Beatrix Hoyt
{{Short description|American golfer (1880–1963)}}
{{use mdy dates|date=July 2019}}
Beatrix Hoyt (July 5, 1880 – August 14, 1963) was an American amateur golfer.{{cite magazine |url=http://turf.lib.msu.edu/1950s/1957/570201.pdf |title=Through the Green |date=February 1957 |magazine=USGA Journal and Turf Management |accessdate=October 9, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224080448/http://turf.lib.msu.edu/1950s/1957/570201.pdf |archive-date=February 24, 2012 |url-status=dead }} Hoyt is the third youngest golfer to ever win the U.S. Women's Amateur, and is one of only five competitors to win the championship three consecutive times.{{cite web |url=http://www.uswamateur.org/history/records.html |title=U.S. Women's Amateur – Records |publisher=USGA |accessdate=October 9, 2009}}{{cite web |url=http://www.hickoksports.com/biograph/hoytbeatrix.shtml |title=Sports Biographies – Beatrix Hoyt |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080821194713/http://www.hickoksports.com/biograph/hoytbeatrix.shtml |archivedate=2008-08-21 |publisher=Hickok Sports |accessdate=October 9, 2009}}
Hoyt was born in Westchester County, New York, the youngest of William Sprague Hoyt and Janet Ralston Chase's four children. The Hoyts were a distinguished family. Beatrix's paternal great-grandfather, William Sprague, served as Governor of Rhode Island. Her maternal grandfather was Salmon P. Chase (1808–1873), the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President Lincoln and later, Chief Justice of the United States.{{cite web |url=https://www.liveabout.com/u-s-womens-amateur-championship-1562641 |title=U.S. Women's Amateur Championship, Major USGA Golf Tournament |first=Brent |last=Kelley |website=LIveAbout.com |accessdate=July 9, 2019}}
A member of the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, New York, which encouraged juniors and females to play the game, in 1896, at the age of 16, and after only two years of playing golf, Hoyt won the U.S. Women's Amateur, making her the youngest woman to win until Laura Baugh's victory in 1971.{{cite book |last=Hudson |first=David L. |title=Women in Golf: The Players, the History, and the Future of the Sport |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=2007 |pages=11–12 |isbn=9780275997847 |accessdate=October 9, 2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ra90MuQopKkC&q=%22Beatrix+Hoyt%22&pg=PA11 |via=Google Books}} She went on to win the championship the following two years as well.{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1899/10/12/101826901.pdf |title=Golf Queen Dethroned |date=October 12, 1899 |newspaper=The New York Times |accessdate=October 9, 2009}} She was also the medalist for shooting the lowest score in the tournament's qualifying round, something she would accomplish for five straight years. 1896 was the second edition of the championship and the first year that the Robert Cox Cup was awarded to the winner. With partner William Sands, in November 1897, she won the mixed foursome championship at Westchester Country Club. At age 19, she retired from competitive golf after losing to Margaret Curtis in the semi-final round at the 1900 tournament, ultimately pursuing a career in sculpture and landscape painting.{{cite magazine |url=https://www.si.com/vault/issue/43718/31 |title=A Link to Scotland |first=Frank |last=Hannigan |date=August 22, 1977 |magazine=Sports Illustrated |pages=32–35 |accessdate=July 9, 2019}}