Shelley Lee Hamlin

1949 - 2018

Shelley Lee Hamlin

Phoenix - May 28, 1949 - October 15, 2018

Shelley Hamlin was born in San Mateo, California, the first child of Charles and Cathy Hamlin, who had moved west from Tennessee and Virginia after World War II. She grew up in Fresno, California, where she had an exceptional career as an amateur golfer, twice representing her country on the Espirito Santo World Cup and Curtis Cup teams, and finishing runner-up in the 1969 U.S. Women's Amateur Championship. While attending Stanford University, which at the time did not have a women's golf program, she won the California Women's Amateur Championship four consecutive years and won the national intercollegiate individual women's golf championship in 1971; she was later inducted into the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame.

Armed with a political science degree from Stanford in 1971, Shelley chose to try her hand at professional golf on the LPGA Tour. She would go on to play 27 years on the tour, finishing second in the U.S. Women's Open Championship in her second year, winning one unofficial event in Japan in 1975, and winning her first official LPGA tournament, the Patty Berg Classic, in 1978. After another 14 years without a win, and after a modified radical mastectomy in 1991, she went back to the qualifying school to regain her tour status and won the second event of the year, the 1992 Phar-Mor at Inverrary. She would win again the following year at the ShopRite LPGA Classic.

While not a household name in golf, Shelley ultimately won over a million dollars on the tour in an age when purses in women's golf lagged well behind those in the men's ranks. After her remarkable comeback from breast cancer, she was honored with the Philadelphia Sports Writers Most Courageous Athlete Award, the Dr. DeDe Owens Spirit of Golf Award, the Heather Farr Player Award, the William and Mousie Powell Award, and the Golf Writers Association of America Ben Hogan Award. On the LPGA Legends Tour she won the 2002 Fidelity Investments Classic and, while undergoing chemotherapy with stage four cancer, she won her last professional event in the Legends Honors Division at the Walgreen's Charity Classic in 2017 near her home of Laveen, Arizona, beating Jan Stephenson in a playoff.

While remarkable, Shelley's achievements on the golf course do not fully capture her love of the game and everyone connected to it. Always a gallery favorite, she consistently went out of her way to brighten the days of her fellow competitors and spectators. She was a tireless advocate for breast cancer research, speaking often about her story and the need for improved outcomes for women with breast cancer. She fought a valiant fight against metastatic breast cancer, enduring countless courses of hormone and chemotherapy treatments as the disease, which had been in remission for 20 years, finally took her life. She passed peacefully with family at her side.

Shelley leaves behind her life partner of 35 years, Janet Anderson, a few days short of her first wedding anniversary. Janet showed great courage and compassion during Shelley's final years, months and days. Shelley will be missed by her brothers, Tom and Kent Hamlin, her niece Rachel Hilderbrand and her husband, Matthew, and her nephew, Charles Erickson "Eric" Hamlin. The family wants to thank the extraordinary professionals at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, City of Hope in Los Angeles, and the caring nurses and social workers with Hospice of the Valley in Phoenix.

A private memorial will be held in Phoenix on a future date. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages you to donate generously to the Mayo Clinic, City of Hope, or Susan G. Komen For the Cure.