(Photo by Harry Warnecke/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
By Joel Beall
The coronavirus pandemic has hit a giant pause button on fans being able to watch golf on TV, and in some cases, even kept people off courses. But while we hunker down and hope for a speedy return to normalcy, we can also use this time as an opportunity to learn more about the game we love. Here’s our latest instalment of “Did you know?”
A grand total of six women have teed it up on the PGA Tour. However, only one has ever made a cut.
That would be the great Babe Didrikson Zaharias.
A late adaptor to golf, Zaharias turned to the sport in 1935 after winning gold in track and field in the 1932 Olympics. Zaharias first entered the 1935 Cascades Open, missing the cut with an 88 and 86. Her follow-up performance was a WD at the 1937 Chicago Open, and she missed the cut at next year’s Los Angeles Open with consecutive rounds in the 80s.
But Zaharias persisted and made the 36-hole cut at the 1945 Los Angeles Open, and though a Saturday 81 prohibited her from playing on Sunday, she would make the cut and played all 72 holes at the Phoenix Open and Tuscon Open. She would play just once more on Tour, missing the weekend at the 1946 L.A. Open.
Zaharias attempted to become the first open to qualify for the U.S. Open in 1948, but her application was rejected by the USGA, which said only men could enter the event.
Despite her late introduction to the game, Zaharias won 10 women’s majors and over 40 events in her career, and in 1950 become one of the 13 founding members of the LPGA. There have been 12 starts on Tour by women since Zaharias’ last event, the most recent being Brittany Lincicome at the 2018 Barbasol Championship.
