Titleholders Championship

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There have been two professional golf tournaments for women named the Titleholders Championship. The first was of the original women's majors. The current tournament is a standard event on the LPGA Tour.

Contents 1 The original Titleholders Championship 1.1 History 1.2 Winners 1.3 Multiple winners 2 The contemporary Titleholders Championship

[edit] The original Titleholders Championship

[edit] History

The original Titleholders Championship was founded in 1937. Like the Masters Tournament for men, which began a few years earlier, it was played in Augusta, Georgia though at the Augusta Country Club, not at 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 1966, but was revived for one year in 1972, when it was played at Southern Pines, North Carolina. All of these staging are now recognised as major championships by the LPGA, even though the organisation wasn't founded until 1950.

[edit] Winners

Fay Crocker of Uruguay was the only non-American winner.

• 1937 Patty Berg
• 1938 Patty Berg
• 1939 Patty Berg
• 1940 Betty Hicks
• 1941 Dorothy Kirby
• 1942 Dorothy Kirby
• 1943 No tournament
• 1944 No tournament
• 1945 No tournament
• 1946 Louise Suggs
• 1947 Babe Zaharias
• 1948 Patty Berg
• 1949 Peggy Kirk
• 1950 Babe Zaharias
• 1951 Pat O'Sullivan (Amateur)
• 1952 Babe Zaharias
• 1953 Patty Berg
• 1954 Louise Suggs
• 1955 Patty Berg
• 1956 Louise Suggs
• 1957 Patty Berg
• 1958 Beverly Hanson
• 1959 Louise Suggs
• 1960 Fay Crocker - Uruguay
• 1961 Mickey Wright
• 1962 Mickey Wright
• 1963 Marilynn Smith
• 1964 Marilynn Smith
• 1965 Kathy Whitworth
• 1966 Kathy Whitworth
• 1967 No tournament
• 1968 No tournament
• 1969 No tournament
• 1970 No tournament
• 1971 No tournament
• 1972 Sandra Palmer

[edit] Multiple winners

• 7 Patty Berg
• 4 Louise Suggs
• 3 Babe Zaharias
• 2 Dorothy Kirby, Marilynn Smith, Kathy Whitworth, Mickey Wright

[edit] The contemporary Titleholders Championship

A different event with the same name was established in 1996 and is a stop on the LPGA Tour. Like other LPGA Tour events it is dominated by professionals but the winners of nine amateur tournaments also receive invitations.