Ladies Professional Golf Association
sports organization
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.
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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