Professional Career
Rankin won 26 events on the LPGA Tour. She topped the money list in 1976 and 1977 and finished in the top ten on the money list eleven times between 1965 and 1979. She did not win a major championship, her best finishes were a second at the 1976 LPGA Championship and tied seconds at the 1972 Titleholders Championship, 1972 U.S. Women's Open, and 1977 LPGA Championship. Rankin won the Colgate Dinah Shore Winner's Circle (currently the Kraft Nabisco) in 1976 and the Peter Jackson Classic (later renamed the duMaurier) in 1977; both events would later be elevated to major status, but are not counted as majors in the years in which Rankin won.
Rankin was LPGA Player of the Year twice and won the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average three times. She retired from full-time competition at the age of 38, due to chronic back problems. She captained the victorious American teams in the 1996 and 1998 Solheim Cups. Rankin became the first player voted into the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame in 2000 under the veterans category, and she was also inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2000.
In 2002, she was voted the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. Rankin is a golf commentator for the TV networks - ABC and ESPN. She has also been a professional advisor for the magazines Golf Digest and Golf For Women.
Read more about this topic: Judy Rankin
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