The 1976 LPGA Tour was the 27th season since the

LPGA Tour The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekl ...

officially began in 1950. The season ran from January 30 to November 27. The season consisted of 31 official money events.

Judy Rankin Judy Rankin ( Torluemke; born February 18, 1945) is an American professional golfer and golf broadcaster. A member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, she joined the LPGA Tour in 1962 at age 17 and won 26 tour events. Since 2010, Rankin has served a ...

won the most tournaments, six. She also led the money list with earnings of $150,734. The season saw the first official tournaments played outside North America; the

Colgate European Open The Colgate European Open was a women's professional golf tournament on the LPGA Tour from 1974 to 1979.England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, the LPGA/Japan Mizuno Classic in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, the Colgate-Hong Kong Open in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, and the Colgate Far East Championship in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. There were four first-time winners in 1976: Pat Bradley, Hisako "Chako" Higuchi, the first winner from

Sally Little Sally Little (born 12 October 1951) is a South African-born professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1971 and won 15 LPGA Tour events, including two major championship, during her career. In 2016, she became the first female ...

, the first winner from

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, and

Jan Stephenson Jan Lynn Stephenson (born 22 December 1951) is an Australian professional golfer. She became a member of the LPGA Tour in 1974 and won three major championships and 16 LPGA Tour events. She has 41 worldwide victories including (10) LPGA Legen ...

. The tournament results and award winners are listed below.

Tournament results

The following table shows all the official money events for the 1976 season. "Date" is the ending date of the tournament. The numbers in parentheses after the winners' names are the number of wins they had on the tour up to and including that event.

Majors Jonathan Michael Majors (born September 7, 1989)Majors in is an American actor. He rose to prominence after starring in the independent feature film ''The Last Black Man in San Francisco'' (2019). In 2020, he garnered wider notice for portraying ...

are shown in bold.

LPGA Tour vs. The Masters Tournament

In January 1976 the LPGA Tour announced the formation of a new tournament. It was to be titled the Ladies Masters and sponsors said they would pattern the event similar to the

Masters Tournament The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first maj ...

. A little over a month later the LPGA announced the tournament's name was being changed to the

Women's International The Moss Creek Women's Invitational was a golf tournament in South Carolina on the LPGA Tour from 1976 to 1985. It was played at the Moss Creek Plantation on Hilton Head Island. When first announced in January 1976, it was titled the "Ladies Maste ...

. This happened after Masters Tournament officials contacted the tournament's sponsor and threatened to go to court unless the word Masters wasn't removed from the tournament title.LPGA is denied Masters name
/ref> The Women's International proved to be a short lived event. Its final edition was played in 1985.

Awards

References

External links

LPGA Tour official site1976 season coverage at golfobserver.com
{{LPGA Tour seasons LPGA Tour seasons