About Marilynn Smith

One of 13 LPGA Founders, Smith earned the nickname "Miss Personality" on the LPGA Tour. She served as president of the LPGA from 1958 through 1960. During her term, she was instrumental in founding the teaching division in 1959 (now known as the LPGA Professionals) along with Shirley Spork, Betty Hicks and Barbara Rotvig.

Smith is one of the games' great ambassadors. She helps organize the all-women's Marilynn Smith Golf Classic, which benefits the Marilynn Smith Scholarship Fund. In 1999, she established the Marilynn Smith Scholarship within The LPGA Foundation.

Smith has traveled to all 50 U.S. states and 36 different countries and has conducted golf clinics during many of those visits. She was the first female television commentator for a men's golf tournament (1973 U.S. Open and the Colonial), inducted into the Kansas Golf Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Texas Golf Hall of Fame in 1994, inducted into the Kansas University Sports Hall of Fame in 1999, the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2000, and in 2005, inducted into the Wichita Sports Hall of Fame and the Wichita East High School Sports Hall of Fame. In 2000, Smith was one of six inaugural inductees into the LPGA Professionals Hall of Fame, and in 2006, was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Penny Zavichas, a Master Life member of the LPGA Professionals and a member of the LPGA Professionals Hall of Fame, was the recipient of the inaugural Marilynn Smith Service Award.

YEAR	AWARD RECIPIENT
2025	Ashley Tait
2024	Susie Redman
2023	Cori Matheson
2022	Jill Mann Strite
2021	Janet Darnell
2020	Peggy Briggs
2019	Courtney Mahon
2018	Janean Murphy
2017	Marci Bozarth
2016	Kristie Fowler
2015	Tina Tombs
2014	Marvol Barnard
2013	Peggy Gustafson
2012	Penny Zavichas

Marilynn Smith Service Award

The LPGA Central Section