Keeping Up With Two-Time WAPL Champion Kelly Leadbetter


March 28, 2005

You'd think Kelly Leadbetter would have felt some pressure to win when she joined the LPGA Tour in 1982. Not only had she won the first two U.S. Women's Amateur Public Links Championships, in 1977 and '78, but her husband just happened to be acclaimed swing guru David Leadbetter, who has worked with the likes of Nick Faldo and Ernie Els and current 15-year-old phenom Michelle Wie.

"Actually, there was never really extra pressure," says Kelly, whose best LPGA finish was a tie for second at the Cellular-One Ping Championship in 1987. "I just always was very proud that David was my husband."

The inaugural WAPL in 1977 drew a surprising 688 entries, with 120 players qualifying for the stroke-play portion of the event at Yahara Hills Golf Course (East Course) in Madison, Wis. Leadbetter, then a student at Arizona State University, defeated Kathy Williams of LaCrescent, Minn., in the final, 1up.

The following year at Myrtlewood Golf Course (Palmetto Course) in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Leadbetter defeated Diana Schwab of Kettering, Ohio, in the final, 5 and 4. In 1979, Leadbetter went for three in a row, but her quest was halted in the first round by Kelly Varty of Elk River, Minn., 2 up.

After hanging up her LPGA spikes in the mid-1990s and settling down in Orlando, Leadbetter shifted her attention to her three children.

"Your priorities change as a mother," she says. Today she teaches part time at the Leadbetter Golf Academy in Bradenton, Fla., and occasionally works with pros Charles Howell III and Justin Rose. Leadbetter also is training to become a Pilates instructor, and her game is still in good form. "I'm actually hitting the ball better than I ever have in my entire life," she says.

Story written by Alan Bastable of Golf Magazine Properties.