No LPGA Golfer Has Ever* Started Season by Winning First Three Tournaments
by Bill Jempty on Mar 26, 2010 8:13 AM EDT
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PrintAi Miyazato is going for her third win out in California this week. Be careful, though. There's an asterisk in the title of my post.
Japan's Ai Miyazato is chasing history here, but attempting to do so in the wind while starting with a six-shot deficit is, well, as difficult as bettering Tiger Woods' record at her home course in America.
Miyazato became the sixth player in the history of the LPGA to win the first two tournaments of the year, a feat that hasn't been accomplished since Marilynn Smith did it in 1966*. At the Kia Classic Presented by J Golf at La Costa Resort here, Miyazato is attempting to become the first ever to win the first three tournaments of an LPGA season.
Oh no! There is another asterisk. Now let me explain.
What is being written is true. There's just a little more too it. In Smith's case, the first event of 1966 was the Lagunita Invitational played in Venezuela. It was won by Kathy Whitworth. I checked further and the win is not included in her official wins. Media reports at the time said the tournament was unofficial. Smith's two wins came after Whitworth's unofficial victory.
As for the first to win their first three in a season, we must turn back the clock even further to 1951. Babe Zaharias won The Ponte Verda Beach Women's Open and the Tampa Women's Open to open the year. Then she won the Florida 2-Ball with George Bayer. The Florida 2-Ball was an unofficial tournament, though like with Whitworth's above win. It is listed by the LPGA in its media guide with nothing to say that the win is unofficial unless you dig further. The media guide book has a section listing all the winners by year and in order.
Today's lesson in LPGA history is over. Beam me up Scotty.
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Here's the article
dated January 11, 1966. It just says-
The results of this tournament will not count in LPGA standings.
Another article, but one in a paid article, said players needed armed soldiers to protect them from rioters. The purse was small($800 for the winner), the tournament only 36 holes and played outside of North America, and only the top 10 money winners of 1965 were invited. Maybe one or all of these reasons was why the tournament wasn’t official.
Bill...good work on all these
records…your house must be 10,000 sq ft. just to hold all this stuff (j/k)…I go back a few years, and if my memory isn’t too fuzzy, a lot of the way back LPGA events were not counted as official. I’m not sure why either, but the money was paid, altho darned little in those days, and only went down to about 10 players or so…It was a tough life for the girls, that’s why they gave so many exhibitions….got paid a pittance for them too…Did you come across any records telling who was the player that won the most events in 1 year and what that number was?…STUB
How about the pargraph two up from the one you have highlighted ? “Our players cannot perform to their best capabilities if they play every week. To be fair with our sponsors, we must schedule rest periods which will benefit both players and sponsors, Wirtz said.”
Is this some of that old "women don’t have the physical capabilities to do things like run a marathon or play 5 set tennis matches without damaging their “female-ness” ? :-)
They had 8 tournaments from March through May – down from 10 in 1966.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
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