Former LPGA commissioner Mike Whan used to call his annual round of golf at the Founders Cup with Shirley Spork the highlight of his year. Spork, 94, is one of 13 women who started the tour in 1950. Five years ago, as Spork addressed her pro-am group on the ninth tee at Phoenix’s Wildfire Golf Club, she said: “I’d just like to thank you all for inviting me to play.”
To which three-time major winner Anna Nordqvist replied: “We wouldn’t be here without you.”
Spork was on hand in New Jersey last week for the revamped Cognizant Founders Cup, which now boasts the richest purse on tour outside the majors and the CME Group Tour Championship. During Sunday’s telecast, Golf Channel’s Grant Boone noted that only five of the tour’s 13 founders are in the LPGA Hall of Fame.
Spork is not among them.
How can some of the women who laid the foundation for generations to come not be in the LPGA Hall of Fame? It’s as head-scratching as the fact that Lorena Ochoa isn’t in there either. Or Laura Davies for that matter.
Professional golfer and co-founder of the LPGA Tour, Shirley Spork stands on the first tee box during competition rounds of the Solheim Cup golf…
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