Death of Fox

To an old lady who loved to play golf Death came last week.

Mrs. Caleb F. Fox of Elkins Park, Pa. (near Philadelphia), was the old lady. In 1895, she played in the first Women's National and scored 132. In the years after that she was seen walking briskly from tee to green on almost every golf course in the land. Dresses changed and women golfers got better. Golf became the national game and hoydens of 16 got so they could hit 200-yard drives. Mrs. Fox was not discouraged. As she got older, she took to wearing shorter dresses, walking a little faster, and hitting the ball a little harder. Girl champions appeared played for a few years, then got married and forgot their mashies. Not so Mrs. Fox. She continued to play in every important tournament. When she won, no one was surprised.

A new generation of sport writers looked at this immortal creature scampering about in and out of bunkers, laying approaches dead to the pin and holing 15-foot putts. "The grand old lady of golf," they cried, with customary rudeness. Mr.s. Fox, not in the least embarrassed, went on playing her steady, irreproachable game. Sixteen years ago she became a grandmother. "Afternoon naps?" she said. "None of it for me." In 1923, when she was 62, Mrs. Fox played in the Belleair Heights, Fla., tournament. In the finals she had a medal score of 77 which beat famed Glenna Collett, her opponent, 2 and i.

Strangely enough, Mrs. Fox, though she won almost every other amateur U.S. women's event in the east, never won the National. She might have done so, had she lived a little longer.