Betsy Rawls

Betsy Rawls
Personal information
Full name Elizabeth Earle Rawls
Nickname Betsy
Born (1928-05-04) May 4, 1928
Spartanburg, South Carolina
Nationality  United States
Career
College University of Texas
Turned professional 1951
Retired 1975
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
World Golf Hall of Fame 1960 (member page)
LPGA Tour
Money Winner		 1952, 1959
LPGA Vare Trophy 1959
Patty Berg Award 1980
Bob Jones Award 1996
LPGA 50th Anniversary
Commissioner's Award		 2000

Elizabeth Earle "Betsy" Rawls (born May 4, 1928) is an American former LPGA Tour professional golfer. She won eight major championship and 55 LPGA Tour career events. She is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Amateur career

Rawls was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina and grew up in Arlington, Texas. She attended the University of Texas. She 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.[1]

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.[2] 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.[3] From 1987 until 2004, she was the tournament director for the McDonald's LPGA Championship at the DuPont Country Club.[2] 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.[1]

Professional wins

LPGA Tour wins (55)

LPGA majors are shown in bold.

Other wins (3)

Major championships

Wins (8)

YearChampionshipWinning scoreMarginRunner(s)-up
1951U.S. Women's Open+5 (73-71-74-75=293)5 strokesUnited States Louise Suggs
1952Women's Western Open1 upUnited States Betty Jameson
1953U.S. Women's Open+6 (75-78-74-75=302)Playoff1United States Jackie Pung
1957U.S. Women's Open+7 (74-74-75-76=299)6 strokesUnited States Patty Berg
1959LPGA Championship+8 (76-68-69-75=288)1 strokeUnited States Patty Berg
1959Women's Western Open−1 (70-76-76-71=293)6 strokesUnited States JoAnne Gunderson (a), United States Patty Berg
1960U.S. Women's Open+4 (76-73-68-75=292)1 strokeUnited States Joyce Ziske
1969LPGA Championship+1 (71-72-79-71=293)4 strokesUnited States Susie Berning, United States Carol Mann

1 In an 18-hole playoff, Rawls 70, Pung 77.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Betsy Rawls – Bio". LPGA. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
  2. 1 2 Myers, Brad (2014-09-04). "DuPont club to honor Betsy Rawls on Friday". delawareonline. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
  3. ↑ Barkow, Al (1986). Gettin' To The Dance Floor: An Oral History of American Golf. Atheneum. ISBN 978-0-689-11517-2.
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