LPGA Hall of Fame Entrance Requirements Too Tough--King

Betsy King, who was voted the 1987 Player of the Year by both the Golf Writers Assn. of America and her peers, said entrance requirements for the LPGA Hall of Fame should be changed to a more realistic qualifying procedure.

“When they laid the ground rules for qualifying for the Hall of Fame, there were about 50 players on Tour,” King said. “Winning eight or nine tournaments a year was pretty common then, rather than the exception.

“Today we have 144 really good players out there so it’s a lot harder to win a lot of tournaments. Our Hall of Fame is the hardest to attain of any sport.”

Records substantiate King’s contention.

Since 1970, except for Nancy Lopez’s phenomenal years of 1978 (when she won nine times) and 1979 (eight times), only Hall of Famer Kathy Whitworth has managed to win as many as seven events in one year (1973). In this decade no one has won more than five tournaments in any year.

King, who will defend her Nabisco Dinah Shore title March 31-April 3 at the Mission Hills Country Club, has won 11 tournaments since 1984, more than any other player.

“I had a pretty good year in 1987 by winning four tournaments,” said King, 32. “I’d have to have four or five more years like that to make the Hall of Fame. I’d classify that as an outside chance.

“But I don’t feel the current qualifying procedure is fair to great players as Judy Rankin, Donna Caponi, Jane Blalock, Marlene Hagge, Sandra Palmer and some others who don’t have a chance to make the Hall of Fame unless some changes are made.”

To qualify, a player must win at least 30 official tournaments and two different major championships. With one major, she must win 35 times. Without a major, the requisite is 40 victories.

Rankin, who won the Triple Crown (Player of The Year, low scorer and top money winner) in 1976 and 1977, has 26 victories. Caponi has 24, including four majors (two U.S. Opens and two LPGA championships). Blalock has 29 wins, Hagge 25 and Palmer 21, including a U.S. Open.

The gates to the LPGA Hall of Fame don’t swing open very often. Only 11 players are members of this exclusive club. Only superstars Nancy Lopez, who made it last July, and JoAnne Carner, in 1982, have qualified in the last 10 years.

King said winning the $500,000 Dinah Shore was the key to her successful year. “It was so dramatic, my playoff with Patty (Sheehan), and it was exciting to be doing it on television. Winning my first major by coming through all that pressure gave me a lot of confidence. It made it easier to repeat (win) later in the year.”

King displayed uncharacteristic emotion and animation when she holed a 45-foot bunker shot for a birdie on the 16th hole of the final round to tie Sheehan.

“Well, I was so surprised when that bunker shot went in that I reacted to it,” she explained. “It was a little unexpected. I had just made two bad shots to get into that bunker so the birdie was a shot in the arm.”

However, King said the first extra hole put more pressure on her than trying to catch Sheehan. She drove into the woods, hacked out into the fairway and was confronted with a 95-yard wedge shot to the green. Meanwhile, Sheehan was on the green, 20 feet from the cup. Betsy hit the wedge six feet to the left of the hole and sank the putt to match Patty’s par.

“That was the key hole,” said King, “because when I got the birdie on the 16th hole, I still had two more chances to get one if that shot hadn’t gone in, but this one was the point of no return.”

On the second extra hole, King won her first major championship when Sheehan three-putted. King shot 68-75-72-68--283, five-under par, and took the record $80,000 first prize.

Only Canadian Sandra Post has managed to win consecutive Dinah Shore titles, in 1978 and 1979. Does King think she can duplicate the feat?

“Ask me a week before the tournament or, better still, the Tuesday before it,” she replied. “I still don’t think there’s anybody on Tour who can key on winning a major. It’s just too hard to do with all the good players out there.”

King hopes there will be no wind during this year’s tournament. “I’m not a great wind player,” she said. “I hit my natural shots higher than the other players.”

Considered the best driver on the LPGA Tour by her peers, King says the secret to playing Mission Hills well is to keep the ball in play. “The rough seems to get longer and tougher. The greens have matured and are excellent, but I find them tough to read.”

King began her outstanding year in 1987 with a win in the Circle K Tucson. Next was the Dinah Shore. Then McDonald’s and finally the Atlantic City tournament. In addition, she finished second five times and had 17 top-10 placings.

Betsy won the Vare Trophy with a 71.14 stroke average for 93 rounds, third lowest on LPGA Tour record. She tied Pat Bradley’s mark for most rounds in the 60s with 27. Her $460,385 money winnings was second to Ayoko Okamoto’s $466,034.

Despite these statistics, King lost out to Okamoto as the LPGA Player of the Year. In a year-long point-system competition King lost by a mere two points.

Two days before the Lady Keystone in July, King slipped on a throw rug and sprained her left ankle. She missed two tournaments and said her ankle hurt whenever she had a downhill shot. Did that cost her Player of the Year?

Predictably, King refused to alibi. “Oh, you never know,” she said. “Maybe it was a break for me because it prevented a burn out later in the year.”

King, an 11-year veteran with $1,558,604 in career winnings, is what the pros call a “grinder.” She works hard at her job. “I have a high tolerance level for golf,” she said. “I don’t get sick of it. I like to practice and play in tournaments. In fact, I think I like to practice more than I do playing competitively.”

King also is very active in the LPGA Christian Fellowship and Bible Study group.

Last fall King and nine other pros spent a week in the hills of Tennessee on a project she called “Appalachia Habitat for Humanity.” They helped build two homes for low-income families.

“We hired a professional carpenter to do most of the work but we put up the dry-wall,” said Betsy. “By the end of the week I was able to drive nails almost straight.”