From 1979-1995, Beth Daniel won a lot on the LPGA Tour.
A lot.
From her first victory as a 22-year-old at the 1979 Patty Berg Classic through her win at the 1995 PING/Welch’s Championship in Boston, Daniel won 32 times in a 16-year span. To put her achievements in perspective, among all golfers who have made their LPGA debuts in the last 41 years, only three have more career wins: Patty Sheehan (35), Karrie Webb (41), and Annika Sorenstam (72). One of her more remarkable achievements may be in standing alone in history as the only woman to ever win on the LPGA Tour in four different decades.
Daniel’s success on the LPGA Tour came as no surprise to anyone paying attention to her amateur career. A member of the Furman University squad that won the 1976 AIAW Division I National Championship – a team which also included fellow Hall of Famer Betsy King and future LPGA members Cindy Ferro and Sherri Turner – Daniel also represented the United States on Curtis Cup teams in 1976 and 1978, posting an overall mark of 7-1.
A two-time winner of the U.S. Women’s Amateur championship (1975, 1977) and winner of the Women’s Western Amateur title in 1978, Daniel captured the Broderick Award as the nation’s best female collegiate golfer in 1977. With nothing left to prove as an amateur, Daniel turned professional at the end of 1978 and made her LPGA debut in 1979. No less an authority than 82-time winner Mickey Wright predicted that within three years, Daniel would be the best player on the Tour.
What followed would have made even DJ Khaled proud: all Daniel did was win, win, win.
From 1979 through 1985, Daniel won 14 times during one of the most competitive eras in the history of the LPGA. Standout years came in 1980 and 1982, when she combined for nine of those 14 titles. In 1980, Daniel earned 19 top five finishes, 17 of which came in her final 18 starts and after April, she never finished outside of the top 10.
Along the way, Daniel earned awards as LPGA Rookie of the Year Award (1979) and LPGA Tour Player of the Year (1980) and was the LPGA’s leading money winner in both 1980 and 1981. In 1980, she became the first golfer in LPGA history to earn over $200,000 in a single season when she finished with $231,000 in official money.
Then, as quickly as the winning began, suddenly it stopped. Following her win at the Kyocera Inamori Classic in April 1985, Daniel would not see a winner’s check again until August 1989 when she won the Greater Washington Open at the Bethesda Country Club. Back problems, some swing flaws, and an extended bout with mononucleosis plagued Daniel during this stretch, but after winning in Washington, she resumed her winning ways with another dominating run.
Daniel won 17 more times over the next six seasons, including four out of the final six events in 1989, and most memorably, capturing seven victories and a Major – the Mazda LPGA Championship – in 1990. Her caddie at the time, Greg Sheridan, credited the win at the Greater Washington Open with “opening up the floodgates.”
“Her confidence went to a new level,” he said. “She knew she could win again. She got so much more confidence and satisfaction when she won her first Major. Now that that hurdle’s out of the way, there is no pressure. Golf for her is a relaxed attitude.”
Sitting on 32 LPGA career-wins following her triumph in August 1995 – her fifth win in a 15-month span – Daniel seemed poised to continue battling for position on the all-time wins list with Sheehan, who had overtaken her with her 33rd career win in June.
Then, just as it had in 1985, the winning once again came to a stop. Yet unlike the slump she endured in the mid-1980s, this time Daniel found herself in her early 40s, a time when most golfers see their best years solidly in the rearview.
She remained a force in the game, however, appearing on three Solheim Cup teams for the U.S., becoming the third player in LPGA history to cross the $5 million mark in career earnings in 1996, and in 1999 shooting a career-low 62 during the second round of the Phillips Invitational Honoring Harvey Penick, which included an LPGA-record nine consecutive birdies.
In a memorable performance at the 2002 LPGA Championship, Daniel carried a four-stroke lead into the final round but ended up finishing in second place, three shots back of winner Se Ri Pak. Still, heading into the 2003 season she had not put up a win in seven years. Among her contemporaries in the World Golf Hall of Fame, only Hollis Stacy, who went six years between wins (1985-1991), had gone longer than four years between titles.
Then in August 2003, in a year in which she said many had given up on her as a player, Daniel turned back the clock and made one final great run. At the BMO Financial Group Canadian Women’s Open in Vancouver, Daniel posted three consecutive rounds of 69 to enter the final round tied with fellow Hall of Famer Juli Inkster. The two legends jockeyed for position all day in a downpour, with Inkster holding a one-stroke lead heading to the 17th hole.
While Inkster had two excellent opportunities to make birdie putts, she settled for pars on the final two holes. Daniel, meanwhile, capitalized on both of her birdie opportunities, sinking a three-footer on 17 and then a clutch six-foot putt on 18. When Inkster’s 12-foot, uphill birdie attempt on 18 missed, Daniel became the oldest winner in LPGA history at the age of 46 years, 8 months, and 29 days, eclipsing the mark set by JoAnne Carner, which had stood for 18 years, by three months. Finally, after a seven-year draught, Daniel could once again be called a champion for the 33rd and last time in her decorated career.
“Definitely I’m in the so-called autumn of my career,” Daniel said. “You go through a spell that long and you kind of start wondering if you’re ever going to win again and if you’re too old to be out here. But I always had confidence in myself. I always felt like I was going to win again.”
By Travis Puterbaugh, Former Curator
