Wisconsin Golfer - January/February 2012

This U.S. Women’s Open is memorable because it was the very first one. And because it was the only match-play Women’s Open. And because it was won by a Hall-of-Famer.

The inaugural championship was held in 1946 at Spokane CC in Washington – 58 years after the first U.S. Women’s Amateur – but the USGA didn’t conduct the championship until 1953. The Women’s Professional Golfers Association ran the tournament from 1946 to ’48, and the LPGA took over from 1949 to ’52.

Patty Berg and Betty Jameson, both LPGA founders and charter members of the LPGA Hall of Fame, battled for that first U.S. Women’s Open title. Berg, the medalist in qualifying earlier in the week, won the championship match, 5 and 4, for her only Women’s Open victory.

The tournament was changed to stroke play the following year.

THE FIRST 1946
92 HOLES 1998

This championship, in which 20-year-olds Se Ri Pak and Jenny Chuasiriporn battled for 92 holes, put Kohler’s Blackwolf Run on the map. And it signaled an avalanche of Korean players arriving on the LPGA Tour.

Chuasiriporn, a player at Duke University, came tantalizingly close to becoming the second amateur to win the championship. On the 72nd hole, Chuasiriporn rolled in a 40-foot putt to tie Pak at 6-over-par 290, which set-up an epic 18-hole Monday playoff.

1954

‘The Babe’ poses with husband George Zaharias after winning the 1954 U.S. Women’s Open.

The duo remained knotted after those 18 holes, as both players recorded bogey on No. 18 – Pak made an amazing recovery while standing in the pond on the left side of the fairway – to finish the 18-hole playoff with rounds of 73. Two holes later, Pak claimed the title with an 18-foot birdie putt.

Over five days and 92 holes, Pak had taken 371 strokes. Chuasiriporn took 372. And it doesn’t get any closer than that.

Pak became the youngest-ever Women’s Open Champion – until 19-year-old Inbee Park won in 2008 – and was named 1998 LPGA rookie of the year.

AMATEUR HOUR 1967

Jenny Chuasiriporn almost joined her in 1998, but Catherine Lacoste remains the

only amateur to win the U.S. Women’s Open. Lacoste, the daughter of French tennis player Rene Lacoste, who founded the apparel company that carries the family name, finished at 10 over par in 1967 to

Twenty-year-old Se Ri Pak finishes off her win at the 1998 Women’s Open at Blackwolf Run.

1998

defeat pros Susie Maxwell and Beth Stone. Lacoste began the final round at Virginia Hot Springs GC with a five-shot lead before hanging on to win by two.

In 1969, Lacoste won the U.S. Women’s Amateur Championship and the British Ladies Amateur. She never turned pro.

ANNIKA’S THIRD 2006

Annika Sorenstam’s first LPGA victory
came at the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open,
and she repeated in 1996, but that was
before she became the top woman player
in the world. Over the following nine
seasons, Sorenstam found nothing but
heartbreak at the Women’s Open, including
runner-up finishes in 2002 and ’04.

JOYCE COMES THIS CLOSE 1960

Like the 1998 championship, this Women’s Open offered a Wisconsin angle. Milwaukee native Joyce Ziske came tantalizingly close to winning the 1960 U.S. Women’s Open before losing by one stroke to LPGA legend Betsy Rawls at Worcester CC in Massachusetts.

Ziske, who changed her name to Malison when she got married in 1961, had a career year in 1960, when she claimed three of her five LPGA Tour titles. And she had a golden opportunity to win the Women’s Open when she arrived on the 72nd tee tied for the lead. The dream ended when Ziske’s par putt rimmed out on the 18th green, dropping her to 5 over par, one stroke behind Rawls. It was Rawls’ fourth Women’s Open title, a record that would later be matched by Mickey Wright.