Eithne
Pentony, who may have been christened Eleanora, started to play
golf as an eight year old at Sutton Golf Club where she would
remain until her late teens before joining Hermitage Golf Club,
the club which she is most associated.
Eithne
was in her early twenties when she won her first national championship
at County Sligo Golf Club at Rosses Point beating Mrs J.H. Todd
by 2 & 1. It was only her second attempt, the previous year
she lost in the third round. At the time she was honorary secretary
of the Hermitage Golf Club and a surprise winner, triumphing against
the winds that raged over the Sligo links for the last two days
of the Championship. As the Pentony family lived in Clontarf and
her father was a member of Royal Dublin G.C. she was able to hone
her game over the venerable links three days a week, in presumably
all conditions.
In 1933,
Miss Pentony took the title again by beating Mrs J.B. Walker in
the third round, Miss Pim in the semi-finals and her clubmate
Miss Fanny Blake in the final by 3 & 1. In the same year Miss
Pentony also won the Danish Amateur and was a finalist in the
Swedish Amateur Championships, both finals played against Fraulein
Orrissen. Later she would tour South Africa with the British team
and this would take her away from home for four and a half months
during which she was made an honorary member of Maccauviel. However,
the Captain's report (Miss Doris Chambers) on her play during
the tour wasn't altogether complimentary despite the fact she
only lost two matches, both on the final green. It was a cruelling
tour that saw them engaged nearly everyday and playing twenty-five
courses during the tour. Miss Chambers felt she had failed to
adapt as quickly as the other team member but when asked about
the tour on her return, Eithne said: "It was ...a strenous
trying time and I'm not sorry to be home again." Her decision
to play in the Swedish Amateur Championship came after an invitation
from Mr. Ludwig Nobel, nephew of the prize doner, Alfred Nobel,
to travel there as his guest for two weeks.
Eithne
(Ina) Pentony, was the first Irish person selected for the GB&I
Vagliano Trophy team in 1932, when the match was played in St.
Germain; the matches alternated between the environs of London
and Paris. Eithne won her foursomes match but wasn't selected
to play in the singles but her excitement at being selected was
recorded by her later and published in the I.L.G.U.'s centenary
book.
At Royal
Portcawl in 1934 Eithne reached the semi-finals before being beaten
by Helen Holm, the eventual winner by a margin of 4 & 3. In
the second round she beat Diana Fishwick, the 1930 champion by
3 & 1, but her third round match went to the nineteenth. The
fourth round pitted the two remaining Irish ladies with Miss Pentony
getting the better of Miss Ellis on the final hole. Despite this
Miss Pentony lost in her first round match with Mrs Patsy Jameson,
the Island player by 4 & 3 in the Irish Ladies' Championship,
that year.
After
the 1936 Irish Championship, where she reached the semi-finals
before losing to Miss Sybil Moore at the nineteenth, her life
was to change drastically after been diagnosed with tubercolosis
and the prospect of a future in a sanatorium loomed. Fortunately
she during the time of her illness. Eithne's Cinderella story
started with her recovery shortly before her admission date to
the sanatorium and she married her beau, Dr. J.H. Michael Roberts
whom she met during her period of convalescence, on the 31 January
1940 and spent the next forty-seven years happily married. Of
her early golfing life she said:
"A
long time ago when I was young. I had a wonderful and fairytale
life for a few years, due entirely to the game of golf, which
I managed to play well at the right time."
It is
extremely rare to get newsreel footage of players but the British
Pathe newsreel site has footage of her win at Newcastle against
Fanny Blake in 1933. To preview this footage click
here and search for Eithne Pentony, this is available free
for preview purposes only.
