Betty Jameson

Elizabeth May Jameson (May 9, 1919 – February 7, 2009) was an American professional golfer. She was one of the thirteen founders of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) in 1950. She won three major championships and a total of thirteen events during her career, one as amateur and twelve as a professional. She is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Amateur career Jameson was born in Norman, Oklahoma and graduated from Dallas' Sunset High School in 1939. She started playing golf at age 11. According to her obituary in the New York Times, her mother gave her 50 cents for a greens fee and another 50 cents to rent a set of clubs at a public golf course in Dallas when she was 11 years old. She won the 1932 Texas Publinx title at the age of 13 and the Southern Championship when she was 15. She won the U.S. Women's Amateur in 1939 and 1940. She won the Women's Western Amateur in 1940 and 1942. In 1942, she also won the Women's Western Open, a major at the time, while still an amateur. She was selected to the DISD Athletics Hall of Fame and is a Member of the Sunset High School Hall of Fame.

Professional career Jameson turned professional in 1945. She was one of the thirteen women who founded the LPGA in 1950. She won a total of thirteen events, including three major championships. In 1947, she won the U.S. Women's Open with a 295 total at the Starmount Forest Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina, marking the first time a female golfer scored lower than 300 in a 72-hole tournament. She won the 1954 Women's Western Open again. In 1967, when the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame was created, Jameson was one of the six inaugural inductees. The LPGA recognized her induction year into the Hall of Fame of Women's Golf, 1951, as her official induction year into the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame and the World Golf Hall of Fame. She competed in her final LPGA event, the Burdine's Invitational, in 1970.

Jameson conceived the idea of annually honoring the golfer with the lowest scoring average on the LPGA Tour and, in 1952, donated a trophy for that in the name of Glenna Collett Vare.

Professional wins LPGA Tour wins (13) 1942 (1) Women's Western Open (as an amateur) 1947 (2) U.S. Women's Open, Women's Texas Open 1948 (1) Tampa Open 1952 (3) Corpus Christi Tournament, Bakersfield Open (tie with Marlene Hagge, Betsy Rawls, and Babe Zaharias), World Championship 1953 (1) Serbin Miami Beach Open 1954 (1) Women's Western Open 1955 (4) Sarasota Open, Babe Zaharias Open, White Mountain Open, Richmond Open

Source:

Other wins (5) 1938 Women's Texas Open (as an amateur) 1946 Hardscrabble Open 1952 Hardscrabble Open 1955 Virginia Hot Springs 4-Ball (with Mary Lena Faulk) 1958 Homestead 4-Ball (with Mary Lena Faulk)

Major championships

Wins (3) YearChampionshipWinning scoreMarginRunner(s)-up 1942 Women's Western Open 9 & 7 Phyllis Otto 1947 U.S. Women's Open −9 (76-75-74-70=295)6 strokes Polly Riley (a), Sally Sessions (a) 1954 Women's Western Open 6 & 5 Louise Suggs