50 Fun Facts About Women's Golf

Which men's major champion beat 14 LPGA professionals in 1962 to become the only man to win an LPGA Tour event?

Sam Snead won the Royal Poinciana Plaza Invitational by five strokes at the age of 49. The Battle of the Sexes event in Florida still counts as an official LPGA Tour title.

Which 16th-century monarch was accused of playing golf shortly after her husband Lord Darnley was murdered?

Mary, Queen of Scots is often described as the first known woman golfer. Her critics said the game at Seton Palace in 1567 proved she was not in mourning.

Which Swedish golfer shot the LPGA Tour's first round of 59 and played the PGA Tour's Colonial in 2003?

Annika Sörenstam was the first woman to tee it up in a PGA Tour event since 1945. Her 59 came in 2001, a season in which she won eight times.

Which former member of a US president's Cabinet became one of Augusta National's first two women members in 2012?

Condoleezza Rice joined with financier Darla Moore, a decade after protests led by Martha Burk put the Masters host club's men-only membership in the spotlight.

Which double Olympic track and field champion of 1932 went on to win ten major titles in women's golf?

Babe Zaharias won the javelin and the 80-metre hurdles in Los Angeles, plus a silver in the high jump. In 1954 she won the U.S. Women's Open after surgery for colon cancer.

Which golfer won five tournaments in a row during a nine-win rookie season on the 1978 LPGA Tour?

Nancy Lopez was named both Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year that season. Her winning streak put her on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

Which Mexican golfer retired in 2010 at just 28 while still ranked number one in the world?

Lorena Ochoa held the top spot for 158 consecutive weeks until the day she stepped away. No golfer from her country, man or woman, had been ranked world number one before.

Which golfer became world number one at just 17 and later completed a full set of Olympic medals?

Lydia Ko took silver in 2016, bronze in 2021 and gold in 2024 for New Zealand. The gold also earned the final point she needed for the LPGA Hall of Fame.

Which South Korean golfer won two majors as a 1998 LPGA Tour rookie, inspiring a generation of compatriots to follow?

Se Ri Pak was the only South Korean on the tour when she arrived. Ten years later there were 45, and Korean TV rights had become the LPGA's biggest source of revenue.

Which Hawaii-born golfer played a PGA Tour event at 14 and won the 2014 U.S. Women's Open?

Michelle Wie shot 68 in her second round at the 2004 Sony Open, then the lowest score by a woman in a PGA Tour event. She still missed the cut.

Which South Korean golfer won three straight majors in 2013 and the first women's Olympic golf gold for 116 years?

Inbee Park won the 2016 Olympic title by five strokes. She is also only the seventh player to win four different women's majors.

Which American golfer, daughter of a Czech Australian Open tennis champion, won Olympic gold at the delayed Tokyo Games?

Nelly Korda was the first American woman to win individual Olympic golf gold since 1900. Her younger brother Sebastian followed their father into professional tennis.

Ariya Jutanugarn became the first major champion, male or female, from which country at the 2016 Women's British Open?

Thailand had never produced a major winner in golf before her three-stroke victory. At 11 she had been the youngest player ever to qualify for an LPGA Tour event.

Margaret Abbott became the first American woman to win an Olympic event by taking the golf title in which host city?

Paris staged the 1900 Games over five months, and Abbott entered thinking it was an ordinary tournament. She died in 1955 never realising she was an Olympic champion.

The Ladies' Putting Club, founded in 1867 and called the world's oldest women's golf club, plays in which Scottish town?

St Andrews is home to the club's course, the Himalayas, named for its peaks and troughs. It is thought to be the first minigolf course ever made.

Which singer and TV host helped found a 1972 tournament that became the major now called the Chevron Championship?

Dinah Shore was elected an honorary member of the LPGA Hall of Fame in 1994. Every sponsored title of the event carried her name until 2000, and the trophy still does.

The Solheim Cup is named after Karsten Solheim, the engineer who founded which maker of golf clubs?

