Topeka, Kansas
2022 Honorary Category Member
21
Two
1963 LPGA Most Improved Player, 2000 LPGA Commissioner’s Award
2006
Before turning professional in 1949, Marilynn Smith won the Kansas State Amateur from 1946-1948 and was the 1949 national collegiate champion while playing for the University of Kansas. As a pro, Smith helped found the LPGA Tour in 1950 and earned her first victory in 1952 at the Fort Wayne Open. Twenty other professional wins would follow including two majors, the 1963 and 1964 Titleholders Championships and Marilynn was in the top ten on the money list 16 times, with nine of those times coming between 1961 and 1972.
In 1963, Smith was named the LPGA’s Most Improved Player and served as the organization’s president from 1958 to 1960. She became one of the first women to commentate for men’s golf in the 70s and she received the Patty Berg Award in 1979. Smith was inducted into the Kansas Golf Hall of Fame in 1991, the Texas Golf Hall of Fame in 1994, and the University of Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.
The year 2000 saw Marilynn become a member of the LPGA T&CP Hall of Fame and the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame as well as receive the 2000 LPGA Commissioner's Award. She was entered into the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame and the Wichita East High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2005. Smith won the Pinnacle Award in 2006 and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame that same year.
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