Woman of Distinction Award

he Woman of Distinction Award was first presented to Patty Berg in 1994.  It is given to women who have displayed leadership qualities, involvement and commitment to the game on either the amateur or professional level. 

The honoree will have also participated in or won a Women’s Western tournament.  Other professional recipients who have received the award include Louise Suggs, Nancy Lopez, Peggy Kirk Bell, Betty Jameson, Wiffi Smith and most recently Carol Mann.

Amateur recipients include Carol Semple Thompson and WWGA Directors:  June Beebe Atwood, Alice Dye, Judy Bell, Ann Upchurch and Co McArthur. 

WOMEN’S WESTERN GOLF ASSOCIATION’S
2008 WOMAN OF DISTINCTION HONOREE

Carol was a highly successful LPGA tour professional from 1961 through 1981 winning 38 tournaments including two major titles, the 1964 Women’s Western Open and the 1965 US Open at Atlantic City Country Club. All of her victories came within 11 years, 1964-1975.  Her illustrious amateur career included winning the 1958 WWGA Junior Championship held at the Inverness Golf Club in Palatine, Illinois.

Between 1973 and mid 1976, she served as president of that association and was responsible for major organizational structure changes such as the naming of its first Commissioner and Board of Directors to help shift to greater business, television and marketing focus. Prize money increased by over 800% and television exposure went up by 600% within four years.

Carol was under contract to NBC television for seven years, from 1977 through 1984 for broadcasts of the PGA, Champions and LPGA Tours. She has also worked for ABC, ESPN and a host of syndicated golf productions.

Carol achieved LPGA (1977) and now World Golf Hall of Fame (1998) status. She is an honorary member of the LPGA Teaching and Club Professional Division and a member of the PGA of America. Carol has received numerous awards for her contributions to women's golf, women's sports, education, and career development.

She was elected to membership in the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame, the Collegiate Golf Hall of Fame, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Athletic Hall of Fame, and was selected as one of the 100 Heroes of American Golf in 1988.  Carol is a member of the USGA, National Golf Foundation, Shivas Irons Society, Women's Sports Foundation, and locally, serves Rice University on the Women's Athletics 100 Club.

Between 1980 and 2002, Carol created and produced golf hospitality programs for Fortune 100 and 500 companies on the PGA and Champions Tours. Typically, these companies will invite 200 guests each day. Carol has been the golf host and responsible for all golf communications. Her major client since 1980 through the 2002 was AT&T, with over 150 programs being developed and presented at professional golf tournaments. Other major clients have been U S West, Nynex, and Bell Atlantic. This activity has allowed Carol to closely witness the growth, changes in and popularity of men's professional golf during the past 22 years.

Ms. Mann has given speeches to corporate and non-profit groups all over the country, as well as conducting over 700 golf clinics.

Carol has authored a book, The 19th Hole; a long running and award winning golf column for the now defunct Houston Post; many articles for golf publications; former Professional Advisor to Senior Golfer Magazine.

She makes appearances at trade shows, industry meetings, speeches, corporate hospitality programs, golf outings, produced the first golf shows on the QVC network, and golf clinics.

Carol has consulted with established and emerging golf companies, providing recommendations, feasibility studies, strategic planning, product development and specifications, market demographics and definitions, and business directions. Formerly with Wilson Golf for 35 years, Carol has served the innovative Adams Golf Company.

Currently, along with Gary Player and Ben Crenshaw, Ms. Mann is a special Ambassador and consultant for the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida. She recently produced the renowned Ben Hogan exhibit commemorating Hogan's three major wins in 1953 as well as the exhibit documenting the 2003 historic performance of Annika Sorenstam at the Bank of America Colonial tournament on the PGA Tour.

In 2005 Towson University, near Baltimore, hired Carol to serve as a Special Consultant for the men and women's Division 1 golf teams.

In addition, Carol is associated with The Woodlands Country Club, The Woodlands, Texas to provide teaching and player development services for its members and guests. Carol coaches aspiring players of all ages and levels of skill. Golf Digest recently named her one of the top teachers in Texas.

As a member of the women's sports community Carol believed it was important to influence the direction of women's sports. Along with other prominent women athletes, she has advocated for Title IX with three Presidents of the United States, Carter, Reagan, and Bush, along with members of Congress. The Women's Sports Foundation elected her president from 1985 through 1990. During that time one initiative she developed and conducted a three million dollar fundraising campaign for this non-profit group. She served on its Board of Trustees from 1980 through 1991.

Ms. Mann continues to make charity important. As Honorary Chairman of the Rice Golf Classic since 1993, an all-women's fund-raiser for women's athletics at Rice University, that program has gained over $470,000.

Carol attended Woman's College of the University of North Carolina, now the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she majored in Physical Education. She turned professional in October of 1960. Married in 1979 to fellow professional golfer, Jim Hardy, but the couple divorced in 1988. Ms. Mann lives in The Woodlands, Texas with her cat, Boo Boo. Carol loves to garden and learns from an intense Bible study program.

BETTY JAMESON HONORED WITH
WWGA’S WOMAN OF DISTINCTION AWARD
 

BETTY JAMESON

At the WWGA’s Annual Meeting held during the 28^th National Senior Championship at Hershey Country Club, Hershey, Pa., President Barbara H. West announced that BETTY JAMESON is the 2006 recipient of the Women’s Western Golf Association’s Woman of Distinction Award.

Betty has a long and illustrious golfing career.  She is one of the 13 founders of the LPGA and won 13 events during her career – 12 as a pro and one as an amateur. 

Born in Norman, Okla., she began playing golf at age 11.  She was an accomplished amateur winning 14 significant championships before turning pro in 1945.  She won the 1932 Texas Publinx title at age 13 and the Southern Championship when she was 15. 

