HELEN LENGFELD (1898 -1987) Helen Lengfeld was a philanthropist and a humanitarian, but she
is best known for the impact she made on the game of golf.Her golfing career started at the tender age of 8, when her mother insisted that she take golf lessons instead of playing baseball with the boys. By 1912 at the age of 14 she was the youngest member of the now Peninsula Golf and Country Club in San Mateo and in 1926 Helen won the San Francisco Women’s Championship at Lincoln Park Golf Course. That same year Helen helped organize the Women’s Golf Association of Northern California (WGANC) and in 1927 won their women’s championship at Lakeside. In 1941 while president of the WGANC, Helen started the California Women’s Golf Circuit. The Circuit Tournaments were open to private club and public course golfers alike. Babe Zaharias won the first Circuit match play Tournament and the following year Patty Berg won the title. As a result of the success of these circuit tournaments, Helen then started the Pacific Women’s Golf Association (PWGA) for all women golfers, especially those who played public courses. Helen became their first President in 1947 and it rapidly grew into the well-respected organization it is today. Helen was active in sponsoring some of the tournaments, which ultimately resulted in the Ladies Professional Golfers Association. The first of which was a series of 4 tournaments in 1951 with a purse of $5,000.00 to the overall winner. Then to help the lady professionals she sponsored an L.P.G.A. “Gold Coast Tour” with such notable professionals as Babe Zaharias, Patty Berg, Marilyn Smith, Helen Detweiler, Betsy Rawls, Peggy Kirk Bell and many more. There is indeed a long list of Helen Lengfeld’s contributions to the game of golf and notable among them are the 3 tournaments she founded, which ultimately became known as the California Women’s Amateur Championships. The California Junior Girls Championship was the first and the first of it’s kind on the West coast. It began in 1948 at Old Del Monte Golf Course, moved to Carmel Valley Country Club and for years now has been played at the Monterey Peninsula Country Club. Second came the California Women’s Amateur Championship, founded in 1967 and played at Pebble Beach until 1987 when they were invited to make their home at the beautiful Quail Lodge, where the tournament remains to this day. Third in the series is the California Senior Women’s Amateur Championship started in 1979 and held for many years at Old del Monte Golf Course, then Carmel Valley Ranch and now this annual tournament is played at Bayonet Golf Course in Seaside California. In 1949, Helen published the Golfer magazine, which later became known as the National Golfer and in February of 1982 was elected to the California Golf Hall of Fame by the California Golf Writers, the only women so honored at that time. Later she was honored by Golf Digest as one of the five most influential women in golf. A special room has been set-aside in her honor at the U.S. Golf Association’s Golf Museum in New Jersey. She’s in good company, because also honored by the museum are Arnold Palmer and Bobby Jones. Helen died at the age of 88, having dedicated most of her life to the sport and spending much of her personal wealth in support of women’s golf. For a lifetime she did what she did best – helping people who help people and starting golfers from the first tee with what she felt was all important – “PLAY WELL AND HAVE FUN” |
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