Few women have teed it up in a men’s professional golf tournament on the highest stage. Two of the LPGA’s earliest stars paved the way in this department, and there have been a handful of notable starts since then.
What follows is by no means an exhaustive list of females who have teed it up against the men (on any level, from state amateurs to mini tours).
Instead, these are some of the more iconic moments of women teeing it up in a different arena and making history.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic interrupting competitive golf as we know it, add another name to this list, too: Maria Fassi. The LPGA rookie is about to test her game on the Moonlight Tour, a men’s mini-tour, this week.
Babe Didrikson Zaharias
Zaharias, one of the game’s great athletes, was instrumental in attracting early fanfare to the LPGA. Zaharias had the kind of game that allowed her to fit in on the PGA Tour, too, and in 1935, she played the Cascades Open. Zaharias missed the cut but it started an 11-year stint during which she teed it up a handful of times with the men (becoming the first woman to do so).
Zaharias missed the cut at the 1938 Los Angeles Open (now known as the Genesis Invitational), but she played the event again in 1945 and did one better, making the 36-hole cut but missing a second cut to play the final round. She also played the Tucson Open and the Phoenix Open that year and teed it up again at the 1946 Los Angeles Open.