Last March at the Chevron Championship, the LPGA announced that all 13 of the tour’s founders would be included in the LPGA’s hall in an honorary category. Only five of the LPGA’s original founders were in the tour’s Hall of Fame at that time.
Now, seven founders not already in the World Golf Hall of Fame have been named a finalist. Alice Bauer, Bettye Danoff, Helen Detweiler, Helen Hicks, Opal Hill, Shirley Spork and Sally Sessions could join the other six – Patty Berg, Marlene Bauer Hagge, Betty Jameson, Marilynn Smith, Louise Suggs and Babe Zaharias – in the WGHOF.
On Wednesday, the WGHOF released the names of 12 finalists considered for induction in 2024: Padraig Harrington, Tom Weiskopf, Johnny Farrell, Jim Furyk, Dottie Pepper, Sandra Palmer, Beverly Hanson, Cristie Kerr, and contributors Peter Dawson, Butch Harmon and Jay Sigel, with the remaining founders collectively making up the final spot.
Final selections for the 2024 induction class will be announced the week of March 6, 2023. The induction ceremony will be June 10, 2024, at Pinehurst Resort & Country Club in the Village of Pinehurst, North Carolina, and will coincide with the 124th U.S. Open.
Spork died two weeks after learning that she was finally going into the LPGA Hall of Fame at the age of 94. In addition to helping found the LPGA in 1950, Spork was the main driver behind the creation of the LPGA Teaching & Club Pro Division.
Marlene Hagge is now the only living LPGA founder.
