Matchless: Joyce Wethered, Glenna Collett and the Rise of Women’s Golf

"What we have here is not mere game narrative of major championships, but sportswriting embedded in a larger cultural context." ― The Wall Street Journal: "10 Books That Belong on Every Golfer's Bookshelf"

United States Golf Association, 2026 Herbert Warren Wind Award Winner for contribution to golf literature.

Winner of the USGA Herbert Warren Wind Book Award

'Finally – a book that truly captures the inspiring and uniquely gifted women from a largely forgotten golfing age. A wonderful read from start to finish' – Iona Stephen, Sky Sports presenter, commentator and host

From the moment women began hosting championships of their own in 1893, one of golf's burning questions became whether any woman would ever approach the mythical ideal of playing perfect golf. It took three decades of striving – at a time when Suffragettes were stubbornly fighting for women’s rights – before Joyce Wethered and Glenna Collett delivered an unequivocal answer to that question.

From their first meeting at Troon in 1925, through a decade highlighted by their breathtaking match at St Andrews, the Englishwoman and the American brought out in one another golf so sublime that rare was the player, man or woman, who could perform as brilliantly.

The rivalry between Wethered and Collett generated such widespread interest and respect that it paved the way for the birth of a women’s professional tour. Matchless tells the story of these two incomparable golfers – women who personified the ambitions of their age.

Stephen Proctor has served as a senior editor at The Baltimore Sun, The San Francisco Chronicle and The Houston Chronicle. A native of Maryland, he graduated from The American University in Washington and was later awarded a John S. Knight Fellowship in journalism at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. He is an avid golfer and has spent the past decade studying the history of the royal and ancient game. He lives in Malabar, Florida.