Edean Anderson Ihlanfeldt, pronounced ''island-felt'', (April 15, 1930 – April 27, 2020) was an American amateur

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

er from

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

, coach and founder of the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

women's varsity golf team, and one of the most successful female golfers in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

. She won several amateur tournaments, including the

Canadian Women's Amateur The Canadian Women's Amateur is Canada's annual national amateur golf tournament for women. It is open to women from all countries and is played at a different course each year. History The first championship was held from October 14 to 17, 1901 at ...

and the U.S. Senior Women's Amateur.

Early life and education

Anderson began training at age 13; in 1944, at age 14, she won her first out of six consecutive Montana State Women's Amateur golf championships (1944–49), with a local outlet calling her a child prodigy. In 1949, Anderson moved to

Corvallis, Oregon Corvallis ( ) is a city and the county seat of Benton County in central western Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton County. As of the 2020 United ...

to attend

Oregon State University Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering co ...

, where she joined the sorority

Alpha Phi Alpha Phi International Women's Fraternity (, also known as APhi) is an international sorority with 172 active chapters and over 250,000 initiated members. Founded at Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York on September 18, 1872, it is the fou ...

. While there, she practiced with friend and fellow golfer Grace DeMoss, competing as both partners and opponents at times. Anderson would continue a streak of winning one major championship a year until 1954. That year Anderson met her husband Robert Ihlanfeldt while playing golf. He proposed a week later, and the two were married in two months.

Career

During the first two decades of her career after graduation, Ihlanfeldt won numerous tournaments: "five Pacific Northwest titles, the Washington state crown four times, the Trans-Mississippi championship, and the 1952 Canadian Open crown." In 1974, Ihlanfeldt brought the

U.S. Women's Amateur The U.S. Women's Amateur is the leading golf tournament in the United States for female amateur golfers. It is played annually and is one of the 13 United States national golf championships organized by the United States Golf Association (USGA). F ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

and founded the women's varsity golf program at the

; she accepted no salary during the time she coached the team for the next eight years. In 1989, the University inducted her into its Hall of Fame. In 1997 Ihlanfeldt, once again, brought the U.S. Senior Women's Amateur to Seattle. Ihlanfeldt died April 27, 2020.

Amateur wins

*1944 Montana State Women's Amateur *1945 Montana State Women's Amateur *1946 Montana State Women's Amateur *1947 Montana State Women's Amateur *1948 Montana State Women's Amateur *1949 Montana State Women's Amateur, Pacific Northwest Women's Amateur *1951 Pacific Northwest Women's Amateur *1952

*1953 Women's Trans-Mississippi Amateur *1961 Washington State Women's Amateur *1962 Pacific Northwest Women's Amateur, Washington State Women's Amateur *1963 Pacific Northwest Women's Amateur, Washington State Women's Amateur *1964 Pacific Northwest Women's Amateur *1975 Washington State Women's Amateur *1982 U.S. Senior Women's Amateur *1986 Pacific Northwest Senior Women's Amateur *1987 Pacific Northwest Senior Women's Amateur *1988 Pacific Northwest Senior Women's Amateur

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson Ihlanfeldt, Edean American female golfers Amateur golfers Golfers from Montana Washington Huskies women's golf coaches Oregon State University alumni Sportspeople from Helena, Montana 1930 births 2020 deaths 21st-century American women