Jan Stephenson

Stephenson was born in Sydney, Aus. While a teenager, she won five consecutive New South Wales Schoolgirl Championships, beginning in 1964, and followed that up with three straight wins in the New South Wales Junior Championship. She turned professional in 1973 and won the Wills Australian Ladies Open that year, a title she captured again in 1977.
In 1974, Jan qualified for the LPGA Tour by finishing 2nd at the LPGA Final Qualifying Tournament to earn exempt status. This began her career on the LPGA Tour, she played full-time till 2003. In those years she played in 745 events and made 575 cuts. She made the cut in 187 (25% of her starts) events and won 18 times. In her career, she earned $3,087,904. In the 28 years Stephenson was on the LPGA Tour she was in the top-ten on the yearly money list seven times, the best-being 4th in 1983 when she won $195,450 and 4th again in 1987 when she won $227,303. Her best financial year was in 1999 when she won $296,347 and was 30th on the money list.
Stephenson had three years in which she won three times in a single year, 1981, 1983 and 1987. She was also Rookie of the Year in 1974. She also won three majors, the 1981 Peter Jackson Classic, 1982 LPGA Championship and the 1983 U.S. Women's Open. Stephenson won once on the Ladies European Tour at the 1985 Hennessy French Open and won twice in Japan at the 1981 World Ladies Golf Tournament and the 1985 Nichirei Ladies Cup. In 1983 Jan won the JC Penney Mixed Team Classic partnered with Fred Couples.
In 1990 while leaving a professional basketball game a mugger grabbed Stephenson's purse and tried to yank her wedding ring off. Her left ring finger was broken in two places, an injury that still bothers her while playing in cold or wet weather. She was forced to change from a left-sided swing to a right-sided one.
Stephenson created, "Jan for Juniors," which has been a success encouraging more juniors to succeed at academics and golf. She also started Jan Stephenson's Crossroads Foundation to assist women and children who are at Crossroads in their lives and need help in making decisions and implementing them. Stephenson also has played in over 50 Legends events winning three of them: the 2000 Hy-Vee Classic, was co-champion of the 2005 BJ's Charity Championship and the 2007 Handa Australia Cup. Of late, Stephenson was T-10 at the 2016 Legends Championship and T-73 at the 2017 Senior LPGA Championship. In 2018 she finished T-49 at the Senior LPGA Championship and 21st at the Suquamish Clearwater Legends Cup in Washington.

Stephenson shot 77-82=159 (+13) to miss the cut in the inaugural U.S. Senior Women's Open.