established in 1961
The first committee meeting for the Silver Tassie was held on 26 November 1961 with Gertie Hubbard as chairwoman. The minutes of that meeting say ... “The original intention, following a match played at its inception in 1960, was that it should be a girls’ counterpart to the Halford Hewitt. It was agreed however that this should take the form of a one day event in order to assist those wishing to play”. And so The Silver Tassie was born.
The tournament was intially a singles, team competition before developing into a foursomes event played at Sunningdale Ladies Golf Club (now Sunningdale Heath), with each school represented by two pairs. Entrance fee was £1/head and the winning team won paper knives. The first competition, in 1961, was won by Sherborne.
The Silver Tassie format has also evolved from medal foursomes into a 4 Ball Better Ball competition, still with two pairs of alumnae from each school, to encourage more entries and allow the competitors to play more golf (it was felt that to travel from Scotland to play 18 holes of foursomes was not fun or enticing)
Over the 61 years, since its inception, 87 different schools have taken part, some of which have entered more than one team, and including one Swiss school Ecole Chatelard.
Gertie Hubbard’s daughter in law Hannah Hubbard and daughter Trudi Harris (nee Hubbard) have both been very involved with the Silver Tassie not only playing for their respective school teams but also involved in running the event.
Evolution of the Silver Tassie
Chairwoman and founder Gertie Hubbard
Results of the first ever Silver Tassie in 1961