Major Championship Comes To Seattle
Rainier Golf and Country club hosts the LPGA major Women's Western Open in 1959
The excitement was palatable ever since the Women’s Western Golf Association announced, on Tuesday, May 15th, 1957, that the 1959 Women’s Western Open Golf Tournament would be held at Rainier Golf and Country Club in Seattle. When the dates for the tournament, August 13th through August 16th, were announced on Monday, September 30th, 1958, the excitement and anticipation grew.
Seattle did not have a major professional team and, as far as landing in the national sports spotlight, the town could only boast about staging the best hydro race in the country, the largest Golden Gloves tournament on the West Coast, and a sell-out Man of the Year in Sports show each year. The University of Washington football team hired Jim Owens in 1957, but the jury was still out as his first two seasons were unremarkable.
The Seattle Open on the men’s professional golf tour departed from the scene in 1945 when Byron Nelson won the event at Broadmoor Golf Club and would not return until 1961. The LPGA last visited Seattle in 1952 in the unique cross country 144 Hole Weathervane tournament. This tournament featured four 36-hole legs played over several weeks at different courses around the country, with each leg being considered an official event and crowned an overall winner at the completion of 144 holes. Babe Didrikson Zaharis blew into town with a six-shot lead in the third leg but was caught, and passed by, Betsy Rawls who put the tournament away at the final leg at Scarsdale Golf Club in Hartsdale, NY, and Deepdale Country Club in Great Neck, NY.
Zaharis passed away on September 27th, 1956, and her memory loomed large over the LPGA.
It wouldn’t be until 1962 when Seattle put on the Century 21 World’s Fair that helped transform Seattle from a town to a city. The arrival of the Seattle Sonics of the National Basketball Association put the major league stamp on the city. Hosting the 1959 Women’s Western Open was done with a small-town flair built on big city aspirations.
After such a long wait, in a town that hungered for a major sporting event, Seattle was finally getting the opportunity to take its place in the national spotlight with the prestigious Women’s Western Open, recognized as a major championship by the LPGA. It was time to form committees and begin the long process of preparation to host an event of this magnitude.
Committees were formed utilizing Rainier membership, and local golf officials, that would handle everything fincluding the production of the program, the selling of tickets, publicity for the event, transportation, and caddie assignments. Mrs. Mae Jones was named the chairman and Mrs. Gordon Greene was named co-chairman. Mr. Paul Fiorito was named a co-chairman along with George Skarich, the president of the club.
After more than a year of preparation it was time to welcome the women to Rainier. The women had a two-week break from the Mt. Prospect Open in Illinois that wrapped up on July 26th, before the start of the Western Open on August 13th, which left a lot of time for the players to make their way to Seattle.
By the first week of August, the field had an entry list of 160 players including 25 professional members of the LPGA. Seattle’s two major daily newspapers, The Seattle Daily Times and The Seattle Post Intelligencer, had their ace reporters, from the sports page to the editorial page to the women’s page, on the beat covering the happenings at Rainier. Parties at private residences, receptions on the deck at Rainier and luncheons were all held with the involvement of women representatives from all the Seattle area country clubs.
The Post-Intelligencer reporter Edna Daw wrote about how Bermuda shorts and sleeveless blouses were all the rage, but you wouldn’t catch Patty Berg in the new fashions. She wore more traditional outfits of flannel skirts and slacks matched with sweaters.
Phil Taylor, sports page columnist for the P-I, wrote about how Rainier was the perfect venue for the women golfers as the course matched the play of the women in much the same way that most courses played for men. He also touched on the fact that the greens at Rainier were of a different type of grass than the women pros were used to at courses around the country.
With the long layoff between the Mt. Prospect Open and the Western Open, there was plenty of time for women to play practice rounds at Rainier and get acclimated to its intricacies. Patty Berg and Betsy Rawls scored near par in their practice round and Kathy Whitworth impressed fans with the length of her drives. Most players were in agreement that Rainier’s thick rough would pose a challenge once the tournament started. The rough around the greens were especially troublesome to play from.
With three late entrants, the accomplished amateurs Judy Eller, Shirley Englehorn, and Pat Lesser Harbottle, the field was now set. There were 135 amateurs and 25 pros entered including JoAnne Gunderson of Kirkland, the winner of the Women’s Western Amateur, and local LPGA pro Ruth Jessen.
Seattle area golf fans could purchase tickets for the event from local golf courses and could park at a nearby Boeing lot with shuttle bus service to and from the course.
The first round got underway on August 13th with perfectly gorgeous weather conditions and was the first of two qualifying rounds. The 32 top spots after qualifying would play in the championship flight while the others would be seeded by score into flights of 16. Pros who failed to qualify for the championship flight were still eligible to share in the $6,500 purse.
Jameson holed out a wedge from 40-yards at the long 11th hole for her birdie and then holed another wedge, from virtually the same distance, on the par-5 14th hole for her eagle.
Betsy Rawls, the leading money winner on the LPGA with $19,650, took the lead after the first round with a 70. She played the front nine in 38, two over par, but then got hot on the back nine shooting a 32. Her 70 gave her a one-shot lead over Betty Jameson who matched Rawls’ 38 on the front before shooting a back nine 33 that featured a birdie and an eagle.
Jameson holed out a wedge from 40-yards at the long 11th hole for her birdie and then holed another wedge, from virtually the same distance, on the par-5 14th hole for her eagle. Rawls got her back nine going when she rifled a second-shot approach at the long and difficult 11th hole to within three-feet of the hole and made birdie. She added birdies at the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 18th holes.
