Golf Honors Judy Rankin

Judy Torluemke Rankin. Photo credit: www.lpga.com

Unless we have long memories most of us know Judy Rankin as an informed and very knowledgable golf commentator who primarily works LPGA events for Golf Channel but also joins the television coverage team for occasional PGA TOUR events. Her commentary inevitably humanizes the players, helps us appreciate the difficulty of a well-delivered shot and understand how and why a shot goes wrong. Rankin was one of the on-course commentators for The Open Championship where the 70-year old, gamely decked out in a rain suit, rain hat and umbrella, proved her mettle by delivering her predictably first-rate championship commentary on the best of championship golf. But Judy Rankin embodies a good deal more than her current persona as a sports broadcaster.

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Rankin’s love affair with golf goes back to her childhood when, as an 8-year old, she played in and won her first national competition, The National Pee Wee Championship. She and her father traveled from St. Louis to Orlando to the tourney and financed their trip with $400, presented to them in a suitcase by the Triple A Club, where 8-year Judy Torluemke had learned and practiced her golf.

That’s how the story of Rankin’s love affair with golf begins and it also traces the origins of the JTR Suitcase Fund.

Rankin went on from her victory at the National Pee Wee Championship to become the youngest ever winner of the Missouri Amateur in 1959, a record that still stands, and turn pro in 1962 at the age of 17, a pattern that would be repeated into the present.

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Over the course of her 20-year pro golf career Rankin earned 28 professional victories, was LPGA Player of the Year twice, three times won the Vare Trophy. She twice captained victorious United States Solheim Cup teams (1996 and 1998) and was inducted into the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2000.

Rankin’s off-course honors and accolades mirror and match her on-course accomplishments. Let me hit the highlights: Texas Sports Hall of Fame (1999). GWAA’s William H. Richardson Award (1999), Patty Berg Award (1999), PGA of America’s First Lady of Golf Award (1999), Texas Women’s Hall of Fame (2000) and United States Sports Academy’s Distinguished Service Award (2000), Dave Marr Memorial Award from the Shell Oil Company (2001), and the USGA Bob Jones award (2002).

Just slightly more than a year ago, on June 2, 2014, Rankin’s newly formed The JTR Suitcase Fund, Inc. filed for nonprofit status with the Texas Secretary of State, signaling the beginning of her 3rd career shift.

The organization’s mission — “to support young girls in making golf a game for life and removing hurdles necessary for them to play and compete at a local, regional, and national level” — derived directly from that suitcase containing $400 that financed father and daughter’s trip to the National Pee Wee Championship.

Of this new venture Rankin says:

"“We are just beginning. . . A new website has launched very recently that I hope to be pretty active with on a weekly basis. Maybe fun, maybe informative and I hope worthwhile.”"

And now the Northern Ohio Golf Charities have added Judy Rankin’s name to a list of the biggest names in the game who have given back to the sport — Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, and Nancy Lopez — with this year’s Ambassador of Golf Award, presented at the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational at Firestone Country Club.

Nicely done, Judy Rankin!

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