Who is the greatest woman golfer of all time?

Been wondering about this for a long time.

Even if you had asked me a few years ago a golfing question about the ladies tour, the only answer I could have offered up would have been Laura Davies! But having done a bit of research into it, I thought I would replicate a list I found for debate:

10. Louise Suggs: With 58 tour victories and 11 major championships in the 1940’s and 50’s, this famous golfer won the U.S. Open in 1949 in only 14 strokes. Suggs is famous for her quote: “Golf is very much like a love affair. If you don’t take it seriously, it’s no fun, but if you do, it breaks your heart. Don’t break your heart, but flirt with the possibility.”

9. Betsy King: King toured for her first seven years (1977-1983) without a single win, then swept the Women’s Kemper Open in 1984 and a total of 20 LGPA events between over the next five years. She was the first career golfer to break the $5 million and $6 million earning thresholds.

8. Patty Berg: A professional golfer even before the founding of the LGPA Tour, Berg won the very first Women’s Open in 1946 and was victorious in a record 15 major championships.

7. JoAnne Carner: This golf legend didn’t go pro until she was in her thirties, but went on claim 43 tour victories. In 2004, at 64 years of age, Carner became the oldest player to make the cut at an LGPA tournament.

6. Karrie Webb: One of the most famous female golfers of the late 90’s and early 2000’s, Webb has won seven major championships, set world records, and is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

5. Babe Didrikson Zaharias: This sports hero only took up golf after basketball, baseball, swimming, tennis, and an assortment of other sports. She won gold and silver Olympic medals in track and played in four PGA tournaments against men, making the cut in three. Zaharias was a co-founder of the LPGA.

4. Nancy Lopez: Lopez won 48 tour victories in the 1970’s and 80’s, leading a powerful pack of her contemporaries. She’s known for having said, “The simpler I keep things, the better I play.” She is also the founder of Nancy Lopez Golf, supplying women’s golf clubs.

3. Mickey Wright: With 82 tour victories and 13 major championship victories under her belt, Wright is indisputably one of the sport’s top female players. She won tournaments every year between 1956 and 1969, and reputedly said, “When I play my best golf, I feel as if I’m in a fog, standing back watching the earth in orbit with a golf club in my hands.”

2. Kathy Whitworth: The winner of more LGPA Tour events than any other woman (she snagged 88 of them) and more than any male golfer has won on any other tour, Whitworth certainly deserves a place among the top female golfers.

1. Annika Sorenstam: 72 LPGA victories and 10 major championships to her credit, Sorenstam’s numbers might not stack up against her runners-up. We rank her first because she earned those victories against some of the most competitive players women’s golf has ever fielded. She also shot the lowest round in LPGA history and tied Nancy Lopez for longest LPGA winning streak (five) and Mickey Wright for most wins in two consecutive seasons (10 each year).
Who’s your pick for the top female golfer of all time?

link - http://www.puttlightsout.com/blog/women-golfers/

Do you agree?

1).Mickey Wright
2).Sorenstam
3).Zaharias
4).Lopez
5).Ochoa

Got to be Sorenstam for me purely because of the strength of fields she was up against.

If the poll was for greatest sportswoman of all time then I think Zaharias would win that hands down.

Sorenstam. She'll be back to win more sometime soon too.

D4S

Nice Babe story when she won the British at Gullane No1.

She was standing with an arm on the 5' metal fence surrounding the 1st tee. When her match was called she shouted 'coming' and from a standing start vaulted the fence.
She hit the 500 yard 15th with a drive and 4 iron.

Hobo

All the threads about the womens' game - should we be calling you Loretta?

I take it you dont like women?

And Loretta is fine.

Adam

If you read the golf forum more often , you would know we love only 2 women on here (apart from gael and ladyputt of course)

and they are Megan the Fox and Bella Emberg

What about marion Hollins or other early pioneers of the game?

Got to be Sorenstam really but there are a few good women coming through now who could challenge for g.o.a.t. by the end of their careers (I'm thinking specifically of Tseng). The thing as well is that the womens game is getting a lot more competitive than it was, even in Anneka's day. Such a shame the Ochoa retired so early.

Good shout on Hollins Mac, apparently she was the female Bobby Jones of her day, had a mans handicap at Polo as well apparently.

I read somewhere that Bobby Jones once denied he was the greatest golfer in the world (or similar description) in response to a journalist's question, and replied "The best golfer on the planet is a woman" (or words to that effect).

