Amateur golfer
By Leslie Gibson McCarthy
Photograph by Peter Newcomb
Ellen Port didn’t pick up a club until she was in her early twenties, yet she’s one of the top amateur golfers to come out of the St. Louis area, with four national amateur titles and two international Curtis Cup appearances. Today, as a mother of two, she still finds time to work full time as a teacher and coach at John Burroughs School.
Boone Valley Golf Club, in Augusta, Mo., will play host to the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, a five-day event that will attract junior golfers from all over the country July 23–28. To get a handle on amateur golf in theSt. Louis area before the big tournament, we caught up with Port at the Sunset Country Club, where the amateur champion warmly greets everyone she knows.
Was there a moment on a golf course when you thought, “Wow, I’m pretty good at this”? Never! [Laughs.] Early on, I just had no clue. I remember I took my 7-iron and could hit it 150 yards. It was my dad’s old Wilson Staff Blade. I didn’t know at the time how difficult that was. In my early days, Terry Hauser and Phil Hewitt were the two pros that really got me started and believed in me.
So there was no overnight success? My progression was like a storybook, where every year I got better. I worked my way up by 1993 or ’94 to be good enough to play for my country on the Curtis Cup team, and I hadn’t started playing until 1987 or ’88. As I was doing it, I didn’t appreciate what I was accomplishing, because I wasn’t a golfer, but the success I had in a short period of time was something I really look at as one of the small miracles in my life—a gift from God. It just doesn’t happen that way.
Could it happen again? I can honestly say there won’t be many people who pick up the game when I did, [at] 23 or 24, that will be amateurs in the true sense of the word—have a job, have a family—and still have an opportunity to play on a Curtis Cup team. When I started, the depth of the field was not that strong, so there was still an open door.
Do you ever wonder what would have happened if you’d picked up a club earlier? There’s no doubt I could have turned pro, and if I had, I probably could have experienced some success. In the early ’90s I hooked up with a really good teacher, Hank Haney—Tiger Woods’ coach—and he had quite a reputation even then. I enjoyed the pursuit. But not turning pro? I have no regrets.
How do you approach a round? I always play against myself. It’s you against the course; that’s what attracts a good golfer. You play against par, against your emotion and your expectation—that’s the addiction. The ultimate beauty of golf is that you’re going against the course and you’re going against your emotion, and then you’re battling the physical ability of trying to produce the golf shot. I don’t know if there’s anything better.
How do you juggle being a working mom with a golf career? The biggest support is my husband. I would not have been able to do any of this without Andy.
How does St. Louis compare as a golf town, in terms of courses and opportunities for young players? The golf community is very supportive of one another. It’s a small world, and we share in each other’s successes, but I wouldn’t rank St. Louis among the top for producing young golfers. We have a lot of private clubs. Some states have a strong public golf system, especially in the South because of the weather. Plus, golf competes against other spring sports, such as lacrosse and baseball. At Burroughs, a lot of my best athletes who would be very good golfers are on the baseball team.
What’s the best way to watch the juniors at Boone Valley? There are two ways to watch a golf tournament: You either find the big name and follow, or you can sit at a hole. You can plant yourself at Hole 13, up on the hill, and watch kids come through all day. You’re going to see balls in the water; you’re going to see balls off the tee in the creek; you’re going to see balls fly over the green into the rocks. That hole would be phenomenal to watch. Plus, there are the aesthetics—just to go out and see that golf course is worth the trip.
