Betsy King

Born: August 13, 1955, in Reading, Pa.

34

6
• Kraft Nabisco Championship: 1987, 1990, 1997
• LPGA Championship: 1992
• U.S. Women's Open: 1989, 1990

• Member, World Golf Hall of Fame
• Member, U.S. Solheim Cup team, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998
• Captain, U.S. Solheim Cup team, 2007
• LPGA Player of the Year, 1984, 1989, 1993
• Vare Trophy (LPGA low scoring average), 1987, 1993
• LPGA money leader, 1984, 1989, 1993

Betsy King: "With golf, you never know when it's the best you are ever going to play. In my prime, I thought that I was struggling half the time. You are just brutal in the way you think about yourself."

• When she won the 1992 LPGA Championship, King posted rounds of 68-66-67-66. It was the first time any golfer posted four rounds in the 60s at an LPGA major.

• Betsy King was the first to break the $5 million and $6 million marks in LPGA career earnings.

It took Betsy King a while to get started on the LPGA Tour, but once she did, she turned into the best player in the world.

King played collegiately at Furman University, where fellow future Hall of Famer Beth Daniel was a teammate. King was low amateur at the 1976 U.S. Women's Open, then turned pro and joined the LPGA Tour in 1977.

It took her seven years to win her first tournament, but it finally happened at the 1984 Women's Kemper Open. And she was off to the races.

She won twice more in '84, and added four second-place finishes and 21 Top 10 finishes to earn LPGA Player of the Year honors. From 1984 through 1989, King won a total of 20 LPGA events - more wins than any other golfer in the world, male or female, during that time period.

After that first win in 1984, King won at least once each of the next 10 years, with a high of six victories in 1989. She finished in the Top 10 on the money list every year from 1985-95, and again in '97.

Along the way, King was named Player of the Year three times, won two scoring titles and three money titles.

There were some frustrating times in there, however. In 1993 she won a scoring title and the money title, but only one tournament. She finished second five times, including at two majors.

But success, not frustration, was King's hallmark. She averaged a major a year from 1987 to '92, then won a sixth major in 1997. The last of her 34 LPGA wins came in 2001.

With her 30th win in 1995, she gained entry into the LPGA Hall of Fame.

King was one of the biggest and most popular stars on the LPGA from the mid-80s to mid-90s. From 1994 to 2004, there was even an event on Tour hosted by King.

King was also a tireless worker for charitable causes, organizing Habitat for Humanity house building projects and working in former Soviet bloc countries with orphan relief agencies.