King, "Betsy" (Elizabeth)
Golf
b. Aug. 13, 1955, Reading, PA
King was a member of the national intercollegiate championship golf team at Furman University in 1976. She joined the LPGA tour after graduating in 1977 but didn't win her first tournament until 1984, when she had three wins.
The 5-foot-6 blonde was the tour's leading money-winner in 1984 with $266,771 and she also took the player of the year award.
King claimed her first major victory in 1987, when she holed a bunker shot on the 70th hole of the Dinah Shore to tie Patty Sheehan, and she then beat Sheehan in a playoff.
In 1989, King won her first U. S. Women's Open and set a record by winning $654,132 to claim her second player of the year award. She repeated in the Open in 1990 and also won her second Dinah Shore championship that year.
King was the tour's money leader and player of the year again in 1993. She had only one victory in her next three years on the tour, but she won the Dinah Shore for a third time in 1997.
Through 2002, King had won 34 LPGA championships, 12th on the all-time list, including six majors. She ranks third in career winnings with $7,187,444.