Her major victory as an amateur was the 1942 Women’s Western Open, then a major championship (held from 1930-1967.)  During that year she became the first player to win the Women’s Western Open and the 42^nd Women’s Western Amateur Championship.  She was the Finalist at the 1937 WWGA Amateur and won the tournament in 1940 as well as in 1942.  Betty was the runner-up at the 1949 WWGA Open Championship when Louise Suggs took home the title.  She was runner-up to Betsy Rawls in 1952 and won the championship again in 1954 when she defeated Louise Suggs.

She conceived the idea of annually honoring the golfer with the lowest scoring average on the LPGA Tour and in 1952 donated a trophy for that purpose in the name of Glenna Collett Vare.  In 1967 when the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame was instigated, Betty was one of the six inaugural inductees.  She was inducted into the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Hall of Fame in 1999 and at the LPGA’s 50^th anniversary (in 2000) was honored as one of the LPGA’s top-50 players and teachers.  In 2004, August 14th was proclaimed “Betty Jameson Day” in Delray Beach, Fla. to commemorate her career accomplishments.

Previous recipients of this prestigious award include Patty Berg, June Beebe Atwood, Alice Dye, Ann Upchurch, Louise Suggs, Judy Bell, Nancy Lopez, Carol Semple Thompson, Co McArthur, Wiffi Smith and Peggy Kirk Bell.

Peggy Kirk Bell
2005 WWGA Woman of Distinction

PEGGY KIRK BELL is one of America’s best known, most admired and most honored golf celebrities.

As an amateur in the 1940s, Peggy was one of the nation’s best players.  She played in many WWGA tournaments … in 1949 she was the Finalist in the Women’s Western Amateur Championship held at Westmoreland Country Club in Wilmette, Ill.  In 1950 she was Runner-up to Babe Zaharias at the Women’s Western Open held at Cherry Hills Country Club, Englewood, Colo.  Peggy won the coveted WWGA Marion Miley Trophy in 1948 and again in 1950.  The trophy, a 14K gold bracelet, was awarded to the low qualifier in the WWGA Amateur and WWGA Open.  During the 1940s she also won the Ohio Women’s Amateur three times and captured the North and South Amateur in Pinehurst.  Other major wins were the Eastern Amateur and the Augusta Titleholders.

Bell was a charter member of the LPGA.  As an amateur, she teamed with Babe Zaharias to capture the International Four Ball and was a member of the USGA Curtis Cup team in 1950.

Author of many books on golf, she has produced instructional videotapes including:  “How to Play Your Best Golf” and “Women’s Golf” and is a frequent contributor to many national golf publications.

Bell moved to Southern Pines, N.C. in 1953 when she and her late husband (Warren) purchased Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club.  She became owner of Mid Pines Inn & Golf Club, also in Southern Pines, in 1994.  Both resorts feature classic Donald Ross golf courses that date to the mid 1920s.  When the Bells purchased Pine Needles in 1953, one of her first projects was establishing a unique series of golf schools called “Golfaris”.  She is a pioneer in the creation of golf schools and is one of the game’s finest teachers.

Throughout her career as a player and resort owner, Mrs. Bell has been a tireless contributor to the game of golf.  For her many contributions she has been the recipient of numerous major awards including the USGA’s Bob Jones Award; the Golf Writer’s Association’s William Richardson Award, the National Golf Course Owners Order of Merit award and now, Bell can add the coveted Women’s Western’s Woman of Distinction Award.  She is in four Golf Halls of Fame, a Master Golf Professional, active in a number of civic, charitable and sports organizations including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

The USGA awarded Pine Needles the 1996 U.S. Women’s Open where Bell served as Honorary Chairman.  The event returned in 2001 and will be held again at Pine Needles in 2007.
 

The WWGA is proud to award this

honor to Peggy Kirk Bell!

McArthur and Smith Receive
2004 Woman of Distinction Awards
  

WWGA Director, Co McArthur Receives
2004 Woman of Distinction Award

Corine McArthur, affectionately known as Co or Cozy, to her many friends and fellow Directors of the Women's Western Golf Association and Foundation, received the WWGA's 2004 Woman of Distinction Award at the Maple Bluff Country Club in Madison, Wisconsin.

Co joined the WWGA in 1968 and has been in charge of the scoreboards for the three National Championships for many years.  She has also been the foundation Secretary and has ably managed the Foundation's nationwide Scholarship Day.  This is a most important job as it is the Foundation's main source of revenue and yes, Scholarship Day is still McArthur Day across the country!

Co, we thank you for the many years of devoted service to the WWGA and the WWGF. 
CONGRATULATIONS! THE HONOR IS WELL-DESERVED!!!

Wiffi Smith to be Honored at the
Senior Championship with the
2004 WWGA's Woman of Distinction Award

The Women's Western Golf Association is pleased to announce that the 2004 Woman of Distinction Award will be presented to Wiffi Smith, LPGA, at the Contestants' Dinner, Sunday evening, September 26th, 2004.

Wiffi had an outstanding Amateur career before turning pro in 1957.

Peggy Kirk Bell says of Wiffi..."Wiffi simply had it all, starting with one of the Greatest swings of all time.  She was longer off the tee than anyone, including Mickey Wright and she'd have been the greatest ever, were it not for the accident". 
(Wiffi severely damaged both wrists in a motor-scooter accident)
 

She has spent many years teaching in Florida, Pine Needles and Colorado and still travels to teaching assignments all over the country.  We are indeed honored to have Wiffi with us and she has graciously consented to give two clinics, which will take place Sunday, September 26th.  One in the morning and one in the afternoon, thereby accommodating the practice round T Times.  Please check clinic times at the Registration Desk.