The Titleholders Championship was a women's

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 ...

tournament played from in 1937 to 1966 and again in 1972. It was later designated a major championship by 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 ...

History

The Titleholders Championship was founded in 1937. Like 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 ...

for men, which began a few years earlier, it was played in

Augusta, Georgia Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navig ...

, but at Augusta Country Club, not at the adjacent

Augusta National Golf Club Augusta National Golf Club, sometimes referred to as Augusta or the National, is a golf club in Augusta, Georgia, United States. Unlike most private clubs which operate as non-profits, Augusta National is a for-profit corporation, and it does no ...

. The winners of various amateur and professional events were invited to take part, although most of the competitors were amateurs. There were very few women professionals at the time and most earned their living as club or teaching professionals. The Titleholders itself did not offer prize money until 1948, when a prize fund of $600 was introduced, with half of the money going to the professional placing highest in the event. The tournament was discontinued after November

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

, but was revived for one year in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

, when it was played in May at the Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club in

Southern Pines, North Carolina Southern Pines is a town in Moore County, North Carolina, Moore County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 12,334 as of the 2010 United States Census. History Southern Pines was founded as a winter health resort for Northeastern U ...

. All of these stagings are now recognized as major championships by the

LPGA 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 ...

, even though the organization was not founded until 1950.

Winners

(a) - denotes amateur
^PO - won in playoff
^ - 54 holes

Multiple winners

This table lists the golfers who have won more than one Titleholders Championship.

Winners by nationality

This table lists the total number of titles won by golfers of each nationality as a major.

References

{{Former LPGA Tour Events Former LPGA Tour events Women's golf tournaments in the United States Golf in Georgia (U.S. state) Golf in North Carolina Sports in Augusta, Georgia Women's major golf championships Recurring sporting events established in 1937 Recurring events disestablished in 1972 1937 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) 1972 disestablishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Women's sports in North Carolina History of women in Georgia (U.S. state)