Betsy King

King was born in Reading, Pa., and still maintains a home nearby in the town of Limekiln. She has served as host of the LPGA's Wachovia Betsy King Classic at Berkleigh C.C. in Kutztown, Pa., and has organized the Habitat for Humanity, which has built homes for underprivileged families in Phoenix and Charlotte, N.C. In the off-season, she has traveled to Romania to work with an orphan relief organization and she has been active in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes ministry since 1980. Betsy's desire is to enlist golfers around the world to join the cause by linking her passion for golf to compassion for children.
King got her start playing golf when she was 9. Her parents played and were members of Reading Country Club and they got Betsy and her older brother to start playing. King graduated from Exeter Township High School in 1973. She played collegiately at Furman University and was on the 1976 national championship team that included future LPGA players Beth Daniel, Sherri Turner and Cindy Ferro. King was the low amateur at the 1976 U.S. Women's Open, then joined the LPGA Tour in 1977.
King played full time on the LPGA between 1977 and 2005, winning 34 times on the LPGA Tour (won once on Ladies European Tour and once on the LPGA of Japan Tour) with eight of them being major championships.She won Player of the Year honors five times and the Vare Trophy twice. She played in 763 events making 661 cuts (87% of her starts) and was in the top-10 245 times (32% of his starts). She won her first tournament at the 1984 Women's Kemper Open. From 1984 through 1989, King won a total of 20 LPGA events, more wins than any other golfer in the world, male or female, during that time period.
After that first win in 1984, King won at least once each of the next 10 years, with a high of six victories in 1989. She finished in the top-10 on the money list every year from 1985-95, and again in 1997. Along the way, King was named Player of the Year three times, won two scoring titles and three money titles. In 1993 she won a scoring title and the money title, but only one tournament. She finished second five times, including at two majors. She averaged a major a year from 1987 to 1992, then won a sixth major in 1997. The last of her 34 LPGA wins came in 2001. With her 30th win in 1995, she gained entry into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Hard to believe but in her career on the LPGA, King won just $7,637,622 and is 29th on the career money list.
King played in five Solheim Cups (1990, 1992, 1994, 1996 and 1998) earning 8 points with a 7-6-2 record. She was captain on the winning 2007 that was played in Sweden.
King retired from the game in 2005. King had undergone shoulder surgery and struggled on the course, making the cut in only one of 10 events in 2005. It turned out her (next to) last event was on Labor Day weekend at the State Farm Classic. She did play one more time, in 2011 she was hitting balls a couple of weeks before the sectional qualifier and thought, "why not?" That year it was played at The Broadmoor, a course she liked and finished T-3rd at in 1995. She qualified and played but missed the cut, but at least she had some closure with her career.
In her spare time, King enjoys playing golf in her winter home of Scottsdale, Ariz. She also enjoys traveling internationally, with friends as well as with Golf Fore Africa to track their ongoing projects. King does play on the Legends Tour, she was co-champion at the 2013 Fry's Desert Classic. In 2017 at the Senior LPGA Championship King finished T-14th.

Betsy shot 78-77-83-78=316 (+24) to finish T-49t in the first U.S. Senior Women's Open