Elise “Elsie” Adina Hilding was the first great female golfer from the Grand Rapids area. She won the 1923 version of what became the Michigan Women’s Amateur Championship and was the 1920 winner of the Spring Lake Invitational Tournament, a historic leading women’s event that continues today.
She was also a multiple winner of a tournament then known as the Women’s Western Michigan Golf Association Championship, and for several years a Women’s City Golf Association tournament named in her honor was presented locally – Elsie Hilding Day Tournament.
She also played on the national scene, including representing Michigan in the second U.S. Women’s Public Links Championship in 1922.
A South Bend, Ind., born in 1890, she lived to be 90 and in the same year of her passing (1980) played in what was then called the Michigan Senior Women’s Golf Tournament at Dearborn Country Club. The Detroit Free Press featured her that day.
“I always hoped I would play in a tournament when I was 90 and that’s what I’m doing,” she was quoted as saying. “I don’t think about getting old. I don’t worry about death like a lot of old people. That’s part of life. I didn’t ask to come into this world, and I won’t ask to leave.”
In her 1923 state championship win over Mrs. P.H. Sheridan at Flint Golf Club, she made a 15-foot putt to close out a dominant 4 and 3 win. Sheridan was the defending state champion, and Hilding reportedly made several long putts of 8-to-15 feet in winning the match.