Orlando Women’s Golf Association

In 1927, a small group of Orlando women came together with an idea: to meet once a week for a round of golf and an opportunity to socialize. One hundred years later, the organization they created is still bringing women together on golf courses throughout Central Florida.

Over the course of a century, the Orlando Women’s Golf Association has witnessed enormous changes in both Orlando and the game of golf. Courses have opened and closed, equipment and handicapping have evolved, and the way tournaments are organized has moved from paper and telephone calls to online registration and electronic scoring.

Through it all, OWGA has endured.

The idea for the Orlando Women’s Golf Association was conceived over a cup of tea by Mrs. George Strickland of the Country Club of Orlando and Mrs. Carl Dann Jr. of Dubsdread Country Club. Their friend Vida Miller helped organize the new association.

Approximately 20 women joined during the first year, with play rotating between the Country Club of Orlando and Dubsdread Country Club.

An early history of OWGA reports that the men did not want the women on the golf courses. The women were undeterred. They organized their association, established weekly play and began a tradition that would continue for generations.

Mrs. George Strickland served as OWGA’s first president.

Membership originally had just two requirements: a woman had to have a handicap of 36 or better and be a year-round member of either the Country Club of Orlando or Dubsdread Country Club.

In 1936, Eloise Scott became the first OWGA Champion, beginning one of the Association’s longest-running competitive traditions.

Regular OWGA play continued with one significant interruption.

For approximately five years during World War II, members reportedly put aside their golf clubs and volunteered their time to the American Red Cross.

Following the war, regular play resumed as Orlando entered a period of significant growth.

During the 1950s, Dubsdread Country Club hosted the National Mixed Two-Ball Tournament for several years. The event attracted prominent players from both the men’s and women’s professional tours, including the legendary Babe Didrikson Zaharias.

OWGA members supported the tournament through ticket sales, with proceeds helping support the women’s State Tournament when it was held at Dubsdread.

OWGA’s involvement demonstrated that its members were contributing not only to their own organization but also to the broader development of women’s competitive golf in Central Florida.

In the early 1960s, members began including their husbands in some OWGA activities.

For several years, a formal dance became part of the season’s program, and mixed best-ball events were occasionally held on Sundays.

Those activities were eventually discontinued, but they offer a glimpse of the social life surrounding OWGA during that era and of the relationships that developed beyond the weekly tournaments.

Over the years, numerous trophies were donated to OWGA. Among them were the Art Millea Trophy, Rose Skillman Trophy, Margo Riley Trophy and Denny Champagne Trophy.

The Denny Champagne Trophy is awarded to the winner of OWGA’s Handicap Tournament Championship, one of the Association’s two Major individual championships.

The other Major is the OWGA Championship.

In 2016, the OWGA Championship Trophy was renamed the Peggy Brass OWGA Championship Trophy, honoring one of the most accomplished golfers in the Association’s history.

Peggy Brass’s record holds a special place in OWGA history.

By 1998, she had already won the OWGA Championship 22 times. When she retired from competition in 2016 after 50 years of OWGA membership, she had captured an extraordinary 24 OWGA Championships.

Renaming the championship trophy in her honor in 2016 permanently linked her name with the Association’s premier individual championship.

Together, the Peggy Brass OWGA Championship Trophy and the Denny Champagne Handicap Tournament Trophy represent OWGA’s two Major individual championship traditions.

As Central Florida grew, so did OWGA.

By 1998, the Association had 110 members representing 28 participating clubs throughout the greater Orlando area.

Membership requirements had changed substantially since 1927. The original handicap requirement of 36 or better had evolved by 1998 to a maximum 14.3 Handicap Index, reflecting the competitive level of OWGA play.

The geographic reach of the organization expanded as well. Members were traveling as far as 40 miles to participate in Tuesday tournaments during the September-through-May season.

The willingness to make those drives said something important about OWGA: members valued both the quality of the competition and the relationships they had developed with one another.

Today, OWGA members play more than 30 courses during a season, with a schedule stretching from Daytona to Celebration and as far north as Howey-in-the-Hills.

Technology helps make an organization covering such a large area possible.

OWGA’s website provides tournament schedules and results, event information and member information, while also preserving the Association’s mission and history. Online registration and electronic scoring have transformed tournament administration and made communication among members faster and easier.

Technology has changed how OWGA operates—not why it exists.

In 2027, the Orlando Women’s Golf Association celebrates its 100th anniversary.

The milestone belongs to generations of women: the founders who created the Association, the champions whose names appear on its trophies, the officers and volunteers who kept it running, and the members who showed up week after week and year after year.

They played through nearly a century of change in Orlando and in the game itself. They welcomed new members, traveled to new courses, established traditions and passed responsibility for the Association from one generation to the next.

The women who gathered over a cup of tea in 1927 could not have known that the organization they were creating would still be thriving a century later.

As OWGA enters its second century, its methods will continue to evolve and new generations of golfers will add their own chapters to its history.

But its focus remains clear:

Good golf. Good friends. Supporting the community.

That is the legacy of the Orlando Women’s Golf Association—and the foundation for its next hundred years.