- Dorothy Kirby
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Dorothy Kirby Personal information Full name Dorothy Kirby Born January 15, 1920
West Point, GeorgiaDied December 12, 2000 (aged 80)
Atlanta, GeorgiaNationality United States
Career Status Amateur Professional wins 2 Number of wins by tour LPGA Tour 2 Best results in LPGA Major Championships
(Wins: 2)Western Open 2nd: 1943, 1947 Titleholders C'ship Won: 1941, 1942 U.S. Women's Open 7th: 1951 Mary Dorothy Kirby (born January 15, 1920 - December 12, 2000) was an American golf champion and sportscaster.
Born in West Point, Georgia, her family moved to Atlanta when she was ten. At the age of thirteen Dorothy Kirby's victory at the 1933 Georgia Women's Amateur Championship made her the youngest female golfer to ever win a state championship. It marked the first of her six Georgia championships, her last coming 20 years later in 1953.[1] As well, she defeated amateurs and professionals in winning back-to-back National Titleholders Championships in 1941-42. In 1943 she won the North and South Women's Amateur Golf Championship at Pinehurst.
Dorothy Kirby played in her first United States Women's Amateur Golf Championship in 1934 at age fourteen. She was the runner-up to Betty Jameson in 1939 and to Louise Suggs in 1947 then won the most prestigious women's event in 1951. Attempting to defend her title, in 1952 she had the lowest round of the tournament but was still knocked out early. Dorothy Kirby was a member of four U.S. Curtis Cup teams 91948, 1950, 1952, 1954), and despite her success as an amateur, she chose not to join the professional LPGA Tour.
Dorothy Kirby retired from competition in the mid 1950s and worked as a radio and television sportscaster and sales representative for thirty-five years. In 1974 she was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame and the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in 1989.
She died in Atlanta in 2000.
Contents
Amateur wins
- 1933 Georgia Women's Amateur
- 1935 Georgia Women's Amateur
- 1936 Georgia Women's Amateur
- 1937 Southern Women's Amateur
- 1941 Georgia Women's Amateur
- 1943 North and South Women's Amateur
- 1951 U.S. Women's Amateur
- 1952 Georgia Women's Amateur
- 1953 Georgia Women's Amateur
Major championships
Wins (2)
Year Championship Winning Score Margin Runner-up 1941 Titleholders Championship −1 (80-72-72=224) 16 strokes Helen Sigel
1942 Titleholders Championship +14 (79-77-83=239) 5 strokes Eileen Stulb
References
External links
Titleholders Championship champions 1937 Patty Berg • 1938 Patty Berg • 1939 Patty Berg 1940 Helen Hicks • 1941 Dorothy Kirby • 1942 Dorothy Kirby • 1943-45 No Tournament • 1946 Louise Suggs • 1947 Babe Zaharias • 1948 Patty Berg • 1949 Peggy Kirk# • 1950 Babe Zaharias • 1951 Pat O'Sullivan# • 1952 Babe Zaharias • 1953 Patty Berg • 1954 Louise Suggs • 1955 Patty Berg • 1956 Louise Suggs • 1957 Patty Berg • 1958 Beverly Hanson • 1959 Louise Suggs • 1960 Fay Crocker • 1961 Mickey Wright • 1962 Mickey Wright† • 1963 Marilynn Smith† • 1964 Marilynn Smith • 1965 Kathy Whitworth • 1966 Kathy Whitworth • 1967-71 No Tournament • 1972 Sandra Palmer
† indicates the event was won in a playoff # indicates the event was won by an amateur Categories:- American female golfers
- Amateur golfers
- Winners of ladies' major amateur golf championships
- Winners of LPGA major golf championships
- Golfers from Georgia (U.S. state)
- 1920 births
- 2000 deaths
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