Idaho’s Sue Tracy runs away with 2022 WHO women’s title.

By Tom Tracy with Jim Davis

Belated, but nonetheless cheerful news for U.S. hickory golfers: Susan Tracy, of Star, Idaho, playing out of River Birch Golf Course, captured the Ladies Division of the 2022 World Hickory Open (WHO), played in the Highlands of Scotland Oct. 11-13.  The WHO, founded by Lionel Freedman and played annually since 2005, draws hickory shaft enthusiasts from around the world to compete over classic Scottish courses.  Sandy Lyle, 1988 Masters champion, has won the men’s division twice. 

Lyle would have envied Tracy’s margin of victory – 22 strokes in the gross competition, and that over three world famous links courses near Inverness – Nairn, Castle Stuart and Royal Dornoch, no pushover courses by any means. Conditions were cool, blustery and sometimes wet. Tracy bested competitors from Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, the U.S. and other countries to claim her title.

High scores were the rule on the long, tough courses played with 100-year-old clubs.  Brutal slopes, bunkering and wind made the tourney a test of survival for both men and women. Tracy’s final round of 90 at Castle Stuart was far and away the best women’s score of the tourney, with seaside wind howling over the last nine.

“The scoreboard was not quite up to date so I wasn’t sure where I stood entering the last round,” Tracy said.  “My husband Tom decided to caddy for me the third day, which helped with some decisions and especially in avoiding the bunkers, which are brutal, often with faces five to eight feet high in front of you.  I think I was only in two bunkers the last day.  It also helped that we arrived in Scotland a month before the event, and were able to play some great links courses like Brora, Tain, Golspie, Gullane, Kilspindie and Dunbar beforehand.  And I had a bunker lesson from the pro at Tain GC, which saved me a few shots!”

Tracy wasn’t the only U.S. hickory player to do well at the 2022 WHO. Larry Woods of Florida was the 70 and over champion, and John Henry Williams of the Pacific Northwest won the Seniors over 50 title.

Tracy, a former physical education teacher and all-around gymnast, was inducted into the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire’s inaugural (1989) Women’s Athletics Hall of Fame for gymnastics. She and Tom were married in 1985 and later moved to Star, Idaho, where Tom had a job working for the state. The two have two adult sons.

Tracy started playing hickory golf in 2018 after Tom talked her into it. Though she prefers modern clubs, she wields a mean mashie having won several hickory events in the U.S., including the Pacific Northwest championship four times, the Arizona Desert Hickory, and was runner-up in the 2021 U.S. Hickory Open. 

The 2022 WHO championship came near the end of a five-week Scottish sojourn that involved renting a cottage for that time and side trips for golf and sight-seeing.

Tracy, who is a 10 handicap with modern clubs and about a 17 with hickories, said she was daunted by the very steep bunkers, (mentioned above) but also by the often windy conditions. Despite these matters and the fact that, due to some pairing glitches, she was always in groups with men players, she persevered and was very happy to have never lost a ball, let alone coming home with a new title.

“With hickories, you lower your expectations and, I won’t say I’m a perfectionist, but I like to play my best,” she says. “We played strictly hickory golf in Scotland and I began to get better at it, especially with course management. Tom helped with that.”

Tracy carries replica irons made by Tad Moore, and an original brassie, spoon and putter. Her go-to club turned out to be the jigger. “I could hit that 120 yards or chip and run with it,” she says. “And the greens there are very often humongous, so much bigger than in this country.”

Tracy and Tom often play in events hosted by the Northwest Hickory Players. She has won the Pacific Northwest Hickory Champion, and that on her first try in 2018. At her regular club, Tracy says her friends are still shy of going the full hickory game, but will give the driver or iron a try on occasion. “I’m still working on them,” she says.

As for husband-wife competitions, she allows that while she has had the better of their matches the past year, on the whole they are pretty even. “We play for $5 bets or who will make drinks later when we get home,” she says.

Tom does most of the club maintenaqnce for the two of them and will help Tracy acquire new clubs when needed. The most recent acquisition was a Tad Moore replica Mills playclub that sets up well between her 3 iron and spoon.

“I am getting more and more out of the sport,” Tracy says. “It’s fun and rewarding and gets you out of your comfort zone a little bit. Plus, there’s a fun group of people you get to meet and play golf with.”

For now, the season has changed and Tracy enjoys skiing when she can. In February, she and Tom plan to travel to the Southwest for the Arizona Desert Hickory Classic, a favorite event for both of them, where Tracy looks forward to teeing it up against young hickory phenom Rylee Stovall, current holder of the Women’s Open title from the 2022 U.S. Hickory Open in Florida.

If Tracy’s play at the WHO is any indication, Rylee had better get in some additional practice.

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