Louise Suggs was another stroke back, at even-par 72, while Marlene Bauer Hagge and Murle MacKenzie, a 19-year-old from St. Petersburg, FL, were at 73. Gunderson shared the amateur lead with Sue DeVoe of Medford, OR, with the score of 77. Gunderson lost three shots on the par-4, 8th hole, when her approach shot went over the green and out-of-bounds.
Defending champion Patty Berg could not score a single birdie all day and needed 35 putts on her way to a 76. Suggs birdied three consecutive holes starting at the par-4 5th hole but ran into trouble on the uphill 9th hole where her approach ended up next to a tree right of the green leading to a double-bogey. Hagge’s round was undone with five bogeys on the back nine. Seattle’s Ruth Jessen never got on track shooting an 81.
The Seattle Post Intelligencer writer, Phil Taylor, described the conditions for the second-round as “a cool, capricious wind that kicked up around Rainier Golf Club yesterday, casting a chill over the second day scoring.”
Rawls could do no better than a 76 in the windy conditions and Jameson was able to catch her shooting a 75 to tie for the lead at 146. After Rawls played the back nine so well in the first-round, she could not match the performance in the second-round where she had five bogeys. Jameson scrambled saving pars several times with her putting.
A large gallery, estimated between 3,500 and 4,000 braved the wind and chilly temperatures bringing the total for the first two days to over 7,000.
It looked like Gunderson was going to make a move as she made the turn in one-under but laid it all to waste with a struggling back nine where she had four bogeys. None of the players matched Rainier’s par with the best score of the day being a 73 from Joyce Ziske of Waterford, WI, who sat alone in second place at 149, three strokes behind the leaders.
Hagge added a second round 77 and was tied for third with Beverly Hanson who had a pair of 75s, Patty Berg who came back with a second round 74, and Kathy Cornelius who added a 74 to her first round 74. Suggs was another stroke back after shooting a 79 to her first round 72.
A large gallery, estimated between 3,500 and 4,000 braved the wind and chilly temperatures bringing the total for the first two days to over 7,000. A score of 163 or better was needed to qualify for the championship flight.
The weather returned to warm and sunny for Saturday’s third round, but the conditions did not help the scoring much. Rawls kept her spot as the pacesetter shooting a 76 and enjoyed a one-stroke lead at 222 over her persistent challenger, Jameson, who shot a 77. Ziske added a 75 in the third round and was at 224. She birdied the tricky par-3 15th hole and finished with another birdie at the 18th hole to keep her hopes alive.
Gunderson shot the round of the day, a two-over 74, that vaulted her up to a tie for fourth place with Suggs, who had a 75, Kathy Cornelius, Patty Berg, and Beverely Hanson, who all had a 76 in the third round.
Rawls missed the 9th green to the right with her approach shot that ended up at the base of a tree. She was unable to take a proper swing at the ball and, after surveying her situation intently, finally pulled a 7-iron out of her bag, took a stance with her back to the flagstick, and ricocheted the ball off the tree advancing it a few yards toward the green. She then looked over her next shot before selecting a sand wedge and then lofted her ball up onto the green where it ran straight into the hole saving her par.
Another large crowd, estimated to be 5,000, brought the total attendance to over 12,000, which was just 8,000 short of the season record total of 20,000 set in Minneapolis.
It was sure to be a record-breaking day Sunday in the final round. Dark clouds obscured the sun but the action on the course was hot, and Betsy Rawls supplied the fireworks. She arrived looking relaxed and did not let the fact that she only hit six greens hold her back. Needing only 23 putts she was able to post a one-under-par 71 for a total of 293 that was good for a six-stroke victory.
JoAnne Gunderson continued here climb up the leaderboard shooting a final round 73 for a total of 299, tied for second-place with defending champion Patty Berg who also shot a final round 73. Another stroke back at 300 were Betty Jameson, who had a 77 in the final round, and Beverly Hanson who shot 74. Louis Suggs soared to a final round 77 and a total of 303 while Joyce Ziske blew to a final round of 82 and finished at 305. Ruth Jessen added a 77 in the fourth round for a total of 311 and won $211.
Rawls putting performance was almost otherworldly as she made numerous putts from the six-foot to 15-foot range to save pars. She also chipped in on the long 4th hole for her first of two birdies, the other birdie coming from a fantastic two-wood tee shot at the long par-3, 13th hole to two-feet for a kick-in. Her only bogey came at the 11th hole where she missed the green and two-putted from 18 feet.
“Rainier Golf and Country Club put on a fine show.”
The $1,313 first-place check added to her other 1959 earnings established a new yearly earnings record for Rawls at $20,963 breaking the previous record of $20,225 set by Marlene Bauer Hagge in 1956. The official amount won by Rawls would be adjusted upward as Rainier Golf and Country Club officials, who were ecstatic with the attendance numbers for the week, decided to add $500 to the purse bringing the total up to $8,000. The extra money would be distributed later.
The final estimate of the size of the gallery over the four days was 15,000 to 20,000 and everybody from the players to the officials, to the gallery, heaped abundant praise on the show put on by Rainier. Legendary Seattle P-I columnist, Royal Brougham, wrote that “Rainier Golf and Country Club put on a fine show.”
It was a big show, produced in a small town, on its way to becoming a major league sports city. And Rainier Golf and Country Club was the perfect stage for the production.
