Marlene Bauer Hagge, last of the founders of the LPGA, dies at the age of 89

Marlene Bauer Hagge, the last surviving founder of the Ladies Professional Golf Association and a member of the Hall of Fame, passed away Tuesday in Rancho Mirage, California. She turned 89.

Her death was announced by the LPGA

Hagge and her sister, Alice Bauer, who was six years her senior, were among 13 golfers who created the LPGA in 1950, at a time when women’s golf received little attention on the sports pages.

The LPGA Tour would eventually bring in significant prize money. But in the early years, the Bauer sisters and renowned players like Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Patty Berg, Louise Suggs, Betty Jameson and Marilynn Smith competed for small purses and were forced to congregate in cars on their trips to tournaments.

Hagge became the last living LPGA founder when Shirley Spork, who was best known for teaching female golfers, passed away in April 2022.

Hagge, who was a slim 5 feet 2 inches but possessed a powerful swing, won 26 pro tournaments, including the 1956 LPGA Championship, one of the tour’s majors, and her career spanned the first five decades.

She was inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame in the veteran category and the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2002. Her sister, Alice, finished in the top 10 in LPGA tournaments several times, most notably ranking No. 4 in the 1958 Women’s Open .

Hagge eschewed the staid long skirts then a staple of women’s golfer uniforms and opted for shorts. She was seen as a glamorous figure of the women’s game, often appearing on the covers of magazines, with many admirers more fixated on her looks than her skills. (In a reflection of the times, a 1973 issue of Golf Digest included a photo of her chipping on a green with the caption “Marlene Hagge – good and sexy.”)

Recalling the golf clinics hosted by the LPGA prior to the tournaments, Hagge told Sports Illustrated in 2002 that Berg, as the MC, would tell participants, “Look at these girls.”

“She pointed to Alice and me,” Hagge recalled, “and said, ‘Isn’t it great to be beautiful and be able to hit it too?'”

Marlene Bauer was born on February 16, 1934 in Eureka, SD, to Dave and Madeline Bauer. Her father, an avid golfer, rented the town’s golf course, about an hour southeast of Aberdeen. When Marlene was 3 years old, he cut down the shaft of a golf club and started giving her lessons. He also taught Alice.

The family moved to La Quinta, California, when Marlene was 10, in search of a warm climate where golf could be played year-round. She won the Long Beach City boys’ championship just after the family arrived in California, as there was no comparable event for girls. By the age of 13, she had won several tournaments in California.

She appeared on the national scene in 1947 – still only 13 – when she finished eighth in the United States Women’s Open Championship. She won the 1949 United States Girls’ Championship and was awarded the Glenna Collett Vare Trophy, named in honor of one of the most prominent figures in women’s golf. Lincoln Werden, a longtime golf writer for The New York Times, described her at the time as “a cool little player who can hit any kind of shot”.

A few weeks later, she earned a stunning second-round match play victory in the amateur women’s national championship, beating the six-time tournament titleholder Vare to reach the semifinals.

The Associated Press named her Athlete of the Year and Golfer of the Year for 1949.

Hagge captured her first professional title at the 1952 Sarasota Open at age 18. She was at her best in 1956, when she beat Berg on the first extra hole of the LPGA Championship at Forest Lake Country Club in Detroit. Her win was worth $1,350 (about $15,000 in today’s money). She won eight tournaments that year, finished second nine times and led the women’s tour in winnings for more than $20,000.

In 1971, she set a nine-hole LPGA scoring record of 29 at the Buick Open in Columbus, Ohio, a record unmatched in 13 years.

She played on the tour through 1996, when she took part in four events. She had a career income of $481,023.

Hagge’s second husband, Ernie Vossler, a PGA Tour player and track designer, died in 2013. Her first marriage to Bob Hagge, also a PGA Tour player, who was previously married to her sister, ended in divorce. Alice Bauer died in 2002 at the age of 74 from complications of colon cancer. Information on survivors was not immediately available.

For all her accomplishments, Hagge was not exactly a familiar face to the public. In 1958, she appeared on the CBS TV show “To Tell the Truth,” in which four celebrity panelists questioned three people who claimed to be the person whose biography had just been described. The actor Don Ameche disqualified himself for meeting her. Only the actress Polly Bergen correctly identified her.