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The Mount Union American Legion Country Club hosted a tournament memorializing one of the most prolific golfers to ever swing a club in central Pennsylvania last weekend.
Elinor Wible, who died in 2012 after a brief battle with cancer, spent her entire golfing career as a member at Mount Union, where she won an amazing 45 consecutive club championships. The annual Elinor Wible Memorial tournament marked its third year last Saturday with golfers from several surrounding counties participating.
Born Elinor Hudson in 1924, Wible grew up in the small Huntingdon town of Three Springs. Her father was a charter member of the Juniata Colony Club (the original name of the Mount Union American Legion Country Club), and his family owned a summer cottage along the course’s third fairway.
It was there that Wible would learn the game of golf – a game that would become such a big part of her life.
Still a teenager, Wible captured her first club championship at Mount Union in 1940. She would continue to win in successive years (despite a two-year hiatus due to World War II), even as she enjoyed competing in other sports – attending Saltillo High School and Bucknell University.
During this same time, Wible began to dominate women’s competitions in the area. In 1946, Wible won the first of her 25 Central Counties Women’s Golf Association individual titles. In 1948, she married Clair Wible, and the couple raised three daughters, who all still live in the Three Springs area – Marcia Kuhns, Patty Scott and Sheryl Flick.
“Golf was a big part of our mother’s life,” Scott said. “It was something that was important to her, and she really enjoyed it.”
Kuhns recalled her mother’s dedicated practice routine.
“I remember shagging balls for her as a little girl,” she said. “We would be her targets. She would hit them right next to us, and we’d pick up the balls. She loved to practice.”
By 1952, Wible’s golf game was so good she actually qualified to compete in an LPGA event, playing in that year’s Whitemarsh Invitational near Philadelphia. Wible won the consolation division of a tournament that was eventually won by Hall of Famer Louise Suggs. The famous Babe Didrickson Zaharias also competed in the event.
All through the years, Wible continued her amazing streak of consecutive championships at Mount Union. In the early 1960s, Huntingdon’s Ed Strickler witnessed some of Wible’s impressive golfing skills when he caddied for her during an event at Huntingdon Country Club.
“I remember her hitting a fairway wood at the 180-yard seventh hole (now the club’s ninth hole). She hit it right to the middle of the green both times she played the hole,” Strickler said. “It was amazing. She was pretty much unbeatable in our area at that time.”
Wible continued to beat the best competition at Mount Union – and in Central Counties events – through the 1960s and ’70s. During the early 1980s, her consecutive club championship streak reached 40, and she began to receive national attention. In 1986, at the age of 62, Wible won her 45th straight club title. Shortly after, a “Faces in the Crowd” feature appeared in Sports Illustrated hailing Wible’s amazing accomplishment.
In 1987 her streak finally ended, but Wible went on to capture a few more titles, extending her career total to 48. Over the next two decades, Wible continued to play plenty of golf. She was a regular participant in the Wednesday night women’s league at Mount Union until the summer she was diagnosed with cancer in 2012.
In 2013, a year after Wible’s tragic death, the Mount Union Ladies’ Golf Association organized the Elinor Wible Memorial event. In addition to a competition, the tournament has been a venue for friends and fellow competitors to remember Wible – sharing memories and enjoying some of Wible’s golfing memorabilia, which is always on display.
Iron Masters’ Patti Dodson has competed in the event and knew Wible for many years.
“She was so kind to me when I first started golfing,” Dodson said. “She was the best golfer around, but she always went out of her way to encourage me. She was one of the greatest ladies I’ve ever met.”