Rawls, "Betsy" (Elizabeth E.)
Golf
b. May 4, 1928, Spartanburg, SC
Rawls didn't begin playing golf until she was seventeen. When she was twenty-one, she won 1949 Texas Amateur championship and she repeated in 1950. She joined the PGA tour in 1951, when she claimed the first of her four victories in the U. S. Women's open; the others were in 1953, 1957, and 1960. She won the LPGA Championship in 1959 and 1969.
Known as a great shot-maker and putter, Rawls won 55 tournaments, which is fourth on the all-time list behind Kathy Whitworth, Mickey Wright, and Louise Suggs.
Rawls led the tour in victories in 1952, 1957, and 1959, and was the top money-winner in 1951 and 1959. She won the Vare trophy for fewest strokes per round in 1959, when she captured ten tournaments.
A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Texas with a degree in math and physics, Rawls was called the "circuit judge" because of her encyclopedic knowledge of the rules of golf. In 1970, she became the first woman ever to serve on the Rules Committee for the men's U. S. Open.
Rawls retired from the tour in 1975 and became the LPGA tournament director. In 1981 she took over as executive director of the McDonald's Championship.