He was referring to Joyce Wethered.

JAS wrote:Good shout on Hollins Mac, apparently she was the female Bobby Jones of her day, had a mans handicap at Polo as well apparently.

What! A willy to squash on the saddle?

Sorenstam for me at the moment, but as JAS says look to the East for the future.

I can't Belive nobody has mentioned Laura Davies! She has 81 wins 4 of those are majors.

Not sure she's actually a she. Could have put a bit more effort in with ypur user name couldn't you?

Well Joyce did beat Bobby Jones in a match at stan drews.

Skydriver wrote:I read somewhere that Bobby Jones once denied he was the greatest golfer in the world (or similar description) in response to a journalist's question, and replied "The best golfer on the planet is a woman" (or words to that effect).

He was referring to Joyce Wethered.

Doon the Water wrote:Well Joyce did beat Bobby Jones in a match at stan drews.

Not sure about that Doon. I think she had him by the short n'curlies coming down the stretch but I thought he managed to prevail in the end.

Joyce did indeed beat Bobby Jones - several times. They played quite a few exhibition matches - one was at the Thunderbird Club in Palm Springs. Her score was calculated at 68 (it was matchplay) at a time when the course record (including pros) was 69.

Bobby Jones aid of Joyce Wethered - 'I have not played golf with anyone, man or woman, amateur or professional, who made me feel so utterly outclassed. It was not so much the score she made as the way she made it. It was impossible to expect that Miss Wethered would ever miss a shot-and she never did.'

The two best stories about her were the train incident at Sheringham - there's a railway line next to the 17th. She putted for the match as a train roared past, and when asked about it later, said 'what train?'

She also said 'Often women wouldn't be allowed in the club-house. I well remember, while waiting for my male partners to emerge from the locker-room at Sandwich, I kept my hands warm on the radiator of someone's Rolls-Royce.'

It's hard to say where Joyce should be included in lists of professionals. Golf was a very different game then, and times were very different too. Two other great amateurs who should be included are Cecil Leitch, and Glenna Collet. Leitch won as many times as Wethered did, and Glenna Collett won 59 of 60 matches in a row - only losing the other because of a fluke.

As a boy I caddied for Charlotte Beddows [Watson], Jean Donald and R T Peel. All british Champions.
Charlotte Beddows was still playing for the County [East Lothian] at the age of 73.
R T Peel Is supposed to have scored a 62 gross in the first round of her final at Turnberry
Nedless to say I grew up with a healthy respect for Womens Golf.

I remember someone picking up a Jean Donald club and asking if he [sic] was a French professional.

Apolgies Doon. Joyce Wethered did indeed beat Bobby Jones. I thought she'd chucked it away went she 3-putted 17.

That's quite a 3-ball you've quoted there Doon.

R.T.Peel: I knew her as (Mrs) Marjory Draper. She went by the nickname of Scroggie. I remember when playing in 'a scottish' at Dornoch, the story went that both she and Helen Holm quite literally drank the club captain under the table! Hadn't appreciated till now that Marjory Draper was that good though.

I have played with Charlotte Beddows (her chauffeur caddied for her) at Gullane (I think). She enjoyed a wee dram too!

i have no idea- monty maybe, if he isnt a lady then he certainly needs a bra

Curent greatest to have played: Sorenstam
Future greatest(not too distant at this rate) Tseng
Hopefull distant future great: Mavette, at least that's her goal

Gael
I was about to say I was wrong, my daughter has 'borrowed' my book and I could not check.
After your post I seemed to remember that in one match she 'missed' a few short putts on the closing holes so as not to embarass Jones.
Strongly reccomend her book to any golfer, it gives a great insight to 'amateur' golf at that time.

Mrs Beddows was quite a warhorse eh!
She did not enjoy losing and was not averse to using the rule book to her advantage. Hope you survived against her!
Mrs Draper's stepson Jim Draper won the Scotish Championship. Fair old golfing family.

Doon, by the time I got to play with her (in a stroke play comp) she was a fair age and I would have been in my twenties so I can't remember too much about our game together. But now you mention it, she did carry the reputation for having quite a robust personality!

I think my memory of her is slightly skewed as I have in my possession a charming letter from her addressed to my step-father thanking him for his hospitality.

My abiding memory of her is of playing the one-arm bandit (remember those?) with one hand whilst holding a glass of whisky in the other. Happy days!