Lally Segard

Dorothée Sonia "Lally" Segard (née Vagliano) (4 April 1921 – 3 March 2018), also known as Vicomtesse de Saint Sauveur, was a French amateur golfer.

Early life In 1921, Segard was born in Paris, France. She is the oldest of three siblings of a Greek (born in Marseilles, France) father, André Marino Vagliano (1896–1971) and an American mother, Barbara Frances Gallatin Allen (1897–1951), married 1920 in New York. Her brother Alexander (1927–2003) emigrated to the United States in 1940 and later reached a position as executive vice president at JP Morgan & Co.

Her father won the French Open Amateur Championship in 1925 and the French Close Amateur in 1930 and 1931.

Segard played both tennis and golf and was inspired by her fifteen months younger sister Sonia to develop her golf. The two sisters learned golf at Compiègne, 80 kilometers north of Paris, before being members at Golf de Chantilly and Golf de Morfontaine, both also situated north of Paris. At Morfontaine, Segard came to brake the ladies' course record, with a score of 73, when she was 16 years old. In 1935, the two sisters, 13 and 14 years of age, competed abroad for the first time, when they took part in the British Girls Amateur Championship at Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, England. The French team of Claudine Cros, Catherine Lacoste and Brigitte Varangot won the inaugural championship in 1964 under the captaincy of Segard.

From 1964 Segard was president of the Ladies section of the World Amateur Golf Council, later known as the International Golf Federation, retiring in 1994, when hosting of the Espirito Santo Trophy tournament came back to France after 30 years and was played at Le Golf National, south of Paris.

She also served the French Golf Federation as Vice-President for many years.

Personal life She married Vicomte Jacques Henri Edmund Eduard de Rafélis de Saint-Sauveur (1912-2002) on 22 December 1939 and was known under the name of Vicomtesse de Saint-Sauveur during her competitive career. They divorced in 1969. They had two children, a daughter, Evelyne, born 1940, and a boy, Alain, born in 1942. Both of her children pre-deceased her, but she had several grandchildren.

In October 1970, she married her second husband, Patrick Segard, who died in 1979, aged 52.

Segard died at age 96 on 3 March 2018, in Paris, and her funeral ceremony was held on 13 March in the American Cathedral of Paris at Avenue Georges V.

Awards and honors At the 30-year anniversary of the 1964 Espirito Santo Trophy, an engraved commemorative silver heart jewel, signed by 19 of the all-time greatest French female golfers, including Catherine Lacoste, Brigitte Varangot, Anne-Marie Palli and Patricia Meunier-Lebouc, was offered to Segard. The other six women were HRH The Princess Royal, Dame Laura Davies, Renee Powell, Belle Robertson, Louise Suggs and Annika Sörenstam. They joined the existing 15 male honorary members, whom included President George H. W. Bush, Peter Thomson CBE, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player. She was also an Honorary Member of her original home club Morfontaine, of Golf de Saint-Cloud and of Golf de Chantilly. She was an Honorary Member of the European Golf Association. She was Honorary President of The European Association of Golf Historians & Collectors, EAGHC.

Amateur wins 1937 Girls Amateur Championship 1939 French Ladies Close Amateur Championship 1943 French Ladies Close Amateur Championship 1944 French Ladies Close Amateur Championship 1946 French Ladies Close Amateur Championship 1949 French Ladies Close Amateur Championship, Swiss Ladies Open Amateur Championship, Luxembourg Ladies Open Amateur Championship, Italian Ladies Open Amateur Championship 1950 British Ladies Amateur, French Ladies Open Amateur Championship, French Ladies Close Amateur Championship 1951 Spanish International Ladies Amateur Championship, French Ladies Open Amateur Championship, French Ladies Close Amateur Championship, Italian Ladies Open Amateur Championship 1952 French Ladies Open Amateur Championship 1953 Benelux Ladies Open Amateur Championship 1954 French Ladies Close Amateur Championship, Benelux Ladies Open Amateur Championship 1955 Swiss Ladies Open Amateur Championship, Benelux Ladies Open Amateur Championship 1960 Kayser Bondor Foursomes (with Brigitte Varangot) 1962 Worplesdon Mixed Foursomes (with David Frame) 1965 Swiss Ladies Open Amateur Championship 1966 Avia Foursomes (with Brigitte Varangot) Sources:

Team appearances Amateur European Ladies' Team Championship (representing France): 1959 (winners, playing captain), 1961 (winners, playing captain), 1963 (playing captain), 1965 (playing captain), 1967 (non-playing captain), 1969 (winners, non-playing captain), 1971 (non-playing captain) Vagliano Trophy (representing France): 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1953, 1955, 1957 Vagliano Trophy (representing the Continent of Europe): 1959 (playing captain), 1961 (playing captain), 1963, 1965 (non-playing captain), 1967 (winners, non-playing captain), 1969 (winners, non-playing captain) Espirito Santo Trophy (representing France): 1964 (winners, non-playing captain), 1966 (non-playing captain), 1968 (non-playing captain), 1970 (non-playing captain), 1972 (non-playing captain) Sources: