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In 1996, Judy Bell, who has died aged 89, was made the first female president of the United States Golf Association. It had taken 102 years before the USGA could bring itself to appoint a woman to their top job, but when it did so, it got it right.
Bell was a good golfer, an even better administrator and diplomat, and someone with whom it was always a delight to talk about the game. She was extremely knowledgeable about all aspects of her sport and it was characteristic that she spent much of her time as president, until 1999, encouraging its spread in areas from which it had been excluded, including the inner cities.
Right from the time she joined the USGA executive committee in 1987 she had travelled thousands of miles per year to encourage the creation of reasonably priced public facilities in the cities.
She also helped to build short courses to bring children into golf, and while she was aware that these were necessarily long-term projects, she said: “If we don’t even try then we’ve wasted a wonderful opportunity to truly make golf an all-inclusive sport. I believe that the USGA has to be for all golfers. If we’re the governing body of the sport we really do have to look out for everyone.”
Bell’s views were refreshing in an organisation that was perceived as mostly being concerned about the eastern establishment, the button-down shirt and blue blazer brigade. She disconcerted some of them, both for being a woman where none had gone before, and because she was never afraid to express an opinion. However, she claimed that she never felt any ill will.
“I never looked at golf in a gender way,” she said. “I grew up with three brothers and I’ve played golf with boys and men all my life. The committee made me feel comfortable from the day I arrived, and although I won’t say they hung on every word, my brothers didn’t either.”
Born in Wichita, Kansas, Judy was the youngest of four children, and the only daughter, of Mariam, a community volunteer, and Carl Bell, a businessman. She began to play golf at the age of seven with some cut-down hickory-shafted clubs. She loved to tell of how she won her first tournament with a score of 72 and took the girls’ prize. When the listener looked suitably impressed she would reveal that it was a nine-hole competition – and there were no other girls playing.
Her humour sustained her throughout an amateur career that featured two appearances in the most prestigious team trophy for women amateurs, the Curtis Cup, in which she played for victorious US sides against Great Britain & Ireland in 1960 and 1962. She halved her 1960 match at Lindrick in Nottinghamshire, and in 1962, when the match was played on home territory at Colorado Springs, was part of a US team that won 8-1. The one, however, was Bell, who lost her singles match to Diane Frearson (later Bailey).
The two were to meet up again 24 years later when, in 1986, they were the opposing non-playing captains in a Curtis Cup match at Prairie Dunes in Kansas. Great Britain & Ireland played some inspired golf and, in winning, became the first golf team from the British Isles, male or female, professional or amateur, to win in the US.
The Cup was retained by Great Britain & Ireland in 1988, but not once on either occasion did Bell show anything other than the utmost good grace, earning the respect of all concerned. Carol Semple Thompson, a 12-time USA Curtis Cup team member, said Bell “was the most fun captain I had in my playing career”.
Earlier in her years as a top-line amateur golfer, Bell had reached the quarter-finals of the US Women’s amateur championship three times in the 1950s, and in 1964, in the third round of the US Women’s Open, she posted a 67, a record low score that stood for 14 years.
Turning her hand to administration, she chaired the USGA’s women’s committee from 1981 to 1984, joined the main executive committee three years later, became treasurer in 1991, was secretary (1992-93) and then vice-president (1994-95).
After she stepped up to become the USGA’s 54th president, Bell achieved another first when she became the first USGA president not to be invited to become a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club.
A better candidate to have been the first female member of the all-male club could hardly have been imagined, and the decision not to include her infuriated some. Not Bell, however. Her quiet dignity did her immense credit and was in sharp contrast to those who had demeaned her office.
In 2001 she was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. In 2015 the R&A, which had changed its policy on women in 2014, made Bell an honorary member.
She is survived by three nieces and four nephews.
Judy Bell, golfer and administrator, born 23 September 1936; died 3 November 2025
