LPGA Amateur Golf Association

Women’s Golf at Pinehurst

Women have been an integral part of Pinehurst’s greatest moments.

Women competed against men in the first North & South Amateur in 1901. Two years later, the Women’s North & South Amateur Championship was played for the first time. At 117 years, it is the longest consecutively running women’s amateur championship in America.

Women’s North & South champions are among the legends of the game, and include many of the founders of the LPGA. Maureen Orcutt, Estelle Lawson Page, Babe Zaharias, Louise Suggs, Peggy Kirk Bell and Hollis Stacey were among the Amateur’s most notable early winners.

Estelle Lawson Page watches as Louise Suggs tees off during the 1942 Women’s North & South Amateur.

The Women’s North & South remains an elite event. Eleven of the last 15 champions have joined the LPGA Tour, and four of them have won major championships – Morgan Pressel, Yani Tseng, Brittany Lang and Danielle Kang.

Pinehurst hosted the 1989 U.S. Women’s Amateur, and in 2014, Pinehurst No. 2 served as the site to its latest round of history with the playing of the 2014 U.S. Women’s Open the week after the U.S. Open. As Martin Kaymer and Rickie Fowler prepared for the final round, they shared the practice range and putting green with several of the LPGA Tour’s greatest stars, who then followed the final groups while walking just inside the ropes. Seven days later, Michelle Wie roared to her greatest triumph as LPGA legend Juli Inkster played her last U.S. Women’s Open round.

Michelle Wie was the U.S. Women’s Open champion.

Off the course, sharpshooter Annie Oakley gave exhibitions and managed the Pinehurst Gun Club in the 1920s. Amelia Earhart was a frequent visitor, flying her Beech-Nut Autogyro in and out of Pinehurst Flying Field in the early 1930s. Actress Gloria Swanson dazzled guests at The Carolina Hotel while Helen Keller, Margaret Truman and a number of First Ladies have been regular guests at Pinehurst.

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