The first U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship was held at short notice, only one month after the 1895 U.S. Amateur and U.S. Open championships. The inaugural event was decided by stroke play, with Lucy Barnes Brown defeating her nearest opponent by two shots. The tournament changed to a match-play competition the following year and has remained so ever since.

The following notice appeared in the social column of a New York newspaper shortly after the first event: “Thirteen ladies played 18 holes of golf at the Meadow Brook Club, in Hempstead, recently. Mrs. Charles S. Brown, whose husband plays at the Shinnecock Hills Club, made the best score and thus won the United States championship for lady golfers.”

The Robert Cox Trophy is the oldest original USGA trophy and has been presented annually to the ladies’ champion since 1896. After awarding a silver pitcher to the first winner, the USGA was offered a permanent trophy by Robert Cox, a Scottish MP, on the condition that the next championship was played at Morris County Golf Club in New Jersey.

The USGA accepted his condition, along with the sterling silver trophy which incorporates an enamel thistle overlay and large inset gems. Detailed scenes of St. Andrews appear on the front and back badges, while the base includes a classic tartan pattern.

The most decorated champion is Glenna Collett Vare, who won the Cox Trophy a record six times between 1922 and 1935. JoAnne Gunderson Carner, 5-time winner between 1957 and 1968, also triumphed in two U.S. Women’s Opens and one U.S. Girls’ Junior, to give her eight USGA championships in total. Only Bobby Jones and Tiger Woods (each with nine) have more.

Eleven players have won both the U.S. Women’s Amateur and British Ladies’ Amateur and seven have won the U.S. Women’s Amateur and U.S. Women’s Open, the last of whom was Juli Inkster, who claimed the former titles in 1980, 1981 and 1982 and the latter in 1999 and 2002.

Rhode Island Country Club and Merion Golf Club have each hosted the event four times and half a dozen clubs have held the championships on three occasions: Brae Burn Country Club in West Newton, Massachusetts; Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, New Jersey; The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts; Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kansas; Waverley Country Club in Portland, Oregon; and Wee Burn Country Club in Darien, Connecticut.

Half a dozen courses no longer exist so you will not see them listed among the seventy-five entries below. They are the original Ardsley course (1898), the original Meadow Brook course (1895), Baltusrol’s Old course (1901 and 1911), Merion’s Haverford course (1904 and 1909), Philadelphia's original Bala course (1899) and Wilmington (1913). A further four other courses have staged the U.S. Women’s Amateur and we may list some or all of these clubs in the future.