Sixty years ago this year, 2010, thirteen women golfers came together to found an organization dedicated to the development of a professional golf organization for women. Their vision helped to create an entirely new industry. Founded on three solid principles: diversity, opportunity and community, the LPGA has grown from a small US based organization with 14 tournaments and a purse of $50,000, to an international stage with more than 11 nations involved. Players from over 28 countries compete for $41.2 million in prize money. (Statistics from the LPGA website.)
The thirteen founders of the LPGA are Alice Bauer, Patty Berg, Bettye Danoff, Helen Dettweiller, Marlene Bauer Hagge, Helen Hicks, Opal Hill, Betty Jameson, Sally Sessions, Marilynn Smith, Shirley Spork, Louise Suggs and Babe Zaharias. You can read the biographies of these remarkable women on the LPGA founding members information page.
What was life like for women golfers before 1950? Did women even play? (You remember the meaning of the word golf afterall: Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden.)
But women did play golf and they played well. The British Ladies Golf Union sponsored the first women’s golf championship in 1894. Not to be outdone, the United States Golf Association held the first amateur championship for women at the Meadowbrook on Long Island, the following year. The winner was a Mrs. Charles S. Brown, (pictured right), of the Shinnecock Golf Club.
By the turn of the twentieth century, golf had become a popular sport among women but was still dominated by amateurs from Britain, among them Joyce Wethered, considered by many to be the greatest golfer in the history of the sport. The great golfer, Bobby Jones, called her the best golfer — male or female — he had ever seen. She topped the leader boards during the 1920’s. (Click here to view stop action animation of Joyce Wethered from 1924 – very cool.)
The clothes women golfers wore also influenced the fashions of the day. In the early 1900’s women played in “proper attire” – long sleeved blouses and skirts that restricted movement. By the1920’s the growing popularity of women’s golf called for more practical clothing: shorter skirt and acceptance of the once forbidden trousers.
In the years leading up to World War II, golf became an important sport for women in the United States and came into its own soon after the end of the conflict. Elite golfers at that time included Patty Berg, Babe Didrikson Zaharias and Betty Jameson. All three were members of the founding group who established the LPGA. (Patty Berg and Babe Didrikson Zaharias turned professional and became leaders of the LPGA in the years following its development.)
Today, the LPGA is the dominant organization in women’s golf with educational programs, tournaments, scholarships and charitable events, all with a focus on supporting women in golf. Just goes to show what 13 women determined to make a change, can accomplish.
