Shirley Spork

Shirley G. Spork (May 14, 1927 – April 12, 2022) was an American professional golfer and one of the founders of the LPGA Tour. Spork finished second at the 1962 LPGA Championship. She worked as a teaching professional for many years and was recognized as LPGA Teacher of the Year in 1959 and 1984. Spork also taught golf with the National Golf Foundation and was an educator at Bowling Green State University. As a player, she started in her early teens and continued to play golf into her nineties.

Early life In 1927, Spork was born in Detroit, Michigan. Spork was raised in Redford, Michigan, the only child of a father who was an electrical engineer and a mother who was a clerk in a pharmacy, both did not play golf, but the family home was adjacent to the Bonnie Brook Golf Course.

As a child, she began to collect, wash and resell golf balls and at age 13, used these funds to buy her own golf clubs. She began to practice after hours. She played in tournaments in Detroit as young as age 14 and the Detroit Free Press wrote in 1941 that she "appears to be one of the future stars of Detroit." She went on to attend a golf school given by the Free Press. One of her first major wins took place in 1944 at a Red Cross golf event.

Amateur career Spork wanted to play golf after high school, but was discouraged by her parents. Instead, she started to attend Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University) in 1945. She had "top honors" at the Women's District Golf Association tournament in June 1946. At college, she won the 1947 national individual intercollegiate golf championship, playing in between final exams. She was runner-up in the intercollegiate championship in 1948. She graduated from college in 1949.

Professional career Spork went pro and began to play professional events in 1950. In the fall of 1950, Spork was hired to work at the health and physical education department of Bowling Green State University. She also served as the LPGA’s T&CP chairperson for eight years. Spork was one of the thirteen founders of the LPGA in 1950. Shirley Spork finished among the top 10 on the LPGA’s money list in 1950.

In 1951, she toured the United Kingdom and France. She also started teaching golf at Tamarisk Country Club in Palm Springs, California in 1954. She was also involved with creating a teaching division in the LPGA which became the Teaching and Club Professional Membership.

Spork died on April 12, 2022, at the age of 94. She will be interred at Desert Memorial Park.

Awards and honors She was awarded the LPGA Teacher of the Year Award in 1959 and again in 1984. In 1968, she joined the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame. Spork was inducted into the PGA of America Hall of Fame in 2019.

In popular culture Spork is featured in a documentary about the LPGA, The Founders (2016).

She wrote about her career in her 2017 autobiography, From Green to Tee. Until this book, only a few have heard Spork's colorful stories of the LPGA's early days, her travels to Europe as a young woman, the ladies of the Tour, and the celebrities she taught on the golf course (Bob Hope, Harpo Marks and others).

Selected bibliography