentinel as a \u201ccute, teenage Texan,\u201d said of her victory: \u201cThis is the first major win I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n Crenshaw, who would play his first Masters later that year and earn low-amateur honors with a T-19 finish, said of Hager: \u201cNancy played pretty good; chipped too strong at times but hit the ball well.\u201d<\/p>\n Hager would attend the 1972 Masters, and she was quoted in the Sentinel bemoaning some mistakes by Crenshaw in Round 2:<\/p>\n \u201cThat was kind of dumb,\u201d she said, referencing a missed 5-footer for par at No. 10. \u201cHe came up short on the slowest green on the course. He should have known to hit it harder there.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe missed the green six times and never got up and down. It\u2019s pretty sad when you know you\u2019re not going to make par unless you hit the green.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry to see he used a putter,\u201d she said after Crenshaw\u2019s shot from just off the green at No. 12.<\/p>\n The Sentinel columnist, Jim Warters, coined Hager as \u201cCrenshaw\u2019s backseat golfer.\u201d Hager also shared with Warters that her mom called Crenshaw\u2019s coach, Harvey Pennick, to set she and Crenshaw up, and that Hager cut Crenshaw\u2019s hair \u2013 \u201cHe\u2019d kill me if he knew I told you,\u201d Hager said. She added, \u201cHe\u2019d probably have some fun if I weren\u2019t here,\u201d and the column closed with another incredible quote: \u201cI\u2019d rather watch Ben,\u201d Hager said when asked if she\u2019d follow Arnold Palmer that afternoon. \u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned, Palmer\u2019s had it.\u201d<\/p>\n In the birdie-making business<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Smith was a dental technician for her father\u2019s practice when she first showed on the Sally scene, but when her dad retired in 1980, Smith transitioned to running her own business \u2013 carving birds out of wood.<\/p>\n \u201cI took classes at a craft school and started carving in 1977,\u201d Smith said in 1989. \u201cI had built up the business a little when my father retired. The change was that all of a sudden, I was my own boss. \u2026 I\u2019m partial to chickadees. They\u2019re very friendly birds.\u201d<\/p>\n The good kind of hook<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Earlier in the week, however, she didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe ended up finding it in the ladies\u2019 bathroom out on the course,\u201d Foley said. \u201cShe was very happy about that, and she had it back for the final round. That was a big find.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Peterson prevailed at a whopping 12 over for the week.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I sank that putt, all I could do was smile,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cI knew it was over. I really concentrated about it going in, and it went in. I was so relieved.\u201d<\/p>\n Goetze\u2019s triple crown<\/p>\n Vicki Goetze was a phenom. At just 16 years old, she became the third-youngest U.S. Women\u2019s Amateur champion in history when she beat Brandie Burton in the 1989 final at Pinehurst. She also was named the AJGA\u2019s player of the year three straight times, from 1988-90.<\/p>\n In 1991, Foley desperately wanted Goetze to play in The Sally, so she phone Goetze\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what happened; all I know is it was ugly,\u201d Goetze said afterward.<\/p>\n Amazingly, the two players who tied for third, Sarah Ingram and Carol Semple Thompson, finished 11 shots back of Goetze.<\/p>\n Goetze\u2019s second Sally victory in as many tries \u2013 she ended her amateur career 2 for 2 in the event \u2013 sparked a run in 1992 that also saw Goetze capture the NCAA Championship and U.S. Women\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s player president.<\/p>\n Through the years, she\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI really didn\u2019t know, back when I played, the history of this tournament,\u201d Goetze-Ackerman said via phone on Monday night. \u201cTo know now that Babe Zaharias won this, and Patty Berg. That\u2019s amazing. That\u2019s amazing to be included on a list with them. It\u2019s amazing to think that someone 100 years ago took the time and effort to put together this tournament at a time when women\u2019s golf was not popular, when women\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t 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\u2019s what it\u2019s all about. It starts as you coming to a golf tournament, and then you develop relationships and those continue well beyond the tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lexi wins by her age<\/p>\n 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\u2019 Junior and Girls Junior PGA \u2013 and Golfweek\u2019s top-ranked junior and amateur \u2013 when she finished second at the Harder Hall, a week before arriving at Oceanside.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no limit for her, in my opinion,\u201d Thompson\u2019s instructor at the time, Jim McLean, told Golfweek. \u201cBy getting a few things cleaned up, she\u2019s got the potential to be a top-5 player in the world, to be No. 1 in the world. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Screenshot](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767806181_615_.png\")
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