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by Susan Hafner

For anyone who loves women’s golf, the LPGA’s 50th anniversary celebration held October 25-28, 2000, at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida, surpassed all expectations. An extravaganza featuring all the great names in 50 years of professional women’s golf, the event brought together eight surviving members of the thirteen founders of the LPGA, several Hall of Famers still actively playing on the LPGA Tour, LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals, amateur women golfers, and other professional and business women involved in promoting and enhancing women in golf.

Imagine four days of clinics, pro-ams, receptions, dinners, films, forums, putting and hole-in-one contests set in the midst of one of golf’s greatest resort/residential/historic centers at the World Golf Village. The sights and sounds of the event lingered long after it ended, and the truly spectacular setting only added to the excitement of those activity-packed days and nights. Proceeds from this event benefited the LPGA Foundation and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Highlights

Amateur golfers wanting to improve their skills could participate in a two-day academy golf school taught by LPGA Master Professionals and Teachers of the Year. Experienced women golfers with a handicap of 30 or less could play in a two-day pro-am featuring LPGA Tour players and Teaching and Club Professional champions on the Slammer and Squire course at World Golf Village or the LPGA International course in nearby Daytona Beach.

A special reception for LPGA Founders and Hall of Fame members at the Hall of Fame featured Marilynn Smith, Shirley Spork, Kathy Whitworth, Betsy King, Louise Suggs, Bettye Danoff, Carole Mann, JoAnne Carner, Helen Hicks, Betty Jameson, and Jackie Pung. Attendees could speak with and obtain autographs on a specially designed poster suitable for framing.

A special preview of a Golf Channel film documentary of the 50th Anniversary could be viewed on the IMAX screen at the World Golf Village.

Attendees could sit in on various education forums focusing on health, finance, sports psychology, and other topics presented by LPGA Master Professionals, business leaders, and educators from around the country. Speakers included Sandra Palmer, Annette Thompson, LPGA Master Professional, Pat Lange, Peggy Kirk Bell, Judy Dickinson, Renee Powell, Shirley Spork, Sandy LaBauve, Dana Rader, Betsy King, Judy Bell, Alice Dye, and Penny Zavichas.

Participants could also demo clubs at the golf practice facility at the Slammer and Squire course, as well as a chance to watch LPGA Founders, Hall of Fame members and master teachers show off their stuff. Louise Suggs showed off her sweet swing, JoAnne Carner hit her driver to show that she’s still got it, and Peggy Kirk Bell and others demonstrated the grip, the stance, and ball position.

The LPGA Girls Club also participated in the demonstrations with hands-on practice. Two young players, Catherine Cartwright and Erica Battle, seventeen and sixteen years old respectively, demonstrated their grooved swings to the amazement of the onlookers.

At the conclusion of the events, attendees met for an outdoor barbecue in front of the Golf Hall of Fame and watched the 50th anniversary Golf Channel documentary hosted by Jamie Farr.

World Golf Village

The megaplex that is World Golf Village formed the background for the once-in-a-lifetime 50th anniversary of the LPGA. What better place to hold a tribute to women’s golf than the center where Hall of Fame members are enshrined each year! The Village contains the Hall of Fame itself, an IMAX theater, a convention center, several resort hotels, shops, a 132-yard Challenge Hole that duplicates the 17th hole at TPC at Sawgrass, inviting anyone to hit a plastic-weighted golf ball across a lake to a green, an 18-hole putting green course, and plenty of parking.

But the real gem of this mecca to golf is the Hall of Fame itself. A spectacular tower shrine invites the visitor to wander through 18 separate exhibits. The exhibits follow golf’s beginnings to the evolution of equipment, writers of the game, television and golf, evaluating the swing, great championship moments, and even a gaming arcade. The Hall of Fame itself lists all of the members from the LPGA, the PGA, Senior PGA tour and international members. Any Hall of Fame enshrinee can be viewed by computer listing and selected video/pictures.

Susan Hafner is a frequent contributor to Tee Time. Besides playing golf, she enjoys writing about it. She is a published author, with various interviews, feature stories, travel articles, and short fiction to her credit.
A native of Ohio, Susan has a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s in student personnel. She is working on a novel about women’s golf. Her dream is to write full time for a golf magazine and be able to hit her driver 200 yards, every time.