🇺🇸 United States (1944–1950s): From WPGA to LPGA — The First Professional Women’s Golf Movement
The story of the Women’s Professional Golf Association (WPGA) begins in 1944, at a time when professional opportunities for women in sport were almost non-existent.
Formed by a determined group of players and teachers — including Ellen Griffin, Betty Hicks, and Hope Seignious — the WPGA was the first organisation dedicated entirely to women who made their living from golf.
They were club professionals, instructors, and competitors who shared a vision: to create a structure where women could earn, teach, and compete at the highest level, just as their male counterparts in the PGA had done for decades.
Two years later, in 1946, that vision reached a milestone when the WPGA organised the first U.S. Women’s Open, held at Spokane Country Club in Washington. The event was won by Patty Berg, marking the birth of a new professional era. Though modest in scale, it was monumental in meaning — proving that women’s professional golf was both possible and powerful.
But the early WPGA faced the same challenge that many pioneering women’s organisations would: resources. Without stable sponsorship or commercial backing, it relied on personal sacrifice and goodwill. By 1949, the association could no longer sustain operations and quietly dissolved.
Yet its spirit never faded. The lessons, relationships, and ambitions it forged led directly to the formation of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) in 1950, established by thirteen founding members — many of them WPGA veterans. The LPGA inherited the dream the WPGA had started and turned it into a lasting reality.
From those early days of makeshift tours and borrowed clubs came a professional movement that would span generations. The WPGA’s short life laid the foundation for a permanent home for women in professional golf — a legacy that continues to shape the game today.
✳️ Key Milestones
| Year | Event | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| 1944 | Women’s Professional Golf Association chartered | First-ever professional body for women golfers, led by Ellen Griffin and Betty Hicks. |
| 1946 | First U.S. Women’s Open held | Organised by the WPGA; Patty Berg wins the inaugural title. |
| 1949 | WPGA ceases operations | Financial and structural challenges lead to its closure. |
| 1950 | LPGA founded | Thirteen women form the LPGA, carrying forward the WPGA’s pioneering mission. |