Judy Rankin, a 26-time winner
and the first woman to break the $100,000 barrier, was voted into the LPGA Tour
Hall of Fame on tonight.
Rankin was the first player
elected from the tour's new Veteran's Category, which was established in February
1999 when the LPGA revamped its rigid Hall of Fame criteria.
"Judy Rankin represents
all that is good about the LPGA and the game of golf," LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw
said. "Judy's skill on the golf course, coupled with her commitment to the tour,
has contributed greatly to the LPGA's success over the years."
Rankin was twice the player
of the year, a three-time winner of the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average,
and set an LPGA record with 25 finishes in the top 10 in 1977. Six years later,
at age 38, she was forced into retirement by back problems.
Still, she remained deeply
involved in golf, as an analyst for ABC Sports and ESPN, and as captain of the
U.S. team that won the Solheim Cup in 1996 and 1998.
Rankin will be inducted
Nov. 20 at the World Golf Hall of Fame along with Beth Daniel and Juli Inkster.
The PGA Tour is expected to announce the results of its Veteran's Committee and
Lifetime Achievement category later this week.
Rankin, 55, will become
the 18th member of the LPGA Hall of Fame. She was in New Orleans, where ABC and
ESPN are broadcasting the Compaq Classic on the PGA Tour, and not immediately
available for comment.
Rankin never dreamed she
could be part of the Hall of Fame when she retired from competition in 1983.
The LPGA had the toughest standards in sports, requiring least 30 victories and
two major championships, 35 wins and one major, or 40 wins and no majors.
She failed to win a major
in her 22-year career, although she won the Peter Jackson Classic in Canada two
years before it was designated a major.
The LPGA voted last year
to change its criteria, setting a standard of 27 points in which one point was
awarded for a victory, two for a major, and one point each for player of the
year or a Vare Trophy.
Under that system, Rankin
would have qualified easily, with 33 points. But the LPGA also established a
Veteran's Category, and the 12-member committee that nominates one player each
year selected Rankin in March.
Nominees must receive 75
percent of the vote from the LPGA tournament division.
Players voted at a meeting
in Austin, Texas, site of this week's Phillips Invitational. Those not in the
field had to get their ballots to LPGA headquarters Monday. LPGA spokeswoman
Connie Wilson said Rankin's vote was near unanimous.
Rankin, who grew up in
St. Louis, won the 1959 Missouri Women's Amateur as a 14-year-old and joined
the LPGA three years later. She won her first event in 1968, the Corpus Christi
Open, and won at least once every season in the 1970s.
Her best year was 1976,
when she became the first woman to earn more than $100,000 in a year by winning
seven times and $150,724. A year later, she won five times and set the record
for top-10 finishes.
A former LPGA president,
Rankin was awarded the tour's William and Mousie Powell Award in 1998 by the
players for having the ideals of the LPGA.
A year ago, she was honored
for her contributions to golf with the Patty Berg Award by the LPGA and the William
H. Richardson Award by the Golf Writers Association of America. She also received
the First Lady of Golf award from the PGA of America.
