Imagine you were a woman born at the height of the Gilded Age with a passion, not for fashion or society, but for sports. And you grew up riding bareback and driving massive horse-drawn carriages through the narrow streets of Chinatown. Your family’s wealth meant you could also sail on the Lusitania and visit Paris every year while you also played on men’s polo teams, marched with suffragists, dabbled in race cars, and pursued the women’s amateur golf championship. If you can imagine all that (and throw in a reputation for hosting great parties with the Hollywood elite of the 1920s) then you can picture the life of Marion Hollins.

We’re joined today by Emily Chorba, Rhonda Mohr, and Chris Vaccaro to present the life of East Islip-born golf champion Marion Hollins and celebrate her entry into the 2022 class of the World Golf Hall of Fame. You’ll also hear about the Marion Hollins Memorial Project and how you can help fund a fitting monument for her gravesite in Monterey, California.

Further Research

• Marion Hollins Memorial Project
• Outerbridge, David E. Champion in a Man’s World: The Biography of Marion Hollins. Chelsea, Mich: Sleeping Bear, 1999. (Find in a library via WorldCat)
• Pasatiempo (live feed)
• California Women’s Amateur Championships
• Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame
• 1920s newsreels of Marion. Fox Movietone News Collection (University of South Carolina Libraries)
• Marion Hollins: Queen of the Road. The Carriage Journal, May 2021 by Jerry Trapani.
• The Woman Who Invented Agusta National by David Owen. The New Yorker, April 2, 2019.
• World Golf Hall of Fame Class of 2022
• Loon Hill Studios (vintage photos)
• East Islip Historical Society
• Music: Oh! By Jingo! by the All Star Trio