The Senior Women’s Amateur Championship was inaugurated in 1962
for women golfers age 50 and older.
By the late 1950s, a number of senior women’s golf organizations
had been formed, principally to conduct tournaments, but there was no
existing tournament to determine the national champion. The USGA was requested
to step in, and in January 1962, the Executive Committee approved such
a competition.
In its own quiet way, senior women’s golf has flourished over the
years.
Several major competitions have sprung up throughout the country, and,
with the expansion of women’s golf, the number of quality senior
players has increased dramatically. Many women, aged 50 and over, for
the first time find they have the requisite time for top-level competitive
golf. Additionally, some of the nation’s finest amateurs have advanced
into this age group and still seek to test their talent and experience
on a championship level. Many women who enter these competitions also
have been instrumental in the development of women’s golf in this
country, encouraging younger players, and conducting tournaments at all
levels.
The first Senior Women’s Amateur Championship, in 1962, at the Manufacturer’s
Golf and Country Club in Oreland, Pa., was a stroke-play showdown of two
longtime rivals. Maureen Orcutt, a four-time Curtis Cup player, finished
with a 54-hole score of 240, seven strokes ahead of Glenna Collett Vare.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Vare reigned as this country’s finest woman
player with a record six victories in the U.S. Women’s Amateur.
Great players of the past have thus far dominated the Senior Women’s
Amateur. Carolyn Cudone, another former Curtis Cupper, won the championship
five times in succession between 1968 and 1972.
Dorothy Porter won four Senior Women’s Amateur championships and
is one of only four players to have also captured the U.S. Women’s
Amateur. In 1993, Anne Sander, the Women’s Amateur champion in 1958,
1961 and 1963, won her fourth Senior Women’s Amateur.
Marlene Stewart Streit, U.S. Women’s Amateur champion in 1956, won
the Senior Women’s Amateur in 1985 and 1994 and was runner-up a record
five times. The 38-year span between Streit’s first and last USGA
titles is the longest among all USGA champions.
Carol Semple Thompson won the 1973 Women’s Amateur and added her
fourth Senior Women’s Amateur title in 2002.
After 35 years of stroke-play champions, the 1997 championship became
the first Senior Women’s Amateur to be conducted at match play. It
was the last of the 10 national amateur championships to adopt a match-play
format.
