The 1946 U.S. Women's Open was a golf tournament contested from August 26 to September 1 at Spokane Country Club, north of

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south o ...

. It was the first edition of the

U.S. Women's Open The U.S. Women's Open is one of 15 national golf championships conducted by the United States Golf Association (USGA), is the oldest of the LPGA Tour's five major championships, which includes the Chevron Championship, Women's PGA Championship, ...

, and only one to have been played in

match play Match play is a scoring system for golf in which a player, or team, earns a point for each hole in which they have bested their opponents; as opposed to stroke play, in which the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 h ...

competition. The field of 39 women was reduced to the 32-player match play field by a 36-hole qualifier on Monday and Tuesday. Six professionals and 26 amateurs advanced to match play. The format was 18-hole matches through the quarterfinals, and 36 holes for the semifinals and finals. Professionals

Patty Berg Patricia Jane Berg (February 13, 1918 – September 10, 2006) was an American professional golfer. She was a founding member and the first president of the LPGA. Her 15 major title wins remains the all-time record for most major wins by a fem ...

and

Betty Jameson Elizabeth May Jameson (May 9, 1919 – February 7, 2009) was an American professional golfer. She was one of the thirteen founders of the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) in 1950. She won three major championships and a total of thi ...

reached the Sunday final. Jameson led by three after seven holes, but Berg evened the match and they finished the first 18 holes all square. After lunch, Berg needed only fourteen holes in the afternoon to close out the match at 5 & 4. Berg won $5,600 and Jameson $3,100, all in

war bond War bonds (sometimes referred to as victory bonds, particularly in propaganda) are Security (finance)#Debt, debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an un ...

s. This win was later recognized as Berg's sixth major championship. The winner's share at the U.S. Women's Open was substantially less in succeeding years and was not exceeded until

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, ...

, 26 years later. Jameson won the title the following year as a 72-hole

stroke play Stroke play is a scoring system in the sport of golf. In the regular form of stroke play, also known as medal play, the total number of strokes is counted over one or more rounds of 18 holes. In a regular stroke play competition, the winner is the ...

event. Founded in 1898, Spokane Country Club was purchased by the Kalispel Tribe in late 2015 and is now Kalispell Golf and Country Club.

Qualifying scores and final results

* (a) denotes amateur

Bracket

Final match scorecards

''Morning'' ''Afternoon'' Source:

References

External links

USGA final leaderboardU.S. Women's Open Golf ChampionshipKalispell Golf and Country Club
{{coord, 47.767, -117.440, type:event, display=title U.S. Women's Open Golf tournaments in Washington (state) Sports competitions in Spokane, Washington Women's sports in Washington (state)