Ping was named for the sound his first putter made as the metal struck the ball. He built his early clubs in his garage before backing the women's team match in 1990.

Which country hosts the Evian Championship, a women's golf major played on a course overlooking Lake Geneva?

France hosts the event at the Evian Resort Golf Club in Évian-les-Bains. Founded as the Evian Masters in 1994, it only became the fifth women's major in 2013.

Which California course, long a men's U.S. Open venue, hosted its first U.S. Women's Open in 2023?

Pebble Beach finally welcomed the women's championship in its 78th edition. Allisen Corpuz won by three strokes for her first LPGA Tour victory.

Which tennis champion of the 1950s switched sports and broke the LPGA Tour's colour barrier in 1964?

Althea Gibson joined the tour at 37, having already crossed the colour line in international tennis. She was among its top 50 money winners for five years.

Which golfer's 88 LPGA Tour wins are more than any player has managed on the main American men's or women's tour?

Kathy Whitworth won the last of her titles in 1985. Four years earlier she had become the first woman to reach $1 million in career earnings on the tour.

Which golfer, whose swing Ben Hogan called the best he had ever seen, held all four women's major titles at once?

Mickey Wright won 82 LPGA Tour events and 13 majors, then gave up full-time golf at 34 because of problems with her feet.

Which Australian golfer completed a Super Career Grand Slam by winning every available women's major by 2002?

Karrie Webb sealed it at the 2002 Women's British Open. She once missed the chance of the LPGA's first $2 million season by going home mid-year to run with the Olympic torch.

Which English golfer, made a Dame in 2014, won the first U.S. Senior Women's Open by ten shots in 2018?

Laura Davies was the first golfer, man or woman, to win on five different tours in one calendar year, in 1994. She also played in each of the first 12 Solheim Cups.

Which American won three straight U.S. Women's Amateur titles and went on to win majors in three different decades?

Juli Inkster won the first of those amateur titles three weeks after her wedding. She later played on nine United States Solheim Cup teams.

Which golfer, the LPGA's first president in 1950, still holds the record of 15 women's major titles?

Patty Berg was one of the 13 founding members of the LPGA. During the Second World War she had been commissioned as an officer in the US Marine Corps.

Which American golfer qualified for the U.S. Women's Open aged 12 and lost a 2017 major after a four-stroke penalty?

Lexi Thompson was penalised at the ANA Inspiration after a TV viewer reported that she had replaced her ball wrongly in the third round. She went on to lose in a playoff.

Which Scottish club was dropped from the Open Championship rota in 2016 after a vote failed to admit women members?

Muirfield voted again in March 2017, this time agreeing to admit women. The course has since staged the Women's British Open.

Which trophy, given by two American sisters, pits women amateur golfers from the USA against Great Britain and Ireland?

Curtis Cup matches began in 1932 at Wentworth in England, where the Americans won. Harriot and Margaret gave the trophy to promote friendships in women's golf.

Which golfer began the tradition of the champion leaping into Poppie's Pond after her 1988 major win at Mission Hills?

Amy Alcott started a ritual that later champions copied, and it followed the tournament when it left California for Texas in 2023.

Which co-founder of the LPGA in 1950 has the tour's Rookie of the Year award named in her honour?

Louise Suggs won 61 times on the tour, including 11 majors. Her first big titles came in 1946, when she was still an amateur.

Which golfer nicknamed Big Mama won five U.S. Women's Amateur titles and then two U.S. Women's Opens as a professional?

JoAnne Carner became the oldest player to make a cut on the LPGA Tour when she did it at 65 in 2004. She was also the second to pass $1 million in career earnings.

Which golfer won three of the four women's majors in 1986 and is the aunt of a men's PGA Championship winner?

Pat Bradley finished three strokes back at the U.S. Women's Open that year, narrowly missing a Grand Slam. Her nephew Keegan won the PGA Championship in 2011.

Which Taiwanese golfer became the youngest player, male or female, to win five major championships?

