One of the trailblazers of women’s golf in Colorado was in every way a pioneer.
Born in Maryland to Irish immigrants shortly after the end of the Civil War, Ella Moffat traveled with her family by covered wagon to settle first in Dubuque, Iowa, and by the 1880s in Denver. As a child in Iowa, she’d met Michael A. “Mac” McLaughlin, and their families followed the westward construction of the railroad.
By 1892, Ella and Mac were married in Denver. He worked for Sanden Electric, which sent him to San Francisco to pursue company expansion. The couple soon found themselves frequenting the Del Monte Hotel in Monterrey during the historic golf boom sweeping the United States in the late 1890s. Mac, a former baseball star, took to it, and Ella was right with him.
Dividing their time between California and Colorado, they joined Denver’s Overland Park Club. They also visited Europe, where Mac also had business, and teed up games across England, Ireland and the continent. Ladies’ golf societies, such as the Deal Ladies Club at Royal Cinque Ports Golf Club (home of the 1902 Ladies Amateur Open) made a major impression on Ella.
Back in the States, as clubs and courses multiplied across the nation, the McLaughlins were at the forefront of the movement. In 1908, they joined with other Overland members to build a new club on land 10 miles west of Denver. Originally called Colorado Golf Club, Lakewood Country Club opened in 1908 with a design by Scotsman Tom Bendelow. Mac became club president in 1911 while Ella won multiple Women’s Club championships at Lakewood and captained the women’s team in competitions against City Park and Denver, Interlachen and Colorado Springs country clubs.
Her feats regularly made the papers. Golf gave her a voice during a time when many women didn’t have one. The unshakable partnership between Mac and Ella provided Ella the unique freedom to pursue golf as an avenue for self-expression in a time of strict social mores.
As suffragettes demanded equal voting rights on a national stage, women in golf took similar action. They sought greater influence over their own golf experiences and created organizations to promote community and opportunity in the game.
In 1916–the same year Alexa Stirling, Marion Hollins and the Curtis sisters helped create the USGA Women’s Committee and a year after Mac McLaughlin founded the Colorado Golf Association and won its first Match Play Championship—Ella McLaughlin and seven other women founded the Colorado Women’s Golf Association. She would also one-up her husband by winning the first two CWGA State Match Play Championships and adding a third title in 1921, at the age of 52.
The Colorado Women’s Golf Association, which merged with the Colorado Golf Association shortly after its 100th anniversary in 2016, was Ella’s legacy. Her corseted, formal silhouette on the organization’s logo suggested as much. Thanks to the efforts of the committed women who succeeded her as players and administrators, the CWGA stayed true to its original principles, positively impacting thousands of women at all stages of their golf journeys.
