Laurie Anne Rinker (born September 28, 1962) is an American

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

who played on 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 wee ...

in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.

Amateur career

Rinker was born and raised in Stuart, Florida. She attended the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

in Gainesville, Florida, where she played for coach Mimi Ryan's Florida Gators women's golf team from 1980 to 1982. She was recognized as an All-American in 1980 and 1982, and qualified for the LPGA Tour in the summer between her junior and senior year of college. She completed her education by traveling to the University of Florida during off weeks, and graduated with a bachelor's degree in finance in 1983.

Professional career

Rinker's best years in professional golf came in the mid-1980s, and included two LPGA Tour wins: the 1984 Boston Five Classic and the 1986

LPGA Corning Classic The LPGA Corning Classic was an annual golf tournament for professional female golfers on the LPGA Tour. It took place every year from 1979 through 2009 at the Corning Country Club Corning may refer to: People * Corning (surname) Places In ...

. Her best finishes in the LPGA majors included a seventh place in the

1984 Nabisco Dinah Shore The 1984 Nabisco Dinah Shore was a women's professional golf tournament, held April 5–8 at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. This was the thirteenth edition of the ANA Inspiration, and the second as a major championshi ...

, a tie for third in the 1987 LPGA Championship, and a tie for seventh in the 1995 du Maurier Classic. The most lucrative year of her career was 1987, when she earned $158,916 and had nine top-10 finishes. To date, she has won over $1,200,000 as a professional golfer. As the winner of the 2015 LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals Championship, she is qualified for the inaugural U.S. Senior Women's Open in 2018 through 2020 as an eligible winner of the past five editions of the said tournament.

Family

Rinker's two brothers, Larry and

Lee Lee may refer to: Name Given name * Lee (given name), a given name in English Surname * Chinese surnames romanized as Li or Lee: ** Li (surname 李) or Lee (Hanzi ), a common Chinese surname ** Li (surname 利) or Lee (Hanzi ), a Chinese ...

, have played on the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...

. She competed under her married name, Laurie Rinker-Graham, from 1992 to 2003. She has two sons, Brent and Timothy.

Amateur wins

*1980

U.S. Girls' Junior The United States Girls' Junior Championship is one of the thirteen U.S. national golf championships organized by the United States Golf Association. It is open to amateur girls who are under 19 on the last day of the competition and have a USGA h ...

*1982 Doherty Challenge Cup

Professional wins

LPGA Tour wins (2)

LPGA of Japan Tour wins (1)

*1984 Chukyo TV Bridgestone Ladies Open

Other wins

*1985

JCPenney Classic The JCPenney Classic was a mixed team golf tournament sponsored by the PGA Tour and the LPGA Tour. Teams consisted of one PGA Tour player and one LPGA Tour player (except in 1967 when the teams were male only). It was played in California and Flor ...

(with brother Larry Rinker) *2015 LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals Championship.

Legends Tour wins (4)

* 2011 Women's Senior National Invitational *

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment ...

ISPS Handa Legends Open Championship *

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

The Legends Championship *

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

Chico's Patty Berg Memorial

Team appearances

Professional *

Handa Cup The Handa Cup is a series of senior women's golf matches between a United States team and a World Team drawn from players from the rest of the world. It was founded in 2006 and is an event on the LPGA Legends Tour. Since 2013 it has been officially ...

(representing the United States): 2013, 2014 (winners), 2015 (winners)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rinker, Laurie American female golfers Florida Gators women's golfers LPGA Tour golfers Golfers from Florida People from Stuart, Florida 1962 births Living people