Exhibition opens on famed Perth golfer Jessie Valentine.

‘Fairway Maid’ Jessie Valentine to have her story told through new show and book launched by fellow golfer

Perth’s most famous golfing daughter, Jessie Valentine, has been honoured with a new exhibit at Perth Museum and Art Gallery.

Known as Perth’s Fairway Maid, Jessie was once the No 1 ranked women’s golfer in the world and won the British Ladies Amateur Championship in 1937, 1955 and 1958.

The new exhibition will tell Jessie’s story, from entering all her competitions from her home club of Craigie Hill to becoming an MBE and being inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.

A large turnout greeted the opening of the show yesterday, attended by Jessie’s son Iain, her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

It also saw the launch of a book by Jessie’s friend Dr Eve Soulsby – Jessie Valentine: Whose Golf Swing Lasted A Lifetime.

Iain, who travelled from Hong Kong to open the exhibit for his mother, said: “I think it’s obviously fantastic for the family.

“A lot of people put a lot of work in putting this together.

“For Perth to honour her once again is very, very nice.

“She was Perth through and through. She entered all her competitions from Craigie Hill and she spent much of her time golfing at Gleneagles and Blairgowrie, and spent her summers in Braemar.”

Dr Soulsby was lady captain at Braemar when Jessie was made an honorary member in the mid-1980s.

She said: “I just thought she was wonderful. She was such a lovely person.

“I knew her for 20 years, she was just so funny and unassuming, and she was a brilliant golfer.

“They say she had the best swing of her time.”

The launch of the new exhibition coincides with the Solheim Cup coming to Gleneagles, and Pamela Malton, of Perth Ladies Golf Club, believes they will both help encourage young girls to take up the game.

Pamela said: “She’s Perth’s most famous golfer and she’s a lady.

“It’s so important at this time to recognise what she did to encourage more lady golfers and girls to take up the game, which is very much the current appetite in golf.”

Jessie Valentine died in 2006 aged 91. The exhibit in her honour will run until October 12.

Famous Perth golfer Jessie Valentine alongside some of her trophies.

Pictures: Steve MacDougall/Getty. Clockwise from above: Jessie’s family, from left, grandson Rick Valentine, his children Ashleigh Valentine, 11, and Nicholas Valentine, 8, and Iain Valentine; golfers Mervyn Barton, Pamela Barton, Wanda Morgan and Jessie, the semifinalists in the British Women’s Golf Championship in 1935; people look at some of the trophies at Perth Museum and Art Gallery.