Tag: Jan Stephenson

10 surprising names left out of LPGA Hall of Fame, including several World Golf Hall of Fame members

There are surprises on this list.

Lydia Ko now stands one point away from qualifying for the LPGA Hall of Fame. She’d be the 35th member of the LPGA Hall, nine of which are honorary members. Only 25 players have met the Hall’s requirements.

The LPGA Hall remains one of the most exclusive in all of sports. Players must reach 27 points to get in: (one point for each regular LPGA victory; two for a major win; one point each for the LPGA Rolex Player of the Year and Vare Trophy awards; and one point for an Olympic gold medal).

In addition to having 27 points, players must also either win an LPGA major, Vare Trophy or Player of the Year honors.

The 27-point threshold was actually lowered in the late 1990s when it looked like some of the greatest to ever play the game weren’t going to get in under the old system that required 30 LPGA victories with two major championships, or 35 with one major, or 40 with no majors.

Even so, there are a number of players even hard-core fans might be surprised aren’t in the LPGA Hall, though many are in the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Here’s a list of 10 decorated players still on the outside looking in:

World Golf Hall of Fame member Jan Stephenson diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer

Stephenson has 41 professional wins worldwide and remains active on the senior circuit.

World Golf Hall of Fame member Jan Stephenson has been diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. Organizers of the Jan Stephenson Crossroads Foundation released the news on Thursday, noting that the 71-year-old will begin a regimen of chemo and radiation therapy over the next two weeks.

“It means so much to me for all my friends and family to lend so much support,” said Stephenson in the release. “I have had some negative challenges in my career and managed to survive. This is just another tough hole that is ‘Uphill and Against the Wind.’ See you on my next downhill and downwind hole!”

Stephenson won 16 times on the LPGA, including three major championships and is a recipient of the Order of Australia Medal.

“It’s impossible to overstate what Jan has meant to golf in not only Australia, but around the world, with all the effort she has put into developing young golfers through her charitable foundations,” said Michael Vandiver, Executive Vice President of Jan Stephenson’s Crossroads Foundation in a statement.

More: What’s World Golf Hall of Famer Jan Stephenson up to? Here’s a look at her career, through the years

2021 U.S. Senior Women's Open
Jan Stephenson plays her tee shot at the 14th hole during the first round at the 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Conn. on Thursday, July 29, 2021. (Darren Carroll/USGA)

Stephenson has 41 professional wins worldwide and remains active on the senior circuit. Her foundation supports disabled military veterans and first responders.

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Photos: What’s World Golf Hall of Famer Jan Stephenson up to? Here’s a look at her career, through the years

Hall of Fame member Jan Stephenson was a three-time major champion and winner of 16 LPGA events

A new women’s golf tournament is launching along Florida’s upper Atlantic coast, and a World Golf Hall of Fame member will be there to help.

The first Rain Girl Invitational will be held on Feb. 1-2 at Deercreek Country Club in Jacksonville, sponsored by the First Coast-based company that makes specialized rainwear for women golfers.

“The Deercreek Rain Girl Invitational will be a fun event that focuses on camaraderie with a bit of competition,” Rain Girls founder Kathy Nyman said.

The field will include amateur and professional women golfers from the region who have a USGA handicap of 26 or lower.

Appearing at the pairings party and welcome reception on Feb. 1 will be Hall of Fame member Jan Stephenson, 71, a three-time major champion and winner of 16 LPGA events. She will also promote her Jan Stephenson Wine, with a tasting at the party, and her Jan Stephenson Rum during the tournament round on Feb. 2.

The $125 entry fee will cover the reception, lunch on the day of the golf tournament, tee gift and an awards ceremony. The format will be a flighted Stableford with an optional team Nassau. There also will be a hole-in-one and closest-to-the-pin contest on all Par 3’s sponsored, by Aurora Resort at Anguilla, Jan Stephenson Wine, Rain Girl and Deercreek Country Club.

Titleist will conduct a golf ball demo day and sampling for all participants from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 2 before the 12:30 shotgun start.

For more information or to register, visit raingirlinvitational.com.

Here’s a look at Hall of Famer Stephenson through the years.

Jan Stephenson weighs in on Hall of Fame status and LPGA progress

Jan Stephenson, a newly minted member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, knows the payout at the CME Group Tour Championship is life-changing.

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Jan Stephenson, World Golf Hall of Famer. The former LPGA Tour star from Australia wasn’t sure those two groupings of words would ever be put together.

Stephenson was perhaps more famous for her marketing side, most notably the famous picture of her covered with golf balls in a bathtub, than she was for what she did as a player.

But 16 LPGA tour victories, including three majors, was finally enough to get in the Hall of Fame this year. She got the call from Nancy Lopez and was formally inducted at Pebble Beach in June.

“The thrill never goes away,” Stephenson, 67, said at the PGA Tour Superstore in Naples on Wednesday, where she sold bottles of her name-brand wine to raise money for her charity. “I remember sitting there at Pebble Beach the night before I was getting inducted. The old Hall of Famers take the new ones out to dinner. We were sitting right there at the Beach Club overlooking Pebble Beach. You look around the room and it’s Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player, and the women, you’ve got Annika (Sorenstam), Betsy (King), and Joanne Carner.

CME Group Tour Championship: Tee times | Photos

“It just hit me then because you’re so wrapped up in the whole thing.  Now it was time to enjoy. ‘Wow, I’m one of them.’ It never goes away.”

Stephenson also made appearances at a pair of Total Wine stores in Naples on Thursday before heading back to the Tampa, Florida, area where she lives. She is still also a member at Pelican’s Nest Golf Club in Bonita Springs.

Aside from current LPGA player Minjee Lee, who has five wins, it has been quite a while since an Australian made a splash on the LPGA. But Aussie Hannah Green, 22, won the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship in June by a stroke over Sung Hyun Park, one of the top players  in the world.

“That’s absolutely fantastic for Australian golf,” Stephenson said. “We had it when I did it and Greg (Norman) and Karrie (Webb). She’s young enough that that’s going to kick off a lot of young juniors wanting to do it.

“She can play. She’s proven it under pressure. She played a junior-senior event in Perth. She was very young. You could tell then that she was going to be good.”

Green has the chance, along with 59 others in the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club this week, to take home the winner’s check of $1.5 million. It’s the most ever in women’s golf. The event’s total purse is $5 million.

“It’s great for women’s golf that we can say that,” Stephenson said. “We’ve always said that it’s equal. We still have so many of the same expenses (as the PGA Tour players) — the travel and the caddie and the rental car.

“Something like this, it means more because it’ll change their life. Now $1.5 (million) you can put all of that and invest it. You know your life is taken of — which is what the PGA has every week.”

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