Ladies Professional Golf Association

sports organization

Oct 11, 2023 - 12:45
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Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA), organization that provides professional tournament golf for women and annually holds the LPGA Championship tournament.

Several professional tournaments for women were staged during the 1920s and ’30s; important players from this era include Glenna Collett from the United States and Joyce Wethered of Great Britain. It was not until the 1940s that efforts began in earnest to form a professional golf organization for women. The first, the Women’s Professional Golf Association (WPGA), was chartered in 1944. Standout players soon emerged, including Patty Berg, Louise Suggs, Betty Jameson, and, especially, the multisport legend Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Even Zaharias’s popularity, however, could not ensure success for the WPGA, which folded in 1949. Nevertheless, it proved within its brief existence the need for a professional women’s organization.

The LPGA was incorporated in August 1950 by the aforementioned golfers plus eight others. Funding for LPGA tournaments was at first so poor that golfers themselves performed many of the organizational tasks and course maintenance chores. Soon, however, the introduction of the Weathervane series of tournaments (a series of four 36-hole tournaments that offered a $3,000 prize for each tournament and a $5,000 prize for the overall winner of the four) proved sufficiently popular to sustain the organization throughout the decade.

The play of such outstanding golfers as Kathy Whitworth, Mickey Wright, Carol Mann, Sandra Haynie, and Sandra Palmer helped maintain a reasonable level of popularity for the LPGA throughout the 1960s. Star players who emerged during the following decade include Jan Stephenson, Jo-Anne Carner, Amy Alcott, and Judy Rankin. The most notable player to emerge during the 1970s was Nancy Lopez, who, by winning nine tournaments (including a record five straight) during her first full season on the tour (1978), was a major force in increasing the popularity and prestige of the LPGA.

Pat Daniel, Betsy King, Patty Sheehan, Juli Inkster, and Laura Davies were among the top players of the 1980s and ’90s. By the turn of the century, the annual purse for LPGA events had increased to more than $37 million per year, and the tour was dominated by Karrie Webb, Annika Sörenstam, Pak Se Ri, and Lorena Ochoa, among others. Sörenstam made headlines in 2001 by becoming the first female golfer to score 59 in competition, and in 2003 she became the first woman to compete in a men’s Professional Golf Association tournament since Zaharias in 1945.

Winners of the LPGA Championship are provided in the table.

Women's Professional Golf Association (PGA) Championship*
year winner**
*Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Championship until 2015.
**Won by a U.S. golfer except as indicated.
1955 Beverly Hanson
1956 Marlene Hagge
1957 Louise Suggs
1958 Mickey Wright
1959 Betsy Rawls
1960 Mickey Wright
1961 Mickey Wright
1962 Judy Kimball
1963 Mickey Wright
1964 Mary Mills
1965 Sandra Haynie
1966 Gloria Ehret
1967 Kathy Whitworth
1968 Sandra Post
1969 Betsy Rawls
1970 Shirley Englehorn
1971 Kathy Whitworth
1972 Kathy Ahern
1973 Mary Mills
1974 Sandra Haynie
1975 Kathy Whitworth
1976 Betty Burfeindt
1977 Higuchi Hisako
1978 Nancy Lopez
1979 Donna Caponi Young
1980 Sally Little
1981 Donna Caponi
1982 Jan Stephenson (Austl.)
1983 Patty Sheehan
1984 Patty Sheehan
1985 Nancy Lopez
1986 Pat Bradley
1987 Jane Geddes
1988 Sherri Turner
1989 Nancy Lopez
1990 Beth Daniel
1991 Meg Mallon
1992 Betsy King
1993 Patty Sheehan
1994 Laura Davies (U.K.)
1995 Kelly Robbins
1996 Laura Davies (U.K.)
1997 Christa Johnson
1998 Pak Se-Ri (S.Kor.)
1999 Juli Inkster
2000 Juli Inkster
2001 Karrie Webb (Austl.)
2002 Pak Se-Ri (S.Kor.)
2003 Annika Sörenstam (Swed.)
2004 Annika Sörenstam (Swed.)
2005 Annika Sörenstam (Swed.)
2006 Pak Se-Ri (S.Kor.)
2007 Suzann Pettersen (Nor.)
2008 Yani Tseng (Taiwan)
2009 Anna Nordqvist (Swed.)
2010 Cristie Kerr
2011 Yani Tseng (Taiwan)
2012 Feng Shanshan (China)
2013 Park In-Bee (S.Kor.)
2014 Park In-Bee (S.Kor.)
2015 Park In-Bee (S.Kor.)
2016 Brooke M. Henderson (Can.)
2017 Danielle Kang
2018 Park Sung-Hyun (S.Kor.)
2019 Hannah Green (Austl.)
2020 Kim Sei-Young (S.Kor.)
2021 Nelly Korda
2022 Chun In-Gee (S.Kor.)

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