Betsy Rawls
Betsy Rawls | |||||||||||||
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Personal information | |||||||||||||
Full name | Elizabeth Earle Rawls | ||||||||||||
Nickname | Betsy | ||||||||||||
Born | (1928-05-04)May 4, 1928 Spartanburg, South Carolina, U.S. | ||||||||||||
Died | October 21, 2023(2023-10-21) (aged 95) Lewes, Delaware, U.S. | ||||||||||||
Sporting nationality | United States | ||||||||||||
Career | |||||||||||||
College | University of Texas | ||||||||||||
Turned professional | 1951 | ||||||||||||
Former tour(s) | LPGA Tour (joined 1951) | ||||||||||||
Professional wins | 58 | ||||||||||||
Number of wins by tour | |||||||||||||
LPGA Tour | 55 | ||||||||||||
Other | 3 | ||||||||||||
Best results in LPGA major championships (wins: 8) | |||||||||||||
Western Open | Won: 1952, 1959 | ||||||||||||
Titleholders C'ship | 2nd: 1952, 1953, 1959 | ||||||||||||
Women's PGA C'ship | Won: 1959, 1969 | ||||||||||||
U.S. Women's Open | Won: 1951, 1953, 1957, 1960 | ||||||||||||
Achievements and awards | |||||||||||||
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Elizabeth Earle Rawls (May 4, 1928 – October 21, 2023) was an American professional golfer who played on LPGA Tour. She won eight major championships and 55 LPGA Tour career events. She was a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Early life and education
Rawls was the daughter of Robert Miller and Mary Earle Rawls. She was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and moved to Arlington, Texas, in 1940. She went on to graduate from Lovelady High School and enrolled in North Texas Agricultural College (now UT-Arlington) in 1946 as a physics major. As a freshman, she was recognized by faculty and department heads as a "Who's Who" in Physics, and was selected for the Phi Kappa Theta honor society.[1] The following year Rawls transferred to the University of Texas at Austin, where she graduated from with a degree in physics in 1950.[1]
Amateur career
Rawls started playing golf at age 17. She won the Texas Amateur in 1949 and 1950. She also won the 1949 Trans-National and the 1950 Broadmoor Invitational. In 1950, she finished second at the U.S. Women's Open as an amateur.[2]
Professional career
Rawls turned professional in 1951 and joined the LPGA Tour. She won her first tournament that year at the Sacramento Women's Invitational Open. She would go on to win a total of 55 events on the LPGA Tour, including eight major championships.[3] In 1959, she earned the LPGA Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average. She was the tour's leading money winner in 1952 and 1959 and finished in the top ten on the money list a total of nine times. She led the tour in wins three times, 1952 with eight, 1957 with five (tied with Patty Berg), and 1959 with ten.
Rawls was the LPGA's president from 1961 to 1962. In 1967, when the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame was created, she was one of the six inaugural inductees. The LPGA recognized her induction year into the Hall of Fame of Women's Golf, 1960, as her official induction year into the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame and the World Golf Hall of Fame. Following her retirement from tournament play in 1975, she became a tournament director for the LPGA Tour.[4] From 1987 until 2004, she was the tournament director for the McDonald's LPGA Championship at the DuPont Country Club.[3] In 1996, she was voted the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf.[2]
Death
Rawls died in Lewes, Delaware, on October 21, 2023, at the age of 95.[5][6]
Professional wins
LPGA Tour wins (55)
- 1951 (2) Sacramento Women's Invitational Open, U.S. Women's Open
- 1952 (8) Houston Weathervane, Bakersfield Open (tied with Marlene Hagge, Betty Jameson and Babe Zaharias), Seattle Weathervane, Cross Country 144 Hole Weathervane, Eastern Open, Women's Western Open, Carrollton Open, Thomasville Open
- 1953 (4) Barbara Romack Open, Eastern Open, U.S. Women's Open, Fort Worth Open
- 1954 (3) Tampa Women's Open, St. Louis Open, Texas Open
- 1955 (1) Carrollton Open
- 1956 (3) Tampa Open, Sarasota Open, Peach Blossom Open
- 1957 (5) Tampa Open, Lake Worth Open, Peach Blossom Open, U.S. Women's Open, Reno Open
- 1958 (2) Tampa Open, St. Petersburg Open
- 1959 (10) Lake Worth Open, Royal Crown Open, Babe Zaharias Open, Land of the Sky Open, Triangle Round Robin, LPGA Championship, Mt. Prospect Open, Women's Western Open, Waterloo Open, Opie Turner Open
- 1960 (4) Babe Zaharias Open, Cosmopolitan Open, U.S. Women's Open, Asheville Open
- 1961 (2) Cosmopolitan Open, Bill Brannin's Swing Parade
- 1962 (1) J.E. McAuliffe Memorial
- 1963 (1) Sunshine Women's Open
- 1964 (2) Dallas Civitan Open Invitational, Valhalla Open
- 1965 (2) Pensacola Invitational, Waterloo Open
- 1968 (1) Mickey Wright Invitational
- 1969 (1) LPGA Championship
- 1970 (2) Dallas Civitan Open, Cincinnati Open
- 1972 (1) GAC Classic
LPGA majors are shown in bold.
