"Scottish women have made a significant contribution to the development of golf since the middle of the nineteenth century. The Ladies' Golf Club of St Andrews was formed in 1867 and by 1886 there were 500 members. By 1872, the St Andrews Ladies' Spring and Autumn Meetings had become important events with a gold medal and the Douglas Prize open for competition. Miss Mary Lamb and her sister Miss May Lamb, Miss A. Boothby and Miss F. Hume McLeod were the leading players in the early days of the club and regular winners of the medals. However, we have to go back much further than that to find the first woman player in Scotland. That honour belongs to Mary Queen of Scots, mother of James VI of Scotland and I of England, and a notable player around the middle of the sixteenth century. Evidence of her keeness on the game is revealed in the account of one of her matches with one of her attendants, Mary Seaton, which the Queen lost, she presented her conqueror with a famous necklace. The Queen most famously encountered the wrath of the Church for playing golf on the fields of Seton in 1567 only a few days after the death of her husband, Lord Darnley, father of James VI."