Titleholders Championship facts for kids

The Titleholders Championship was a women's golf tournament played from in 1937 to 1966 and again in 1972. It was later designated a major championship by the LPGA Tour.

It should not be confused with two other LPGA events with similar names:

• The Mercury Titleholders Championship: A regular (non-major) LPGA tournament held from 1990 to 1999.
• The CME Group Titleholders: The season-ending tournament on the LPGA Tour held since 2011.

History

The Titleholders Championship was founded in 1937. Like the Masters Tournament for men, which began a few years earlier, it was played in Augusta, Georgia, but at Augusta Country Club, not at the adjacent Augusta National Golf Club. The winners of various amateur and professional events were invited to take part, although most of the competitors were amateurs. There were very few women professionals at the time and most earned their living as club or teaching professionals.

The Titleholders itself did not offer prize money until 1948, when a prize fund of $600 was introduced, with half of the money going to the professional placing highest in the event. The tournament was discontinued after November 1966, but was revived for one year in 1972, when it was played in May at the Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club in Southern Pines, North Carolina. All of these stagings are now recognized as major championships by the LPGA, even though the organization was not founded until 1950.

Winners

Year	Winner	Country	Score	Runner(s)-up	Winners' share ($)	Purse ($)	Ref
1972	Sandra Palmer	United States	283	Judy Rankin, Mickey Wright	3,000	20,000
1967–71		No tournament
1966	Kathy Whitworth	United States	291	Judy Kimball-Simon, Mary Mills	1,500	10,000
1965	Kathy Whitworth	United States	287	Peggy Wilson	1,500	10,000
1964	Marilynn Smith	United States	289	Mickey Wright	1,300	7,500
1963	Marilynn Smith	United States	292PO	Mickey Wright	1,235	7,500
1962	Mickey Wright	United States	295PO	Ruth Jessen	1,330	7,500
1961	Mickey Wright	United States	299	Patty Berg, Louise Suggs	1,200	7,000
1960	Fay Crocker	Uruguay	303	Kathy Cornelius	1,140	6,000
1959	Louise Suggs	United States	297	Betsy Rawls	1,000	5,000
1958	Beverly Hanson	United States	299	Betty Dodd	1,000	5,275
1957	Patty Berg	United States	296	Anne Quast (a)	1,000	5,000
1956	Louise Suggs	United States	302	Patty Berg	1,000	5,000
1955	Patty Berg	United States	291	Mary Lena Faulk	1,000	5,000
1954	Louise Suggs	United States	293	Patty Berg	1,000	3,000
1953	Patty Berg	United States	294	Betsy Rawls	1,000	2,200
1952	Babe Zaharias	United States	299	Betsy Rawls	1,000	2,100
1951	Pat O'Sullivan (a)	United States	301	Beverly Hanson		1,500
1950	Babe Zaharias	United States	298	Claire Doran (a)	700	1,500
1949	Peggy Kirk (a)	United States	299	Patty Berg, Dorothy Kirby (a)
1948	Patty Berg	United States	308	Peggy Kirk (a), Babe Zaharias
1947	Babe Zaharias (a)	United States	304	Dorothy Kirby (a)	300
1946	Louise Suggs (a)	United States	314	Eileen Stulb (a)
1943–45		No tournament
1942	Dorothy Kirby (a)	United States	239^	Eileen Stulb (a)
1941	Dorothy Kirby (a)	United States	224^	Helen Sigel
1940	Helen Hicks (a)	United States	336	Helen Dettweiler
1939	Patty Berg (a)	United States	319	Dorothy Kirby (a)
1938	Patty Berg (a)	United States	311	Jane Cothran (a)
1937	Patty Berg (a)	United States	240^	Dorothy Kirby (a)

(a) - denotes amateur
^PO - won in playoff
^ - 54 holes

Multiple winners

This table lists the golfers who have won more than one Titleholders Championship.

Country	Golfer	Total	Years
United States	Patty Berg †	7	1937, 1938, 1939, 1948, 1953, 1955, 1957
United States	Louise Suggs ∞	4	1946, 1954, 1956, 1959
United States	Babe Zaharias †	3	1947, 1950, 1952
United States	Dorothy Kirby †	2	1941, 1942
United States	Mickey Wright ‡	2	1961, 1962
United States	Marilynn Smith †	2	1963, 1964
United States	Kathy Whitworth	2	1965, 1966

Winners by nationality

This table lists the total number of titles won by golfers of each nationality as a major.

Nationality	Number of wins
United States	27
Uruguay	1