True dominance on the LPGA might be a thing of the past. There was a time when Mickey Wright won a staggering 10 times or more over the course of four consecutive seasons.
It’s been a decade since a player has won more than five times in a single season. Yani Tseng was the last player to win seven times in 2011.
Compare that to Annika Sorenstam’s double-digit years or when Lorena Ochoa won six, eight and seven times from 2006 to 2008.
Is anyone capable of matching those efforts in the modern game?
As the tour gets deeper by the decade, here’s a closer look at most wins by year on the LPGA:
The world of golf indeed lost some true legends in 2023.
A caddie who expertly worked the grill on the back of his truck.
An Augusta National Golf Club caddie who became the unofficial historian for Masters loopers.
The longtime starter at the British Open who famously never took a bathroom break between the first tee time and the last.
The winner of the first-ever PGA Tour Champions event.
A four-time U.S. Women’s Open champion.
The world of golf indeed lost some true legends in 2023. From players to caddies, course designers to teachers, to many others who contributed their life’s work to the game.
Here’s a closer look at those the world of golf goodbye to this year.
Betsy Rawls, who is one of only two golfers to win at least four U.S. Women’s Opens, died Saturday. She was 95. Rawls recorded 55 LPGA victories in her career, a number that included eight major championships. She was enshrinement into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1987 and given the USGA’s Bob Jones Award in 1996.
She won her first U.S. Women’s Open in 1951, her rookie season on the LPGA, at Druid Hills Golf Club in Atlanta.
Her second Women’s Open triumph came in 1953 in a playoff over Jacqueline Pung at the Country Club of Rochester in New York. She won by six strokes to win the 1957 U.S. Women’s Open at Winged Foot and edged Joyce Ziske by a stroke to claim her final Women’s Open title in 1960 at Worcester Country Club in Massachusetts.
Here’s a look at photos of Rawls through the years.
Rawls learned the game from Harvey Penick, whose instruction was so legendary he wound up in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Betsy Rawls, a four-time U.S. Women’s Open champion, died Saturday at the age of 95, the USGA has confirmed. One of the most prolific winners in golf, Rawls transitioned from a playing career to tournament administrator in 1975, impacting the LPGA greatly both inside and outside the ropes.
Rawls won 55 times on the LPGA, including eight majors. Only Kathy Whitworth (88), Mickey Wright (82), Annika Sorenstam (72), Louise Suggs (61) and Patty Berg (60) won more.
“There are simply not many careers that can compare to Betsy’s,” said USGA CEO Mike Whan in a release. “Fifty-five wins, eight major titles, LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame, former LPGA president, Bob Jones Award winner. She was a legend in the game who would have been successful in anything she pursued, so we are all lucky she made golf her passion. RIP to a true champion.”
The late Whitworth credited Rawls with turning her game around after she read an article in which Rawls talked about how much harder she worked to shoot 80 than 70. Whitworth, who had a habit of packing it in mentally after a few bad swings, changed her approach after that and went to becoming the winningest player in golf.
Betsy Rawls of Spartanburg,S.C. autographs program for 10-year-old Janice Gannon of Lynn,Mass., July 2,1954. Program signing came after Miss Rawls completed her second round in the National Women’s Open at Salem Country Club ,Peabody,Mass. (AP Photo/FCC)
Rawls shares the record of four U.S. Women’s Open titles with her good friend Wright. They kept up with each other until Wright’s death in 2020.
Rawls, who hit whiffle balls in the back yard into her 90s, didn’t take up golf until age 17 and turned professional not long after earning a degree in physics from the University of Texas. She found the college academic experience helpful when it came to how well she could focus inside the ropes. It’s no wonder Whitworth called her an “excellent thinker.”
Rawls learned the game from Harvey Penick, whose instruction was so legendary he wound up in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
After finishing runner-up to Babe Zaharias at the 1950 U.S. Women’s Open, Rawls beat Suggs by five strokes the following year to claim her first Women’s Open title.
Rawls won the money title in 1952 and 1959, when she won a then record 10 times in one season. She also won the Vare Trophy for low scoring average in ’59.
In the early days of the LPGA, top players were asked to do far more than tee it up. Rawls served as secretary shortly after joining the tour and became tour president in 1961. As a touring pro for Wilson Sporting Goods, she traveled the country with Berg conducting more than a 100 golf clinics each year.
ROCKLAND, DE 5-30-2000 — Betsy Rawls, Executive Director of the LPGA Championship to be held at the DuPont Country Club, near Wilmington, DE.
After retiring from the tour in 1975, Rawls served as the tour’s tournament director and eventually took the helm of the LPGA Championship (now KPMG Women’s PGA Championship). She became the first woman to serve on the USGA’s Rules Committee in 1976, and in 1980, she became the first woman to officiate at a U.S. Open Championship.
“I think by nature, I’m pretty compulsive,” said Rawls in 2000 of what it takes to run a successful event. “I think that helps. And as I expect everything to be perfect, I had a hard time tolerating anything that’s not done well.”
The result was a standard of excellence that few will ever match.
