Betty Jameson

Betty Jameson
 Golfer 
Personal information
Full name Elizabeth May Jameson
Nickname Betty
Born (1919-05-09)May 9, 1919
Norman, Oklahoma
Died February 7, 2009(2009-02-07) (aged 89)
Boynton Beach, Florida
Height 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Nationality  United States
Career
College University of Texas
Turned professional 1945
Retired 1970
Former tour(s) LPGA Tour (Founder)
Professional wins 17
Number of wins by tour
LPGA Tour 13[1]
Other 4
Best results in LPGA major championships
(Wins: 3)
Western Open Won: 1942, 1954
Titleholders C'ship 5th: 1956, 1961
Women's PGA C'ship 3rd/T3: 1956, 1958
U.S. Women's Open Won: 1947
Achievements and awards
World Golf Hall of Fame 1951 (member page)
Commissioner's Award
(LPGA Founders)
2000

Elizabeth May "Betty" Jameson (May 9, 1919 – February 7, 2009) was an American professional golfer. She was one of the thirteen founders of the LPGA in 1950. She won three major championships and a total of thirteen events during her career, one as amateur and twelve as a professional. She is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Amateur career

Jameson was born in Norman, Oklahoma and graduated from Dallas' Sunset High School in 1939. She started playing golf at age 11. She won the 1932 Texas Publinx title at the age of 13 and the Southern Championship when she was 15. She won the U.S. Women's Amateur in 1939 and 1940. She won the Women's Western Amateur in 1940 and 1942. In 1942, she also won the Women's Western Open, a major at the time, while still an amateur.

Professional career

Jameson turned professional in 1945. She was one of the thirteen women who founded the LPGA in 1950. She won a total of thirteen events, including three major championships. In 1947, she won the U.S. Women's Open with a 295 total at the Starmount Forest Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina, marking the first time a female golfer scored lower than 300 in a 72-hole tournament. In 1967, when the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame was created, Jameson was one of the six inaugural inductees. The LPGA recognized her induction year into the Hall of Fame of Women's Golf, 1951, as her official induction year into the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame and the World Golf Hall of Fame. She competed in her final LPGA event, the Burdine's Invitational, in 1970.

Jameson conceived the idea of annually honoring the golfer with the lowest scoring average on the LPGA Tour and, in 1952, donated a trophy for that in the name of Glenna Collett Vare. She was inducted into the Women's Sports Foundation's Hall of Fame in 1999. In 2004, August 14 was proclaimed "Betty Jameson Day" in Delray Beach, Florida, to commemorate her career accomplishments.

Jameson died in Boynton Beach, Florida.[2][3]

Professional wins

LPGA Tour wins (13)

Other wins

Major championships

Wins (3)

YearChampionshipWinning scoreMarginRunner(s)-up
1942 Women's Western Open 9 & 7United States Phyllis Otto
1947 U.S. Women's Open −9 (76-75-74-70=295)6 strokesUnited States Polly Riley (a), United States Sally Sessions (a)
1954 Women's Western Open 6 & 5United States Louise Suggs

See also

References

External links

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