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EMU Legend Shirley Spork Awarded Patty Berg Award
11/30/2015 3:12:00 PM | Women's Golf
Spork was one of the LPGA’s 13 Founders
YPSILANTI, Mich. (EMUEagles.com) – Shirley Spork, a 1949 graduate of then Michigan State Normal College and one of the founding members of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) and the LPGA National Golf School, was presented the 2015 Patty Berg Award at the annual year-end 2015 Rolex Awards Celebration.
The Patty Berg Award, established in 1979 by the LPGA Board of Directors, recognizes an individual for outstanding contributions to women's golf. The award is named in honor of LPGA Founder Patty Berg and it recognizes her diplomacy, sportsmanship, goodwill, and contribution to the women's game.
The first female inducted into the E-Club Hall of Fame in 1981, Spork began her golf career early in life. She started playing with one club, a putter, at age 10 when she lived near Bonnie Brook Golf Course in Detroit, Mich. Throughout high school, Spork would participate in the annual City Championship at Palmer Park Municipal, which was only a nine-hole event. While attending MSNC, Spork won the Women's District Match Play Championship three times in four years. In 1947, she was the winner of the first-ever National Collegiate Championship held for women's athletics, plus she was the victor of the 1949 Michigan Amateur.
After graduation, Spork became a teacher in the Detroit public schools, but realized she would much rather be playing golf. She turned professional in 1950 and played the tour but along the way, realized she still was a teacher and in 1959 along with Marilynn Smith, Betty Hicks and Barbara Rotvig, she founded the LPGA's Teaching and Club Professional Division.
Spork was the first LPGA professional to conduct golf clinics in foreign countries and was a two-time LPGA Teacher of the Year (1959, 1984). She was the chairperson of the LPGA T&CP Division from 1960-66, and received the Meritorious Service Award in 1989 and the Byron Nelson Award in 1994.
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The Patty Berg Award, established in 1979 by the LPGA Board of Directors, recognizes an individual for outstanding contributions to women's golf. The award is named in honor of LPGA Founder Patty Berg and it recognizes her diplomacy, sportsmanship, goodwill, and contribution to the women's game.
The first female inducted into the E-Club Hall of Fame in 1981, Spork began her golf career early in life. She started playing with one club, a putter, at age 10 when she lived near Bonnie Brook Golf Course in Detroit, Mich. Throughout high school, Spork would participate in the annual City Championship at Palmer Park Municipal, which was only a nine-hole event. While attending MSNC, Spork won the Women's District Match Play Championship three times in four years. In 1947, she was the winner of the first-ever National Collegiate Championship held for women's athletics, plus she was the victor of the 1949 Michigan Amateur.
After graduation, Spork became a teacher in the Detroit public schools, but realized she would much rather be playing golf. She turned professional in 1950 and played the tour but along the way, realized she still was a teacher and in 1959 along with Marilynn Smith, Betty Hicks and Barbara Rotvig, she founded the LPGA's Teaching and Club Professional Division.
Spork was the first LPGA professional to conduct golf clinics in foreign countries and was a two-time LPGA Teacher of the Year (1959, 1984). She was the chairperson of the LPGA T&CP Division from 1960-66, and received the Meritorious Service Award in 1989 and the Byron Nelson Award in 1994.
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