1999 Ellen Griffin Rolex Award Goes to Hicks

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - Betty Hicks, one of the women who aided in the early growth and development of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and its Teaching and Club Professional (T&CP) Division, is the recipient the 1999 Ellen Griffin Rolex Award. An honorary member of the LPGA T&CP Division, Hicks was selected in recognition of her life-long service to the LPGA and her dedication to teaching the game of golf. Since the early 1940s, Hicks has been actively involved in all aspects of golf, from competing, to teaching, to writing books.

"Betty has been involved with the LPGA since the beginning and was a part of the development of the LPGA's T&CP Division," said Ty M. Votaw, Commissioner of the LPGA. "Not only has Betty been an active teacher through clinics and working at clubs, but she also has authored several books. She was a close colleague of Ellen Griffin, and it is only fitting that she receive this award, especially at the time when we are beginning to celebrate the LPGA's 50th anniversary."

When Hicks turned professional in the 1940s, she was sponsored by Wilson Sporting Goods Company and conducted 1,500 clinics and demonstrations under the company's banner. Although she was competing at the same time, she also conducted golf clinics during the summers for many years at universities around the country (1946-48, 1957-59), as well as worked as a full-time, year-round golf instructor at Pomona College (1944-46) and Wayne State University (1949-51). Also in the 1940s, she conducted approximately 500 clinics for golf teachers around the country under the sponsorship of the Women's Professional Golf Association (WPGA), the forerunner of the LPGA. She conducted teaching seminars for physical educators in the late '50s. In addition, she was a teaching professional at six different country clubs and courses from 1941-1960, including such well-known clubs as the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. (1948-60) and Los Coyotes Country Club in Buena Park, Calif. (1947-48).

A published author, Hicks wrote two books, as well as hundreds of articles for such magazines as Atlantic Monthly, Saturday Evening Post, Look, Golf Magazine,Golf Digest, Golfdom, Golf for Women and Sports Illustrated. She also wrote columns for the Ft. Worth Star Telegram and the Long Beach Press-Telegram. She co-authored Patty Sheehan on Golf with Sheehan in 1996 and Golf Manual for Teachers with Griffin in 1947.

After taking up the game at the age of 16 in 1937, Hicks broke through to the national stage by advancing to the semifinal round in both the U.S.Women's Amateur and Western Amateur Championships in 1939. In 1940, Hicks won the South Atlantic Championship and was the runner-up at the Texas Open. Hicks won the 1941 National Amateur Championship en route to being named the Associated Press Woman Athlete of the Year.

She served her country in the military ranks, joining the U.S. Coast Guard two months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Hicks served as a reserve in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1943-44 before returning to professional golf in time to win the 1944 All-American Open.

Hicks was instrumental in the development of the WPGA, and she was its first president in 1944. She is a two-time U.S. Women's Open runner-up (1948,1954), losing both times to LPGA Tour Hall of Famer Babe Zaharias. When the LPGA got its start in 1950, Hicks was in college and did not play full-time until a few years later. She functioned as the association's public relations contact and reportedly had a makeshift leaderboard attached to her car. This was in addition to competing on the Tour. In 1954, Hicks expanded upon her numerous accomplishments on the golf course by becoming an LPGA tournament director. Hicks was also a part of the formation of the LPGA T&CP Division and served as its first chairperson in 1960.

"In the tradition of the Ellen Griffin Rolex Award, Betty Hicks exemplifies the true meaning of a professional, dedicating her life to women in the game of golf from long before and during the early stages of the LPGA," said Kay McMahon, LPGA T&CP Division President. "She is a wealth of information and imagination, professional golfer, journalist, gourmet cook, pilot, teacher, author, lecturer, actress and friend. She is most deserving of this prestigious award recognizing one of the LPGA's own as truly a teacher's teacher."

A Long Beach (CA) native, Hicks attended Pomona College and Fresno State University and earned her bachelor of arts, with a double major in aeronautics and journalism, from San Jose State University in 1974. She also held a California State Teaching Credential for the junior college level. Hicks also earned her pilot's license and flight instructor's certificate. She has written about aviation, as well as served on the FAA Women's Advisory Committee on Aviation (1971-74).

Her honors and accolades over the years include: induction into the Long Beach (CA) Golf Hall of Fame in 1997, the Women's Sports Foundation International Hall of Fame in 1996 and the California Golf Hall of Fame in 1991; and selection as a "Woman of Achievement" for sports by the San Jose Mercury News in 1990.

The Ellen Griffin Rolex Award, instituted by the LPGA T&CP Division in 1989 to honor the late Ellen Griffin, recognizes an individual, male or female, who has made a major contribution to the teaching of golf and who emulates Griffin's spirit, love and dedication to students, teachers, teaching skills and the game of golf. Griffin, who passed away in 1986, was one of the best-known women's golf teaching professionals in American history.

Past recipients include: Peggy Kirk Bell, 1989; Linda Craft, 1990; Shirley Englehorn, 1991; Harvey Penick, 1992; Goldie Bateson, 1993; Carol Clark Johnson, 1994; Joanne Winter, 1995; Ann Casey Johnstone, 1996; Dr. DeDe Owens, 1997; and Shirley Spork, 1998.