Sandy LaBauve: Golfing Pioneer

Together with her husband, Mike, Sandy LaBauve helps form the most formidable golf instructing duo in the sport’s history. His emphasis on the short game, and her emphasis on getting young girls to start playing golf have revolutionized the game for many thousands of players. But more importantly, Sandy LaBauve has made achieving greatness in golf a reality and a real goal for thousands of junior girls players. For way too long, golf was a segregated sport – segregated by race, most famously, but also by gender and income. Tiger Woods and others helped integrate the game on racial levels, and a number of programs have helped lower-income players enjoy the game, but Sandy LaBauve is an unsung hero of getting girls involved in golf.

In 1989, Sandy LaBauve, inspired by her mother, helped to found a girls only junior golf program in Phoenix. The Ladies Professional Golf Association will soon celebrate its twentieth anniversary, all thanks for the work of Sandy LaBauve. Over the course of twenty years, it has reached more than 60,000 girls and given them an opportunity to foster friendships, network with other female golf enthusiasts, and practice and develop golfing skills in a decidedly non-competitive environment. Designed to empower girls and give them an outlet for their desire to play golf, the LPGA has created opportunities for thousands of women and improved the overall game of golf by introducing diversity into an arena that was severely lacking in it.

Of course, nowadays her contributions are being noticed. Sandy LaBauve was named one of the top hundred golfing instructors in the country by GOLF Magazine, one of the top fifty instructors by Golf for Women Magazine, the 1991 Western Section LPGA co-teacher of the year award, and the 2003 Linda Vollstedt Award for national contributions to women’s golf.

Sandy LaBauve isn’t just a good golfer, or a good golf teacher; she’s a revolutionary instructor who has introduced the game to thousands of new players, improving the game’s standing and importance worldwide.

Additional Resources

Ladies PGA (LPGA)
The History of Golf (Golf Channel)
History of African Americans in Golf