Golf club honours the legacy of 'Wee Jessie'

A Perthshire golf club has commemorated one of Britain's most successful female golfers.

- GORDON BANNERMAN

Blairgowrie Golf Club has collated a series of photographs reflecting the honours-strewn career of Jessie Valentine, who was voted the world’s number one lady golfer in 1937, at the age of 22.

‘Wee Jessie,’ as she was affectionately known, died in 2006 at the age of 91, but her legacy paved the way for generations of girl and women golfers.

Her son Iain, a Blairgowrie member and former chief executive of the Hong Kong Golf Association, joined other family members and guests for the unveiling of the ‘Jessie Valentine Wall’ in the clubhouse dining room, with Jessie's biographer, Dr Eve Soulsby, reflecting on her remarkable career.

Ladies captain Margaret Marshall said the restaurant had long been named after Jessie but a visit to the ‘Home of Golf’ sowed the seeds of the project.