Bettsy Rawls, who won the U.S. Women’s Open four times, died on Saturday at the age of 95, the USGA announced. Rawls was one of the most successful golfers of all time. In 1975, he stopped playing and became an event director, having a huge effect on the LPGA both inside and outside the walls.
Rawls won 55 times on the LPGA, eight of those wins were majors. There were five women who won more than Patty Berg (60), Mickey Wright (82), Annika Sorenstam (72), and Kathy Whitworth (88).
CEO of the USGA Mike Whan said in a release, “There aren’t many careers that can compare to Betsy’s.” He has 55 wins, eight major titles, is in the LPGA and World Golf Halls of Fame, was president of the LPGA, and won the Bob Jones Award. We’re all lucky that she made golf her love because she was a star in the game and would have done well in anything she tried. “Rest in peace, a true champion.”
Whitworth, who has since died, said that Rawls changed her game after she read a story in which Rawls talked about how hard she worked to shoot 80 instead of 70. Whitworth used to emotionally give up after a few bad swings, but she changed her way of doing things and went on to become the best golf player of all time.
See pictures of Betsy Rawls over the years
“I never gave up again,” she said.
Rawls and her good friend Wright hold the record for most U.S. Women’s Open wins, with four each. They stayed in touch until Wright died in 2020.
Rawls played whiffle balls in her back yard into her 90s. She didn’t start playing golf until she was 17. She became a professional golfer soon after getting her physics degree from the University of Texas. This helped her focus better when she was in the ropes because of what she learned in college. He was right when he said she was a “excellent thinker.”
Harvey Penick taught Rawls how to play golf. Penick’s lessons were so famous that he is now in the World Golf Hall of Fame.
Following her second-place finish at the 1950 U.S. Women’s Open, Rawls beat Suggs by five strokes the next year to win her first Women’s Open title.
In 1952 and 1959, Rawls won the money title a record 10 times in one season. In 1959, she also won the Vare Trophy for having a low average score.
When the LPGA first started, the best players had to do a lot more than just tee off. When Rawls first joined the tour, he was secretary. In 1961, he became president of the tour. As a Wilson Sporting Goods road pro, she went on more than 100 golf lessons across the country with Berg every year.
After leaving the tour in 1975, Rawls ran tournaments for the tour and finally took over the LPGA Championship, which is now called the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. In 1976, she was the first woman to serve on the USGA’s Rules Committee. The next year, in 1980, she was the first woman to be a tournament official at a U.S. Open.
“I think by nature, I’m pretty compulsive,” Rawls said in 2000 about what it takes to make an event go well. “That seems to help. I am very picky about everything, so I had a tough time putting up with anything that wasn’t done right.
The end result was a level of greatness that not many people will ever reach.
