Peggy Kirk Bell-LPGA Legend

Today I'm going to talk about one of the LPGA's first members, Peggy Kirk Bell. Born in Findlay, Ohio, Peggy Kirk Bell began playing golf at the age of seventeen. She played on the Rollins College golf team in 1941-1942, and graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Physical Education. During her golf career, purses were so low that she learned how to fly planes and bought her own for $8,000 to help get around to tournaments without having to pay for gas.

Mrs. Bell had one of the best amateur careers to date, including three Ohio Amateurs, the 1949 Titleholders Championship, the North and South Womens Amateur, and the 1950 Eastern Amateur. She was also a member of the 1950 Curtis Cup team and the Weathervane international team. She turned pro in late 1950, and her career best finish was fifteenth. She received the LPGA Teacher of the Year award in 1951 and the 1965 Janet Olsen Hole-in-One award.

In 1952, she and her husband Warren "Bullet" Bell, purchased Pine Needles, a golf lodge located in the Sandhills of North Carolina. Two years after purchasing Pine Needles, Mrs. Bell gave birth to her first child Bonnie Kirk. She also had two other children, Peggy Ann and Warren Kirk. In 2007, she started a girls-only junior league called the "Peggy Kirk Bell Girls Tour". The tour is based in North Carolina and has an annual stop at Pine Needles.

So, there you have it--a short, to-the-point bio of Peggy Kirk Bell, who, in my opinion, is one of the most talented woman golfers ever.

Peggy Kirk Bell Girls Golf Tour

In this post I would like to talk about the Peggy Kirk Bell Girls Golf tour. Peggy Kirk Bell was a recipient of the Bob Jones Award in 1990 and won the Titleholders Championship in 1949. You can read more about Peggy Kirk Bell in GolferGirl's post.

Here is a little more about the tour:

The tour season starts in January and ends in November with events almost every weekend. Each event, as well as a season long points race, is split into two divisions, Bell and Futures. The points race is called the "Order of Merit" and is based on results from each event. Each division is also eligible for Jr. Scoreboard points and AJGA exemptions.

Here is a little more about the the two divisions and things listed above:

BELL DIVISION

• Competitive division for girls preparing for college golf
• Yardages: 5,700 – 6,000 yards
• Scoring Requirement: Players are expected to be able to score 85 or better from Red tees
• Eligible for season-long Bell Division Order of Merit Standings
• Eligible for AJGA Performance Based Exemptions at all 36-hole events & Order of Merit Standings Champion
• Eligible for Jr Golf Scoreboard Ranking points at all 36-hole events
• Eligible for TYGA State Ranking Points at specified events

FUTURES DIVISION

• Developmental division for girls playing in and preparing for high school golf
• Yardages: 4,800 –5,100 yards
• Scoring Requirement: Players are expected to be able to score 110 or better from Red tees
• Modified Rules at 1-day Tournaments
• Eligible for season-long Futures Division Order of Merit Standings
• Eligible for AJGA JR All-Star Exemption at Spring Tour Championship & Order of Merit Standings Champion
• Eligible for Jr Golf Scoreboard Ranking points at all 36-hole events

That pretty much sums it up, but from my perspective, here are the big highlights:

• Girls get to play in a highly competitive league, that focuses 100 percent on the girls playing. No boys to snatch up the better courses, or get the bigger trophies!
• Girls get a feeling for playing without a caddie, much like college golf
• Girls get to play nice courses at full length

As I mentioned above, Girls get to play courses at full length. I say that because a lot of leagues play nine holes and play at shortened distances. That is my favorite thing about the Peggy Kirk Bell tour.

So I pretty much covered it all! If you live in North Carolina, South Carolina or Virginia, or any state really, please consider playing a tournament or two! Thanks for reading!

PKB links:
Peggy Kirk Bell Tour Website
Peggy Kirk Bell on Wikipedia
GolferGirl's post about Peggy Kirk Bell.

Driveway Reflectors--An Inexpensive Golf Training Tool

If you watch the pros, you'll notice a lot of them have yellow or orange striped sticks to warm-up with. Well, the secret is these striped sticks are really just driveway reflectors that can be found at hardware stores such as Lowe's and Home Depot for about $1.99. They are great when hitting balls on the range, or when warming-up for a tournament. They are light-weight, and you can easily carry them in your bag. Below is a list of how to use them:

• With one stick, you can either line up your feet by setting the stick just in front of your toes and aiming it just left of the target, or put it outside your clubhead and aim it just to the right of the target.
• With two sticks, you can either put one to line up your toes and the other to line up your clubhead, or put one just inside your clubhead and the other just outside your clubhead.
• If you have two, you can work on a fade by either aiming the stick in front of your toes a little more to the left, and keep the one just outside your clubhead aimed at the target, or you can also put one stick on the inside of your clubhead and one on the ouside and aim them both just a little left of the target, but keep the face open a little. You can also do the opposite to work on your draw.

Something else you can do is use these sticks for a putting drill.

• Putting Drill: Put your stick about one and a half feet behind the hole and try putting three balls and keep each one between the hole and the stick. This is a great drill for working on your pace.

These sticks are very useful, and I recommend you pick up at least one.

Skorts--The Girl Golfers Fashion Necessity

As a girl golfer, fashion is important to me, but clothing, skirts especially, in small sizes, are hard to find. Sometimes it can be hard to find a reasonably priced store with good classy golf skorts, and by "classy" I mean one that is good looking, comes down at least close to your knees, fits well and is comfortable, yeah, that can be hard to find! So I recommend searching around online, and remember even if it's not a golf skirt or skort, it can still work for playing golf.
But when buying, keep in mind that even though you want to be fashionable, you will be playing golf. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
White is a nice, plain, easy to match color, but on bad weather days, sometimes mud stains just seem to appear, and never disappear! So on those days where every divot you take sprays mud all over you, go for a darker skirt, and maybe one thats easily washable.
I also recommend plain, not super outrageous colors so they match with anything.