Babe Zaharias - JuniorLinks

Girl Wonder
Babe could outdrive most women
golfers.
“I
expect to play golf
until I am 90 –
even longer if anybody
figures out a way to
swing a club from a
rocking chair!” 3
Babe’s athletic talent and her quick
sense of humor often made headlines
in the newspapers. Select headlines
from today's newspaper and rewrite
them so they convey the opposite
meaning. Do the opposite rewrites
convey a sense of humor
12
H U M O R
Babe dabbled a bit with golf in
high school, but renewed her
interest in 1932 while at the Los
Angeles Olympics. There, Babe
joined sportswriter, Grantland Rice,
and two other journalists for a
friendly golf match.
Even though she was focused
on the Olympics, she and Rice
won the match by a single
stroke.
During her barnstorming days,
Babe kept up her golf game by
practicing between exhibitions.
When the tour with the House of
David baseball team ended in the fall
of 1934, Babe returned to her job at
Employer’s Casualty. The company
president offered to pay for her
membership and golf lessons at the
Dallas Country Club.
Babe’s thoughts that winter focused
on the Texas State Women’s Amateur
Championship the following spring,
and she began to practice regularly.
“In the morning from
5:30 to 8:30, I would
practice. Then I’d go
to work and during
my lunch hour, I’d
practice putting in the
boss’s office … and
I’d chip balls into his
leather chair.” 2
After work Babe would
hit up to 1,500 balls until
her hands bled. She would
wrap them with tape and
continue drills until dark
when she returned home,
ate dinner and went to
bed with her book of
golf rules. “Study the
Babe was serious about having fun!
Character of a Champion: Babe Didrikson Zaharias
In 1947, Babe signed a lifetime
endorsement contract with Wilson
Sporting Goods Co.
rules,” she said later, “so that you
won’t beat yourself by not
knowing something.” 3
Babe’s entry into the
Texas state
championship, which
was to be held at a
fancy country club in
Houston, was rejected
at first. According to
the rules all players
had to belong to a
country club and her
memberships with
the clubs in Dallas
and Beaumont were
questioned.
The real
reason,
however, was
complaints by some ladies in the
Texas Women’s Golf Association
about Babe’s lack of social standing.
Babe was simply not a society girl.
Golf in those days was a game for
wealthy women with plenty of
leisure time and social status. Texas
socialite and golfer Peggy Chandler
called Babe a “truck driver’s
daughter” who had no place in the
tournament.
When Babe’s entry was finally
accepted, some women pulled out of
the tournament in protest. Babe kept
her sense of humor and put on quite
a show at a pre-tournament balldriving
contest, entertaining the
crowd with a silly swing, then
clubbing the ball over 250 yards to
really show her stuff. As luck would
have it, Babe’s rival in the
championship round was none other
than Peggy Chandler. Babe bested
the defending champion by two
strokes to win the tournament.
But the society girls weren’t done
yet. Some members of the Texas
Women’s Golf Association