Clarrie's
swing sequence using stop-motion photography was published in
The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News on the 8 July 1938
and is reproduced below. As the article pointed out , Clarrie
took the ball on the outside of her left foot contrary to accepted
teaching, even now. Using the palm grip, preferred by most lady
golfers at the time, she achieved a good position at the top of
the back swing despite a slightly shut clubface and the position
near impact was, according to the article, excellent. The right
hand takes over at impact to generate the power in the shot. While
flawed, the results, given her standing as the best Irish lady
golfer just before the war, are irrefutable.
Born
Clarrie Tiernan near the village of Baltray on the 3 July 1916
she first came to prominence in 1935 when, at the prestigous Worplesdon
Mixed Foursomes, she and her partner made it through to the fifth
round. In 1936 Clarrie won the Irish Ladies' Championship in Ballybunion
and while travelling to the US the following year, won the New
Jersey State Championship.
Clarrie
Tiernan was the person considered most likely to take Janet Jackson's
throne. Patrick Campbell in his Irish Times articles; "Round
Ireland with a Golf Bag", written in 1936, played with Clarrie
on his visit to the County Louth Golf Club, affectionately know
as Baltray. Clarrie quickly addressed any preconceived notions
he might have had about women's golf by casually playing the course
in seventy-six strokes. It was customary to believe that the equalisation
of male and female golfers required nine shots and Campbell figured
he would have lost the match at the tenth if he were to give this
fourball opponent that cushion. Clarrie won her native title later
that year but Campbell, who was no slouch at the game either,
felt it wasn't a matter of when her reign would start but how
long it would last.
In 1938
Clarrie was selected for the Curtis Cup team to play the US at
the Essex Country Club in Massachusetts where she won both her
matches, securing the only victory in the singles for the GB&I
team with a 2 and 1 win over Maureen Orcutt. In the same year
Clarrie lost her third round match in the US Ladies' Amateur Championship.
War
broke out when Clarrie was just beginning to peak and as a result,
many believe, she never achieved her true potential and in 1944
her victory in the Leinster Championship was to be her first of
many confrontations with Philomena Garvey.
In 1946
the Irish Championship was re-instated and Clarrie was in the
classic duel with Philomena Garvey at Lahinch but one she eventually
lost by a stymie on the 39th hole but not before making a near
miraculous comeback from being six down with nine holes left to
play. They were to meet again on three further occasions in the
Championship, in 1947 Clarrie lost her semi-final match to Phil
on the 19th and lost to her again in 1948 in the finals and later
in 1962 in an earlier round when the Championship was played at
Baltray.
In 1947
Clarrie played the legendary Mildred "Babe" Zaharias
at the British Amateur in Gullane but nobody could deny the long
hitting Texas girl her victory that year. By the 1950s Clarrie
had very much scaled back her involvement in competitive golf.
Despite this, Clarrie had won the Leitrim Cup, the strokeplay
curtain-raiser to the Irish Championship, so many times that by
1953 she won it outright and it had to be replaced for the 1954
championship.
Probably
Clarrie's greatest achievement was in 1949 as runner-up to Frances
Stephens in the British Ladies' Amateur Championship. The previous
year she was selected again for the Curtis Cup team which was
played at Royal Birkdale but herself and Maureen Ruttle lost to
Estelle Lawson Page and Dorothy Kielty. Clarrie wasn't selected
for the singles although felt that the blame for the foursomes
loss had been mis-directed. Clarrie's biggest single victory was
in the third round of the British Amateur in 1938 when she beat
the legendary, Miss Pam Barton by 5 and 3, the following year
she was the first on the green to congratulate Miss Barton on
her win at Royal Portrush.
At club
level Clarrie was lady captain of the County Louth Golf Club in
1935 and 1946 and held eight Senior Cup winners medals for 1946,47,48,49,
53,57,62 and 1965. Clarrie represented her country for eight years
(1935,36,38,39; 1947-49 and 1955) in the Home Internationals.