Yani Tseng spent 109 consecutive weeks as world number one from 2011 to 2013. Her very first tour victory, in 2008, was itself a major.

Which American golfer, nicknamed the Pink Panther, won the 2010 U.S. Women's Open at Oakmont?

Paula Creamer was given the name by a friend because of her fondness for wearing pink. She even carries a matching head cover on one of her clubs.

Which golfer from Smiths Falls, Ontario has more wins on major professional tours than any other Canadian?

Brooke Henderson keeps it in the family: her sister Brittany has been her caddie and her father her coach throughout her professional career.

Which captain's pick holed the final putt to win the 2019 Solheim Cup for Europe, then retired straight afterwards?

Suzann Pettersen had first been named an assistant captain before being chosen to play. Her birdie on the 18th at Gleneagles beat Marina Alex 1 up.

Which Scottish golfer won the 2009 Women's British Open just 11 weeks after giving birth to her second daughter?

Catriona Matthew won at Royal Lytham and later captained Europe to back-to-back Solheim Cup victories, in Scotland in 2019 and in Ohio in 2021.

Which American golfer reached world number one in 2013 despite a spinal fusion for scoliosis in her teens?

Stacy Lewis was diagnosed at 11 and missed her first college season recovering from the surgery. She went on to captain the United States in two Solheim Cups.

Which golfer became mainland China's first major champion in 2012 and took Olympic bronze four years later?

Shanshan Feng shot a bogey-free 67 in the final round of the LPGA Championship to win by two strokes. In 2008 she had been the first player from her country to join the tour.

Which Swedish golfer became the first woman to win a DP World Tour event at the 2022 Scandinavian Mixed?

Linn Grant beat a field of 78 men and 78 women at Halmstad, all playing for the same title and prize money. The next best-placed woman finished 14 strokes behind her.

Which golfer won the U.S. Women's Open representing the Philippines in 2021 and again representing Japan in 2024?

Yuka Saso has a Filipina mother and a Japanese father. She changed flags in 2022 after deciding to keep her Japanese citizenship under that country's dual nationality law.

Which former Stanford star won on her professional LPGA Tour debut in 2023, the first to do so since 1951?

Rose Zhang had spent a record 141 weeks as the world's top-ranked amateur. She was also the first woman to win the NCAA individual title twice.

Which leading British woman golfer of the inter-war years had a swing greatly admired by American champion Bobby Jones?

Joyce Wethered played several exhibition rounds with Jones, who held her game in very high regard. After marrying in 1937 she became Lady Heathcoat-Amory.

Which LPGA award, named after a six-time U.S. Women's Amateur champion, rewards the season's lowest scoring average?

The Vare Trophy honours Glenna Collett-Vare, whose six U.S. Women's Amateur titles are one more than any other player has won.

Which North Carolina resort's No. 2 course staged the men's and women's U.S. Opens in back-to-back weeks in 2014?

Pinehurst made history, as the two championships had never shared a course in the same year. Martin Kaymer won the men's title a week before the women teed off.

Which colour of tee marker has commonly indicated the forward tees, historically sometimes called the ladies' tees?

Red is a convention and not a rule: tee marker colours are not standardised and differ from course to course.

Which German golfer, ranked 304th in the world, won the 2020 Women's British Open at Royal Troon?

Sophia Popov had never won on any major tour. Her only victories that year had come on a mini-tour in Arizona while the main circuits were disrupted by the pandemic.

Which Japanese golfer won the 2019 Women's British Open in her first tournament outside her home country?

Hinako Shibuno was a 20-year-old rookie on the Japanese tour playing her first major. She was only the second woman from her country to win one, 42 years after the first.

Which golfer, 15 minutes younger than her twin sister Lisa, became the first Irish woman to win on the LPGA Tour?

Leona Maguire played a Ladies European Tour event at just 12, then the youngest golfer ever to do so. Her sister also turned professional before retiring in 2019.