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U.S. Women’s Open: 10 champions from The Babe to Karrie Webb

By Elizabeth Bethel

OAKMONT, PA - JULY 11: Paula Creamer kisses the trophy after her four-stroke victory at the 2010 U.S. Women's Open at Oakmont Country Club on July 11, 2010 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
OAKMONT, PA - JULY 11: Paula Creamer kisses the trophy after her four-stroke victory at the 2010 U.S. Women's Open at Oakmont Country Club on July 11, 2010 in Oakmont, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images) /
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US Women's Open
(Original Caption) 6/29/1957-Mamaroneck, NY- Miss Jackie Pung (L) sits with her head in her hands as she watches Miss Betsy Rawls of Spartanburg, South Carolina receive the winner’s trophy after the final round of the Women’s National Open. Mrs. Pung, of Hawaii, had originally been declared the winner, but it was later discovered that she had added her score incorrectly for one hole. Though her final score was added correctly, Mrs. Pung was disqualified under a ruling adopted last year by the U.S.G.A. /

Betsy Rawls, 1951, 1953, 1957, 1960

Betsy Rawls is the quintessential LPGA golf pro. She joined the Tour in 1951. The LPGA was still in diapers. She won 55 Tour events over the course of her competitive career and served as the LPGA’s president from 1961-62. She was one of six inaugural inductees into the LPGA Hall of Fame, and she was four times U.S. Women’s Open champion. She shares this distinction with Mickey Wright, and they both make my top-10 list because together they dominated the Open competition for a decade or more.

In 1951, her rookie year on the Tour, Rawls defeated Louise Suggs by five strokes at the Druid Hills Golf Club in Atlanta to hoist her first trophy. In 1953 she defeated Jackie Pung in a playoff at the Country Club of Rochester, New York to hoist the trophy again. It was a victory that came as the result of Pung signing an incorrectly added scorecard.

In 1957 Rawls defeated LPGA founder and first US Women’s Open champion Patty Berg by eight stroks at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York to collect her 3rd Open championship. The 4th Open championship came in 1960 at the Worcester MA Country Club when she edged out Joyce Ziske by a single shot.

To win a national championship is a magnificent achievement. To win that national championship four times is extraordinary. Betsy Rawls is extraordinary and her achievement has been equaled by only one other woman, Micky Wright.

Next: Micky Wright - 1958, 1959, 1961, 1964

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