The PGA, 17 September 2024
Rolling back the years and turning back the clock, Heather Stirling has been achieving just that on the WPGA circuit this season.
A prolific champion in her amateur pomp over two decades ago, Stirling underlined her terrific competitive longevity this season by racking up three outright wins and one share of the spoils as she was crowned the WPGA No 1.
“It’s nice to prove that I can still go out and win,” said Stirling, who is now a fully qualified PGA Pro and is passing on her bountiful experiences, expertise and pearls of wisdom to the membership at Braehead Golf Club in Alloa. “It’s still in there.”
While host club trainee Hazel MacGarvie and former WPGA champion Heather MacRae shared the honours in the final counting event at Royal Troon with level-par 71s, it was the dominant Stirling who put the tin lid on the Order of Merit.
Her 11th place finish at The Open and AIG Women’s Open venue completed the formalities.
The last time Stirling played competitively at Royal Troon was back in 2002 when she won the Helen Holm Scottish Women’s Open during her glory-laden amateur career.
Her return to the formidable Ayrshire links wasn’t quite as rousing. “I started with a seven,” she chuckled of her triple-bogey start as Stirling eventually signed for an eight-over 79.
“Troon doesn’t get any easier. I didn’t play that well but it’s been a great season and I’m delighted to have won the Order of Merit.”
Stirling’s passion for golf has never wavered and The PGA route has given her added vigour as she continues to revel in the game that she loves.
“I love it,” she said. “I love coaching and seeing the kids come through. We have a good junior section at Braehead and I’m keen to get golf into the local schools and push it there.”
Despite her successes this season, Stirling revealed that a niggling thumb injury may have serious implications for her playing ambitions.
“It’s arthritis in the base of my thumb,” said the 47-year-old. “I maybe need surgery to get it fused so I can carry on. It could be career threatening. I’ve had a meeting with Doctor Doug Campbell in Leeds who deals with a lot of tour players. I’m not too sure what will happen.”
After all her success during her spell as one of Britain’s finest amateurs, Stirling joined the pro ranks in 2003 and tried to gain a foothold on the LPGA Tour in the USA. It was, quite literally, an eventful journey.
“I was playing on the second-tier Futures Tour and I bought a Chevrolet Astro van, put an air bed, my clubs and some suitcases in the back and off I went,” she recalled.
“In between events I’d stay in it. Some of the girls thought it was quite dangerous. And it probably was in certain places. I’d stay in the rest areas on the roads but you’d hear some dreadful things about them. I was driving to El Paso and I stopped off in Georgia and someone had been murdered in the rest area.
“One journey took me from El Paso to New Brunswick. It took three days. When I’d finished with the van it had done 260,000 miles. I sold it for peanuts but I had quite an emotional attachment to it by the end.”
Those epic trips would eventually come to an end. As a newly-qualified PGA pro, however, Stirling is enjoying her latest journey.
To view the final standings for the WPGA Series Order of Merit, click here.
