Betsy Rawls

Hometown

Spartanburg

South Carolina

Year Inducted

1987

Inducted Category

Competitor

Birthdate

May 04,1928

Date Deceased

Oct 21,2023

Major Championships: 8

U.S. Women’s Open: 1951, 1953, 1957, 1960
Women’s Western Open: 1952, 1959
LPGA Championship: 1959, 1969

Additional LPGA Tour Wins: 47

1951: Sacramento Women’s Invitational Open
1952: Houston Weathervane, Bakersfield Open (tied with Marlene Hagge, Betty Jameson and Babe Zaharias), Seattle Weathervane, Eastern Open, Carrollton Open, Thomasville Open, Cross-Country 144 Hole Weathervane
1953: Barbara Romack Open, Eastern Open, Fort Worth Open
1954: Tampa Women’s Open, St. Louis Open, Texas Open
1955: Carrollton Open
1956: Tampa Open, Sarasota Open, Peach Blossom Open
1957: Tampa Open, Lake Worth Open, Peach Blossom Open, Reno Open
1958: Tampa Open, St. Petersburg Open
1959: Lake Worth Open, Royal Crown Open, Babe Zaharias Open, Land of the Sky Open, Triangle Round Robin, Mt. Prospect Open, Waterloo Open, Opie Turner Open
1960: Babe Zaharias Open, Cosmopolitan Open, U.S. Women’s Open, Asheville Open
1961: Cosmopolitan Open, Bill Brannin’s Swing Parade
1962: J.E. McAuliffe Memorial
1963: Sunshine Women’s Open
1964: Dallas Civitan Open Invitational, Vahalla Open
1965: Pensacola Invitational, Waterloo Open
1968: Mickey Wright Invitational
1970: Dallas Civitan Open, Cincinnati Open
1972: GAC Classic

Addtional Wins: 7

1949 Texas Amateur, Trans-National
1950 Texas Amateur, Broadmoor Invitational
1951 Hollywood Four-Ball
1954 Inverness Four-Ball
1962 Babe Zaharias Open (tie with Kathy Cornelius)

Awards & Honors:

Vare Trophy: 1959
LPGA leading money winner: 1959
South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame: 1962
Patty Berg Award: 1980
Texas Golf Hall of Fame: 1983
International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame: 1986
Bob Jones Award: 1996
Commissioner’s Award: 2000
The Memorial Tournament Honoree: 2005

There are few woman respected more in the game of golf than Betsy Rawls. Her 55 career victories rank behind only Kathy Whitworth, Mickey Wright and Patty Berg, and she shares the record with Wright for the most U.S. Women’s Opens with four. But as much as what she did on the course, Rawls was admired for her excellence at every level of the game.

The USGA could not have honored a more deserving person than Rawls when it presented her the Bob Jones Award for distinguished service in 1996. “Betsy has always been committed to work and dedicated to the game,” said Wright. “I can think of only two women who have achieved as much, not only as players but for their lifetime contributions, and that’s Betsy and Patty Berg.”

“I thought I was going to be a winner, and as I went along, winning became easier and easier.”

Rawls did not swing a club until she was 17. Four years later, she won the 1949 Texas Amateur and, in 1950, she finished second behind Babe Zaharias in the Women’s Open. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Texas, she turned professional in 1951 and made the Open her first victory. She led the LPGA in earnings in 1952, won her second Women’s Open in 1953 and her third in 1957. Her biggest year was 1959, when she won 10 times, including the LPGA Championship and the Western Open, and the Vare Trophy.

Her biggest thrill was winning the LPGA Championship in 1969 because she had reached a point where she wasn’t sure if she could win again. “I thought I was going to be a winner, and as I went along, winning became easier and easier,” Rawls has said. “It was something I expected to do. I always played well under pressure because it didn’t bother me, which is why I won so many tournaments. I don’t take much credit for it, but I could perform under tense situations. It was my physical makeup to allow that to happen.”

Fact

Betsy Rawls didn’t begin playing golf until age 17, and she won her first amateur title just four years later.

When Rawls joined the tour, there were about 20 players and 20 tournaments. She served under Zaharias as the LPGA secretary and headed the tournament committee that set up the course, gave rulings, made pairings, kept statistics and did the bookkeeping. The rest of the year was spent barnstorming for Wilson Sporting Goods with Patty Berg. They would do upwards of 120 clinics a year, traveling the country in a car. When she retired from tournament golf in 1975, Rawls became a tournament director for the LPGA and later took over as executive director of the McDonald’s LPGA Championship. She has also served on the USGA’s rules committee and the LPGA Tournament Sponsors Association. In 1980, she became the first woman to officiate at the men’s U.S. Open. “Anybody who can make a living in golf is lucky,” Rawls said. “Then to receive all the benefits accorded to me in the process…well, it makes me feel fortunate. It’s more than I could possibly deserve.”

Betsy Rawls was originally inducted through the LPGA category.