Mrs. Justine B. Cushing

Mrs. Justine B. Cushing, of New York City, won the Championship with a 54-hole score of 231 over the 5,992-yard Lakewood Golf Club course in Point Clear, Ala. Mrs. Philip Cudone was second at 233.

Mrs. Cudone had won the Championship five consecutive years and was bidding to join Mrs. Glenna Collett Vare as the only woman to have won six United States Championships. Mrs. Vare won the United States Women's Amateur Championship six times between the years 1922 and 1935.

Mrs. Gwen Hibbs, of Long Beach, Calif., the defending Champion and Mrs. Mark Porter, of Cinnaminson, N.J., tied for third place, seven strokes back. Mrs. Nancy Rutter, runner-up in 1972 and 1973, had a lost ball and scored a 10 on the first hole. She finished with a total score of 245 and placed sixth in the field of 118.

Mrs. Cushing and Mrs. Hibbs started with 77 in the first round. Mrs. Cudone shot a 79, while Mrs. Porter, the 1949 United States Women's Amateur Champion, scored a 78. Mrs. Porter took the lead, by one stroke, after the second round with a 76 for 154 while both Mrs. Cushing and Mrs. Cudone shot 78s, giving them 155 for 36 holes. Mrs. Hibbs shot 83 in the second round and never challenged again.

Mrs. Porter increased her lead to two strokes after three holes of the final round, but she lost two strokes to par on the fourth as Mrs. Cushing birdied. Mrs. Cushing was then a stroke ahead, and when she finished the first nine in 36, she led Mrs. Cudone by three strokes and Mrs. Porter by five. Mrs. Cushing finished the round with a 76, matched by Mrs. Cudone, while Mrs. Porter shot 84.

The 76s by Mrs. Cushing and Mrs. Cudone in the last round and by Mrs. Porter in the second were the low rounds of the Championship. Mrs. Porter's 76 included an eagle three on the 408-yard, par-5 ninth hole. There were 122 entries and 119 starters from 28 states and Washington, D.C.