Shirley Spork was a golfer and teaching pro who co-founded the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) in 1950.
- Died: April 12, 2022 (Who else died on April 12?)
- Details of death: Died in Palm Springs, California at the age of 94.
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A legacy of teaching
Spork was an amateur golf champion as a teen and when she played for Michigan State Normal College, now Eastern Michigan University. Shortly after her graduation, she and a group of 12 other prominent women golfers joined together to form the LPGA. Spork began playing on the LPGA Tour, but she sensed her greatest skill was not as a top player but as a teacher. She continued playing part time on the tour while working as a teaching pro. Spork became the first female pro at the Tamarisk Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, teaching celebrities including Nat King Cole (1919–1965) and Dean Martin (1917–1995). But more important was her teaching of generations of women golfers in a career that spanned most of her life as she taught even in her 90s. She was behind the creation of the LPGA Teaching & Club Pro Division, and she was named LPGA Teacher of the Year twice. Spork was honored with the LPGA’s prestigious Patty Berg Award, and in 2019, she was inducted into the PGA of America Hall of Fame. The LPGA had announced just two weeks before her death that she would be inducted into its Hall of Fame.
Notable quote
“I’ve been very fortunate to teach golf for seven decades. Every 10-year span the methodology has changed.” —from a 2021 interview for Golfweek
Tributes to Shirley Spork
Full obituary: LPGA
