In 1960, Shirley Spork (pictured left) was elected chairperson of the LPGA Teaching membership and served in that capacity through 1967. Jane Read (1968-70) took over for the remainder of the decade.
Under the guidance of Spork and Barbara Rotvig, the first LPGA National Golf School was conducted in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1960. Spork and Rotvig are credited with most of the organizational efforts and beginning the LPGA Teaching membership’s legacy of “teaching
teachers to teach.”
The first LPGA National Golf School staff included Ellen Griffin, Betty Hicks, Mary Ann Reynolds, Jackie Pung, Mary Lena Faulk, Marilynn Smith, Spork and Rotvig. These early members of the LPGA Teaching division were considered pioneers in their own right, entering a world that up until that time had been predominantly male.
“Although the LPGA Executive Board donated $500 to fund the first school (pictured above), later schools were financially self-maintained strictly from the attendees’ fees. The objectives of these schools were to:
1. Learn to teach golf more effectively;
2. Increase LPGA Teaching membership;
3. Improve one’s own game, and
4. Make it known that the LPGA has standards of acceptance so that the PGA
would rely on these qualifications for hiring women professionals
“The schools were offered to:
1. Prospective future teachers of golf
2. Physical education teachers and coaches
3. Members of the LPGA Teaching Division
4. Interested local women golfers.
“The first National Golf School was highly successful due to the countless hours donated by the first LPGA staff. Those in attendance were given certificates of completion, and, if interested, could apply to become future applicants to the LPGA Teaching Division.
“In 1966, The National Golf Foundation (NGF) entered the scene, and in cooperation with many LPGA members, was beginning to aid in the educational process. Ellen Griffin had been touring the country, lecturing and giving clinics to educators learning how to teach golf. In her third year, Griffin asked for LPGA members Shirley Spork and Lorraine Abbott’s assistance. Spork, Abbott, and Griffin, along with countless other LPGA and PGA members, provided golf education seminars, through the NGF, for teaching coaches and teachers.”
“Griffin was a pioneer in large group instruction in the schools and had co-authored with LPGA’s Betty Hicks, the valued Golf Manual for Teachers. “Those first participants saw some history in the making. They had the privilege of viewing seven loop films by Ellen Griffin, golf coach at the University of North Carolina and her creative partner, University of Michigan coach, Barbara Rotvig. Griffin, Rotvig, (and other teachers) isolated fundamental golf skills for a series of 2-3 minute continuous loop films cartridges for use in a special 8mm projector. So valuable were these repeated visual performances for the student that the Athletic Institute decided to produce loop films in all sports being taught in the schools at the time."
"Response to NGF’s consultant service to the schools was so positive that, between 1966 and 1976, the number of consultants grew from eleven to sixty. Again, LPGA Teaching Division members were highly visible. Those who gave untiringly of their time were Lorraine Abbott, Marge Burns, Mary Dagraedt, Ann Casey Johnstone, Mary Beth Nienhaus, DeDe Owens, Goldie Bateson, Carrie Russell, Barbara Smith, Peggy Kirk Bell, and Carol Johnson."
“The remuneration for consultant service was modest, with a token honorarium and expenses jointly provided by the NGF and the co-sponsoring school. The real satisfaction came from knowing we had helped the schools become more knowledgeable about golf and how to teach and coach successfully in the school setting. It also came from affording our consultants the opportunity to share and learn from one another as they teamed up for clinic work or attended staff seminars.” -- Lorraine Abbott
The preceding quoted material from “National Golf Schools, 1961-1966” by Kay McMahon with
contributions from Shirley Spork and “The Relationship Enjoyed Between the LPGA and the
National Golf Foundation During the Period of 1966 thru 1976” by Lorraine Abbott. Both
articles were published in the LPGA Teaching Division Register, 1950-1990, LPGA Teaching
and Club Professional Division
The LPGA National Teacher of the Year Award
The LPGA National Teacher of the Year Award was established in 1958, one year before the founding of the LPGA Teaching Division. Helen Dettweiler was the recipient of that inaugural award, followed by:
1958 - Helen Dettweiler
1959 - Shirley Spork
1960 - Barbara Rotvig
1961 - Peggy Kirk Bell
1962 - Ellen Griffin
1963 - Vonnie Colby
1964 - Sally Doyle
1965 - Goldie Bateson
1966 - Ann Casey Johnstone
1967 - Jackie Pung
1968 - Cloria Fecht
1969 - JoAnne Winter
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| Peggy Kirk Bell | Goldie Bateson | Ann Casey Johnstone | Jackie Pung | JoAnne Winter |
