You could say she was the Belle of the dimpled ball.
In a golfing career jam-packed with prizes and plaudits, Belle Robertson probably thought she'd seen it all but this funny old game can still throw up the odd surprise.
Getting an invitation from the Royal & Ancient Golf Club asking her to become one of the first female honorary members was the biggest surprise of the lot. "I've known since around Christmas time and it was like having all the presents around the tree and not being able to open them," reflected the decorated 78-year-old last night. "I wasn't allowed to tell anyone. It was a great surprise."
Robertson, a farmer's daughter from Kintyre who learned her craft at the delightful Dunaverty Golf Club and became one of the amateur game's most prolific champions, was among seven honorary women members unveiled by the R&A earlier this week in a varied list that also includes Dame Laura Davies and The Princess Royal. Now there's a thought. A Belle, a Dame and a Princess wolfing into poached eggs and mince in the R&A clubhouse after the spring meeting? The fustier elements of the membership won't know what's hit them.
"I won't be playing in R&A competitions, that's out of my league," confirmed a smiling Robertson who was still playing off a handicap of two at the Troon Ladies' club until recently. "I hope to play more friendly golf this year, but no competitive golf. A monthly medal would be like a British Championship now."
From her original home on the remote, southerly tip of the Kintyre peninsula, Robertson would make the kind of epic journeys that would've made Phileas Fogg gasp as she competed here, there and everywhere on the amateur circuit. "If you were going to an event in England, it took you a whole day just to get to Carlisle," she added. The distances were certainly not a barrier to success and neither was her age as her glittering career developed. She won the last of her three Scottish Ladies' Strokeplay Championships at a sprightly 50. Before that, of course, there were bountiful triumphs. Robertson claimed seven Scottish Women's Amateur Matchplay Championships - one more than the haul racked up by the great Jessie Valentine - as well as the British Ladies' Matchplay crown and a trio of British Ladies' Strokeplay titles. Further afield - and a heck of a drive from Southend - she also lifted the Amateur Championship of New Zealand. In the team arena, Robertson represented GB&I in nine Curtis Cups, as both player and captain, but it wasn't until that ninth, and last, appearance in the biennial bout with the USA in Kansas in 1986 that the Scot tasted victory as the visitors won for the first time in 30 years. Good things come to those who wait. Rather like the R&A membership.
"I think I would say there's nothing to beat coming off the golf course after winning a big championship," she said. "But after a week or 10 days you've forgotten. I don't think I'll forget this. It's a fantastic honour to be in such a group of honorary R&A women members."
In the build-up to Augusta National becoming the first high-profile male-only club to admit female members a couple of years ago, the boisterous protests outside the gates by the fist-shaking feminist activist, Martha Burke, gained global attention. Robertson is from a more gentler generation.
"It's good that it (female membership of the R&A) is happening now though, and maybe it's better doing it in a more respectful way rather than the Martha Burke way, all shouting and screaming," she said. "In a way, I feel a little sorry for the male clubs because of the history and tradition behind them. Golf has more history and tradition than any other sport."
While elated with this latest honour that has been bestowed upon her, Robertson, who was awarded an MBE for services to golf in 1973, expressed the poignancy behind the pride. "It's just a pity my husband, Ian, didn't live long enough to see this," she said. "He would have been delighted."
There will be many delighted for this great ambassador for Scottish golf.
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