Honorees

LOUISE SUGGS

One of the original 13 founders of the LPGA and member of the first class elected into the LPGA Hall of Fame, Suggs is a winner of 58 Tour titles and 11 major championships, including three she captured as an amateur player.

Suggs had a brilliant amateur career. She won the Georgia State Amateur Championship in 1940 and 1942. She captured the Southern Amateur Championship in 1941 and 1947 and is a three-time winner of the North/South Championship (1942, 1946, and 1948). Suggs won the 1946 Western Amateur Championship and Western Open and successfully defended both titles the following season. She won the Titleholders in 1946, and in 1947 became the U.S. Women's Amateur champion. In 1948, Suggs added the British Amateur Championship to her resume and topped off her amateur career by representing the United States on the 1948 Curtis Cup Team. She turned professional on July 8, 1948.   She was the first female player to win the career Grand Slam.
Her 1949 U.S. Women's Open victory was a 14-stroke triumph that not only set a 72-hole scoring record of 291, but also set an all-time record for margin of victory that was not equaled until 1986. In 1953, she broke her own 72-hole scoring record by shooting 288 to win the Tampa Open. Suggs was the winner of the 1957 Vare Trophy.  

Born September 7, 1923, Mae Louise Suggs, was nicknamed "Miss Sluggs" by Bob Hope. Suggs served as LPGA president three times and was named an honorary member of the LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals Division in 1993. The 1995 LPGA Championship was dedicated in her honor. In 1996 she became the first woman elected to the Georgia Athletic Hall of Fame.  In 2000, the LPGA created the Louise Suggs Award to recognize the Rookie of the Year.  Suggs currently resides in St. Augustine, Florida.

Major Victories
•1949:U.S. Women’s Open, Western Open
•1951:U.S. Women’s Open
•1953:Western Open
•1954:Titleholders Championship
•1956:Titleholders Championship
•1957:LPGA Championship
•1959:Titleholders Championship

DOW FINSTERWALD

Born September 6, 1929, in Athens, Ohio, Dow H. Finsterwald, Sr. was a renowned perfectionist from tee to green. Winner of the 1958 PGA Championship under medal play and runner up in the 1957 PGA Championship contested as match play, Finsterwald won 12 PGA Tour events between 1955 and 1963.

Finsterwald attended Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, graduating in the Class of 1952. In 1969, he was inducted into the Ohio University Athletics Hall of Fame joining his father, Russ Finsterwald, who was in the first class of inductees as a football and basketball player, and head football coach.

Known for his superb short game and putting touch, he was one of the most consistent players on the Tour in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He finished fifth or better more than 50 times in his career.

Finsterwald played on four Ryder Cup teams from 1957-1961 and was the non-playing captain of the 1977 team. He won the Vardon Trophy in 1957 – awarded to the tour professional with the lowest adjusted scoring average. In 1958, he was honored as PGA Golfer of the Year. Finsterwald finished in money in 72 consecutive tournaments – second at the time only to Byron Nelson’s 113 consecutive cuts. He ranks fifth today behind Tiger Woods, Nelson, Jack Nicklaus and Hale Irwin.

At the 1962 Masters, Finsterwald and Gary Player lost one of the most epic battles in golf history when they dueled in a playoff with eventual winner Arnold Palmer.

Finsterwald served as director of golf at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo. for 28 years. He simultaneously served as PGA vice-president from 1976-1978, and on the USGA Rules of Golf committee from 1979-1981.

Today he lives in Orlando during the winter and Colorado Springs during the summer with his wife, Linda. They have three sons and a daughter. His middle son, Dow Jr., is head pro at the Colonial Country Club in Ft. Worth, Texas, site of the Bank of America Colonial.

PGA Tour wins

•1955 (1) Fort Wayne Invitational
•1955 (1) Bristish Columbia Open
•1956 (1) Carling Open Invitational
•1957 (1) Tucson Open
•1958 (2) PGA Championship, Utah Open Invitational
•1959 (3) Greater Greensboro Open, Carling Open Invitational, Kansas City Open Invitational
•1960 (2) Los Angeles Open, Greater New Orleans Open Invitational
•1963 (1) “500” Festival Open Invitational