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| { 13 Founders of the LPGA - photo credit LPGA } |
In 1950, the
dreams and visions of 13 courageous women who wanted to play
professional golf became a reality with the founding of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA).
Nine
years later in September 1959, even though they were struggling to
establish a year-long circuit of tournaments, this embryonic group of
professionals boldly had the vision to establish the LPGA Teaching
Division, which today is known as the LPGA Teaching and Club
Professional membership.
The
13 LPGA founders are: Alice Bauer, Patty Berg, Bettye Danoff, Helen
Detweiler, Marlene Bauer Hagge, Helen Hicks, Opal Hill, Betty Jameson,
Sally Sessions, Marilynn Smith, Shirley Spork, Louise Suggs and Babe
Zaharias.
Alice Bauer
Bauer, who died in 2002, never won on the LPGA Tour she helped create. Alice and her little sister, Marlene (see below), were golf phenoms in the 1940s. Their star power made them part of the founding group of 13. Alice was 22 at the time, and the LPGA states that she played the tour rarely after its founding in order to stay home with her children. The closest she came to winning was at the 1955 Heart of America Tournament, where she lost in a playoff to her fellow LPGA founder Marilynn Smith.Marlene Bauer
Better known today by her married name, Marlene Bauer Hagge, Marlene was the sister of Alice Bauer. And in 1950, when Marlene was part of the founding group, she was only 16 years old. Does that seem young to part of something momentous? It was old-hat to Bauer. The previous year, at age 15 in 1949, she was the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year. Bauer won 26 times on the LPGA Tour and was voted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2002. Read more about Marlene Bauer HaggePatty Berg
To this day, Patty Berg holds the LPGA Tour record for most major championships won (15). Many of those were prior to the existence of the tour she helped found, as were most of the 60 LPGA victories with which she is credited. Despite many of those wins coming prior to the LPGA's founding, the LPGA does recognize them as official tour wins, as it does for other women golf pioneers who played professional golf prior to the LPGA's founding. Berg was winning tournaments now recognized as majors as far back as 1937. Her last LPGA win was in 1962. She joined the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974. She died in 2006. Read more about Patty BergBettye Danoff
Bettye Danoff, according to LPGA.com, was the first grandmother on the LPGA. She also once won a case of beer for making a hole-in-one during an LPGA tournament. Danoff won tournaments in the 1940s, both amateur and professional events, while still an amateur. She turned pro in 1949, then helped found the LPGA in 1950. She never won an LPGA event after helping found the tour, and later became a successful golf instructor. She died in 2011 at the age of 88.Helen Dettweiler
Helen Dettweiler, who died in 1990, was involved in the women's professional tour that preceded the LPGA - the WPGA (Women's Professional Golf Association). After that tour couldn't make it, Dettweiler joined 12 other women to create the LPGA. She won the Women's Western Open in 1939, and won tournaments in the 1940s, but never won on the LPGA Tour. Dettweiler turned to teaching, and in 1958 she was the first-ever recipient of the LPGA Teacher of the Year Award.Helen Hicks
Helen
Hicks was one of the first women golfers to turn professional and try
to make a living through golf. And she did OK: Nearly all of Hicks'
victories were in the 1930s and 1940s, but she was winning as far back
as 1929. She turned pro in 1932. In 1934, she signed an endorsement deal
with Wilson Golf and became the first female golfer to travel the
country, promoting a brand through golf clinics. Her victories included
the 1937 Women's Western Open and 1940 Titleholders, wins now recognized as majors. Hicks was already near 40 years old when she co-founded the LPGA. She died in 1974.
