Louise Suggs Named 2007 USGA Bob Jones Award Winner


September 28, 2006

E-mail address: mediarelations@usga.org

Far Hills, N.J. - Louise Suggs , a three-time USGA champion and a founding member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association, has been selected as the recipient of the 2007 United States Golf Association Bob Jones Award.

Louise Suggs won three USGA championships: a Women's Amateur and two Women's Opens. (USGA Photo Archives)

Presented annually since 1955, the USGA's highest honor is given in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. The award seeks to recognize a person who emulates Jones' spirit, his personal qualities and his attitude toward the game and its players. The award will be presented Feb. 3 at the Association's Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Calif.

Suggs, 83, of St. Augustine, Fla., was introduced to the game by her father. As a native of Atlanta, she had the opportunity to play golf with Jones on several occasions.

"It's an incredible honor to win this award named for Bob Jones ," said Suggs. "Being a native Atlantan I admired and respected him immensely, and I even patterned my own game after him. To be honored with this award is the ultimate accolade I could possibly receive."

Suggs won the 1947 U.S. Women's Amateur with a 2-up victory over Dorothy Kirby at Franklin (Mich.) Hills Country Club. Among the many highlights of her amateur career were multiple victories at the Georgia State Women's Amateur; Women's Southern Amateur Championship, North & South Women's Amateur and the Women's Western Amateur. She won the Women's Western Open twice as an amateur, in 1946 and 1947. She concluded her amateur career with a victory at the 1948 Ladies' British Open Amateur Championship and a selection to the 1948 USA Curtis Cup team.

She turned professional in 1948 and won her first U.S. Women's Open a year later, by 14 strokes over Babe Didrikson Zaharias at Prince Georges Golf and Country Club in Landover, Md. That margin of victory remains a championship record. She added a second Women's Open title she won the 1952 championship by seven strokes at Bala Golf Club in Philadelphia, Pa. Suggs is one of just seven women to have won both the U.S. Women's Amateur and the U.S. Women's Open. She played in 29 Women's Opens, and has more top-5 (14 times) and top-10 (19 times) finishes than anyone in the championship's history. She finished with 58 professional victories, including 11 major titles, and the LPGA Tour's Rookie of the Year Award is named in her honor.

In addition to her noteworthy accomplishments on the golf course, she was equally productive off it. She served as president of the LPGA three times and was a member of the first class of honorees to be inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame, in 1951. In 1954, she won the first Sea Island Ladies Open Invitational at the club on St. Simons Island, Ga., beginning an association with Sea Island Golf Club that would last more than 50 years. She became the club's first touring professional and later a teaching professional at the club. In 2000, she was inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame a second time, into the Teaching and Club Professional Division.

In 1966, she became the first woman ever elected to the Georgia Athletic Hall of Fame, and in 1979 she was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. In 2000, she received both the Patty Berg Award and the Commissioner's Award, along with her fellow LPGA founders, for her contributions to and support of the LPGA and the game of golf. That same year, she was chosen to raise the USA flag at the opening ceremonies of the Solheim Cup.

Bob Jones Award Winners