It was announced last month that Shirley Spork would be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame, Monday, June 10, 2024, in Pinehurst.
Spork, one of the original 13 founders of the LPGA, was born and raised near Detroit. She traveled with the other golfers during the fledgling days of the LPGA, but her passion leaned more to teaching the game. She earned a teaching degree from Eastern Michigan University and taught Physical Education at Bowling Green State University.
Shirley started the first women’s golf team at that school. She and her good friend Peggy Kirk Bell, who had also started a women’s team at nearby Findlay University arranged the first golf matches for women golfers.
Spork went on to convince the LPGA to start an LPGA Teaching arm and helped bring more women into the game of golf.
Back 9 Report was fortunate to interview Ms. Spork during the Solheim Cup held at The Inverness Club in Toledo. Watch this entertaining interview here:
Her family lived near the Bonnie Brook Golf Club and her first golf club was a putter that she bought for a dollar, at the age of 12, with money earned from selling golf balls she had found. She was forced to endure the laughter of the boys who caddied at the club because she used that putter to hit full shots. It was her only club.
“Through the years I have met a lot of people and made a lot of dear friends,” Spork said. “It was fun to go to work every day and teach because people who came to me wanted to learn how to play. Learning to play the game of golf is like eating an elephant. It’s overwhelming unless you eat just one bite at a time and slowly digest it.”
Shirley passed last year at the age of 94. She lived through the Great Depression and World War II, she helped found the most successful women’s sports leagues in the world and was one of the leading teachers of her time. She did it all with a quick wit and flair for life.
Although a Buckeye, Tom Weiskopf, who designed golf courses at Forest Dunes and Shanty Creek, will also be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame class along with Padraig Harrington, Sandra Palmer, Johnny Farrell and Beverly Hanson.
