Marlene Hagge (née Bauer; February 16, 1934 – May 16, 2023) was 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 ...

. She was one of the thirteen founders of the

LPGA The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekly ...

in 1950. She won one major championship and 26 LPGA Tour career events. She is a member of the

World Golf Hall of Fame The World Golf Hall of Fame was, until recently, located at World Golf Village between Jacksonville, Florida and St. Augustine, Florida, in the United States. It is unusual amongst sports halls of fame in that a single site honored both men ...

Amateur career

Hagge was born in

Eureka, South Dakota Eureka is a city in western McPherson County, South Dakota, United States, near the North Dakota state line. The population was 813 at the 2020 census. History Eureka was laid out in 1887, and named " Eureka", a Greek exclamation meaning "I ha ...

on February 16, 1934. She had a progressively successful amateur experience, starting to play golf from the age of 3. At age 10, she won the Long Beach City Boys Junior. At age 13, she won the Western and National Junior Championships, the Los Angeles Women's City Championship, the Palm Springs Women's Championship, Northern California Open and the Indio Women's Invitational. In 1947, at age 13, she became the youngest player to make the cut at 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 finished 14th. In 1949, at the age of 15, she became the youngest athlete ever to be named

Associated Press Athlete of the Year The first Athlete of the Year award in the United States was initiated by the Associated Press (AP) in 1931. At a time when women's sports, women in sports were not given the same recognition as men, the AP offered a male and a female athlete of th ...

, Golfer of the Year and Teenager of the Year, and she won the

U.S. Girls' Junior The U.S. Girls' Junior is one of the fifteen 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 handicap index of 9.4 o ...

and the WWGA Junior titles.

Professional career

Hagge was the youngest of the thirteen women who founded the LPGA in 1950, and remains the youngest ever member of the LPGA Tour. Her older sister,

Alice Bauer Alice Bauer (October 6, 1927March 6, 2002) was an American golfer. One of the founders of the LPGA, she played professionally and finished as high as 14th on the LPGA Tour money list, in 1956. Bauer had several top-10 finishes in major champions ...

, was also a founder. She won her first tournament in 1952 at the Sarasota Open. She would go on to win a total of 26 events on the LPGA Tour, including one major championship, the 1956 LPGA Championship. That year, she was also the tour's leading money winner and led the tour in wins with eight. In 2002, she was voted into the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame through the Veteran's Category and was officially inducted into the

. Her final competitive appearance on the LPGA Tour came in 1996. Hagge appeared on the June 18, 1961, episode of the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

game show ''

What's My Line ''What's My Line?'' is a panel game show that originally ran in the United States, between 1950 and 1967, on CBS, originally in black and white and later in color, with subsequent American revivals. The game uses celebrity panelists to questi ...

''.

Personal life and death

Marlene Bauer married Bob Hagge, her sister

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

's ex-husband in late 1955. They divorced in 1964. Hagge was married to former

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

golfer Ernie Vossler from 1995 until his death on February 16, 2013. They lived in

La Quinta, California La Quinta (a Spanish language, Spanish idiom meaning "the wikt:Quinta#Spanish, country villa") is a desert resort town, resort city in Riverside County, California, United States. Located between Indian Wells, California, Indian Wells and Indi ...

, where she remained until her death. Hagge died in

Rancho Mirage, California Rancho Mirage is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The city is a low-density desert community with resorts, golf courses, and country clubs within the Colorado Desert section of the Sonoran Desert. Nestled along the foothil ...

, on May 16, 2023, at the age of 89, of complications from a fall.

Professional wins

LPGA Tour wins (26)

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...

(2) Sarasota Open, Bakersfield Open (tied with

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 ...

Betsy Rawls Elizabeth Earle Rawls (May 4, 1928 – October 21, 2023) was an American professional golfer who played on LPGA Tour. She won eight women's major golf championships, major championships and 55 LPGA Tour career events. She was a member of the Worl ...

and

Babe Zaharias Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias (; Didrikson; June 26, 1911 – September 27, 1956) was an American athlete who excelled in golf, basketball, baseball, and track and field. She won two gold medals and a silver in track and field at the ...

) *

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

(1) New Orleans Open *

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, E ...

(8)

Sea Island Open The Sea Island Open was a golf tournament on the LPGA Tour from 1954 to 1963. It was played in Sea Island, Georgia at the Sea Island Golf Club from 1954 to 1957 and 1963 and at the Cloister Country Club from 1958 to 1962. Winners ;Sea Island Women ...

Babe Zaharias Open The Babe Zaharias Open was a golf tournament on the LPGA Tour from 1953 to 1967.LPGA Tournament Chrono ...

, Pittsburgh Open,

Triangle Round Robin The Triangle Round Robin was a golf tournament on the LPGA Tour from 1953 to 1962. It was played at several different courses on the East Coast of the United States. For its first nine years it was played using a "round robin" format, similar to t ...

LPGA Championship The Women's PGA Championship (branded as the KPMG Women's PGA Championship for sponsorship reasons) is a women's professional golf tournament. First held in 1955, it is one of five majors on the LPGA Tour. It is not recognized as a major by the ...

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

, Denver Open,

Clock Open The Clock Open was a golf tournament on the LPGA Tour from 1955 to 1956.LPGA Tournament Chronology 195 ...

1957 Events January * January 1 – The Saarland joins West Germany. * January 3 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. * January 5 – South African player Russell Endean becomes the first batsman to be Dismissal (cricke ...

(2)

Babe Zaharias Open The Babe Zaharias Open was a golf tournament on the LPGA Tour from 1953 to 1967.LPGA Tournament Chrono ...

, Lawton Open *

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

(2) Lake Worth Open Invitational, Land of Sky Open *

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

(2) Mayfair Open, Hoosier Open *

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove ...

(1) Sight Open *

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

(1) Mickey Wright Invitational *

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The First Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lynd ...

(5)

Babe Zaharias Open The Babe Zaharias Open was a golf tournament on the LPGA Tour from 1953 to 1967.LPGA Tournament Chrono ...

, Milwaukee Open,

Phoenix Thunderbirds Open The Phoenix Thunderbirds Open was a golf tournament on the LPGA Tour from 1962 to 1965. It was played at two different courses in the Phoenix, Arizona area: Paradise Valley Country Club in 1962, Arizona Biltmore Country Club in 1963 to 1965. Winn ...

, LPGA Tall City Open, Alamo Open *

1969 1969 ( MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 2nd millennium, the 69th year of the 20th century, and the ...

(1) Stroh's-WBLY Open *

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, ...

(1)

Burdine's Invitational The Elizabeth Arden Classic was a golf tournament on the LPGA Tour from 1969 to 1986.LPGA Tournament C ...