Betsy King

Hometown

Reading

Pennsylvania

Year Inducted

1995

Inducted Category

Competitor

Birthdate

Aug 13,1955

Major Championships: 6

Nabisco Dinah Shore: 1987, 1990, 1997
U.S. Women’s Open: 1989, 1990
LPGA Championship: 1992

Additional LPGA Tour Wins: 28

1984: Women’s Kemper Open, Freedom Orlando Classic, Columbia Savings Classic
1985: Samaritan Turquoise Classic, Rail Charity Classic
1986: Henredon Classic, Rail Charity Classic
1987: Circle K LPGA Tucson Open, McDonalds Championship, Atlantic City Classic
1988: Women’s Kemper Open, Rail Charity Golf Classic, Cellular One-Ping Golf Championship
1989: Jamaica Classic, Women’s Kemper Open, USX Golf Classic, McDonald’s Championship, Nestle World Championship
1990: JAL Big Apple Classic
1991: LPGA Corning Classic, JAL Big Apple Classic
1992: The Phar-Mor in Youngstown, Mazda Japan Classic
1993: Toray Japan Queens Cup
1995: ShopRite LPGA Classic
2000: Cup Noodles Hawaiian Ladies Open, Corning Classic
2001: ShopRite LPGA Classic

Additional Wins: 4

1981: Itsuki Charity Classic (Japan)
1985: Ladies British Open
1990: Itoman World Match Play Championship
1993: JCPenney/LPGA Skins Game

Legends Tour Wins: 1

2013: Fry’s Desert Golf Classic (with Jane Crafter)

Solheim Cup Appearances: 6

Wins in bold

Player: 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998
Captain: 2007

Awards & Honors:

Golf

Furman College Athletics Hall of Fame: 1983
Player of the Year: 1984, 1989, 1993
Vare Trophy: 1987, 1993
LPGA’s leading money winner: 1984, 1989, 1993
Golf Magazine Player of the Year Award: 1984, 1987
GWAA Female Player of the Year: 1987, 1989
Samaritan Award: 1987
Golf Digest-LPGA Founders Cup: 1989
South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame: 1992
Best Female Golfer ESPY Award: 1994
Charlie Bartlett Award: 1994
Michelob Light Front Runner Award: 1994
The William and Mousie Powell Award: 1996
Silver Anniversary Awards (NCAA): 2002
Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame: 2006

General

Henry P. Iba Citizen Athlete Award: 2014

It took Betsy King more than seven seasons to win on the LPGA Tour, but her breakthrough led to one of the most phenomenal careers in women’s golf history. In an 11-year span from the 1984 Women’s Kemper Open through the 1995 ShopRite LPGA Classic, King won 30 times, including five Major Championships, to become the 14th member of the LPGA Hall of Fame and the first to cross the $5-million barrier in career earnings. She captured her sixth Major in 1997, winning the Nabisco Dinah Shore.

King was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, and still maintains a home nearby in the town of Limekiln. She has served as host of the LPGA’s Wachovia Betsy King Classic at Berkleigh Country Club in Kutztown, Pennsylvania, and has organized the Habitat for Humanity, which has built homes for underprivileged families in Phoenix, Arizona, and Charlotte, North Carolina. In the off-season, she has traveled to Romania to work with an orphan relief organization and she has been active in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes ministry since 1980.

“My faith gives me perspective.”

Her favorite scripture is from 2 Corinthians 13:11: “Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.”

It was not easy for King to find peace when she first turned professional. Overshadowed by Nancy Lopez and struggling with the pressure of great expectations – she finished eighth as an amateur in the 1976 U.S. Women’s Open – King found salvation in the Bible and the golf instruction of Ed Oldfield. In 1984, she won three times, the LPGA money title and its Player of the Year Award. Her first Major Championship came in the 1987 Nabisco Dinah Shore and two years later she had what was one of the most lucrative seasons in LPGA history. With six victories, including the U.S. Women’s Open, King won $654,132. In those five years, her 20 victories were more than any professional golfer, man or woman, in the world.

Fact

Betsy King was a member of Furman’s 1976 NCAA Championship team.

Avoiding a letdown, King won her second Dinah and made it back-to-back U.S. Women’s Opens in 1990. Perhaps her most frustrating year came in 1993 when she won the Vare Trophy, the money title and Player of the Year honors, despite winning only one tournament, the season-ending Toray Japan Queens Cup. With the pressure of the Hall of Fame mounting (her 29 career victories left her one shy of induction), she placed second five times that year, including at the Dinah Shore and du Maurier, where she held third-round leads.

Shut out in 1994 for the first time in 10 seasons, King came back in 1995 with a final-round 67 at ShopRite to qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame. When she won the Dinah Shore in 1997, it served as testimony of her perseverance. It was her third Dinah Shore, matching Amy Alcott’s record, and her sixth overall Major Championship. “My faith gives me perspective,” King says. “Scripture tells you to forget what is behind and press toward what is ahead, toward the goal to win the prize. The hardest thing is to forget what is behind. I use my faith as my sports psychologist. Why not get it from the guy who knows everything?”

Betsy King was originally inducted through the LPGA category.