A Demure Naked Lady Once Rewarded Golden Age Golfers

Bartlett Hills C.C. - June 15, 1929

It was the early summer of 1929 and America was in the last frothy throes of a decade-long period of economic prosperity.  Bobby Jones would soon soon win his third U.S. Open in a dramatic 36-hole playoff at Winged Foot, while Tillinghast put the finishing touches on Ridgewood Golf Course, and few months later... on the eve of the Wall Street Crash that would lead to the Great Depression... a baby boy by the name of Arnold Palmer was born in Youngstown, OH.

But on June 15, the golfers at Bartlett Hills Country Club were focused on the fairways and greens of their own course in the pastoral countryside outside of Chicago.  It was Glen Garry Dae and members were competing for a very distinctive trophy.  This was not a standard silver loving cup or a common engraved tray.

On that long ago summer day the winning golfer was rewarded with dainty bronze sculpture of a young lady.  She wasn't carrying a golf bag...or swinging a club, in fact, her pose had nothing whatsoever to do with the game. She appeard to be doing a kind of march-mimicking dance, her eyes demurely downcast ... oh, and for some strange reason she happened to be stark naked.

 Granted, the golf apparel of the day was not particularly flattering, and certainly would do nothing to highlight the ample attributes of this statue's attractive subject, but the integral nudity does seem a bit out-of-context for a golf trophy.

Now, nearly a century later the diminutive lady has lost much of her luster.  The once-proud figurine was recently up for auction on e-bay.  The discription mentioned "some wear to thigh and navel" which was visible in the accompanying photos.

In the end, the oddly endearing golf trophy sold for a modest $85.00.

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