Other wins (3)
- 1951 Hollywood Four-Ball (with Betty Dodd)
- 1954 Inverness Four-Ball (with Betty MacKinnon)
- 1962 Babe Zaharias Open (tie with Kathy Cornelius)
Major championships
Wins (8)
Year | Championship | Winning score | Margin | Runner(s)-up |
---|---|---|---|---|
1951 | U.S. Women's Open | +5 (73-71-74-75=293) | 5 strokes | Louise Suggs |
1952 | Women's Western Open | 1 up | Betty Jameson | |
1953 | U.S. Women's Open | +6 (75-78-74-75=302) | Playoff1 | Jackie Pung |
1957 | U.S. Women's Open | +7 (74-74-75-76=299) | 6 strokes | Patty Berg |
1959 | LPGA Championship | +8 (76-68-69-75=288) | 1 stroke | Patty Berg |
1959 | Women's Western Open | −1 (70-76-76-71=293) | 6 strokes | JoAnne Gunderson (a), Patty Berg |
1960 | U.S. Women's Open | +4 (76-73-68-75=292) | 1 stroke | Joyce Ziske |
1969 | LPGA Championship | +1 (71-72-79-71=293) | 4 strokes | Susie Berning, Carol Mann |
1 In an 18-hole playoff, Rawls 70, Pung 77.
See also
References
- ^ a b "University of Texas: Elizabeth Earle "Betsy" Rawls". UT Physics History Site. Retrieved October 8, 2019.
- ^ a b "Betsy Rawls – Bio". LPGA. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
- ^ a b Myers, Brad (September 4, 2014). "DuPont club to honor Betsy Rawls on Friday". delawareonline. Retrieved February 27, 2018.
- ^ Barkow, Al (1986). Gettin' To The Dance Floor: An Oral History of American Golf. Atheneum. ISBN 978-0-689-11517-2.
- ^ "Betsy Rawls, 4-time US Open champion and top administrator, dies at 95". Associated Press News. October 21, 2023. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
- ^ Nichols, Beth Ann (October 21, 2023). "Betsy Rawls, a 4-time U.S. Women's Open champion, dies at age 95". Golfweek. Retrieved October 21, 2023.
External links
- Betsy Rawls at the LPGA Tour official site
- Betsy Rawls at golf.about.com at the Wayback Machine (archived April 15, 2008)
- v
- t
- e
- 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 Hisako Higuchi
- 1978 Nancy Lopez
- 1979 Donna Caponi
- 1980 Sally Little
- 1981 Donna Caponi
- 1982 Jan Stephenson‡
- 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
- 1995 Kelly Robbins
- 1996 Laura Davies
- 1997 Christa Johnson†
- 1998 Se-ri Pak‡
- 1999 Juli Inkster
- 2000 Juli Inkster†
- 2001 Karrie Webb
- 2002 Se-ri Pak
- 2003 Annika Sörenstam†
- 2004 Annika Sörenstam
- 2005 Annika Sörenstam
- 2006 Se-ri Pak†
- 2007 Suzann Pettersen
- 2008 Yani Tseng†
- 2009 Anna Nordqvist
- 2010 Cristie Kerr‡
- 2011 Yani Tseng‡
- 2012 Shanshan Feng
- 2013 Inbee Park†
- 2014 Inbee Park†
- 2015 Inbee Park
- 2016 Brooke Henderson†
- 2017 Danielle Kang
- 2018 Park Sung-hyun†
- 2019 Hannah Green‡
- 2020 Kim Sei-young
- 2021 Nelly Korda
- 2022 Chun In-gee
- 2023 Yin Ruoning
- 2024 Amy Yang