Family members confirm that Marlene Hagge Vossler died on Tuesday morning, Rancho Mirage in California. She was a golfing sensation during her teenage years in the 1940s, and the 1950s. She was the only survivor from the original 13 women who formed the LPGA. Hagge-Vossler died at the age of 89.
Hagge-Vossler, a 26-time LPGA winner including the 1952 LPGA Championship was inducted in the World Golf Hall of Fame by the Hall’s Veteran Committee in 2002. Hagge-Vossler died at a Rancho Mirage memory care facility. Her family stated that she had been suffering from physical issues in the past year due to a fall.
Marlene Bauer, who was 15 at the time of the signing of the LPGA incorporation papers to start the women’s pro golf tour in 1950, was a young girl. Marlene Bauer, her sister Alice, and famous golfers like Babe Didrikson Zaharias (Louise Suggs), Patty Berg and Babe Didrikson Zaharias (Louise Suggs) traveled across the country with their 13 founding members in cars. They ran their own tournaments, set up their golf courses, and did their own promotional appearances all without financial support from sponsors.
Hagge-Vossler, the youngest of 13 and the first blonde sex icon on the tour was more than a pretty face. She won her first LPGA championship in 1952, at the Sarasota open. Her last title was at the Burdine’s Invitational of Miami in 1972. Hagge-Vossler only won one major title in 1952, the LPGA Championship. However, she was second at the U.S. Women’s Open, third in the Titleholders Championship that year and second at the Western Open in 1964.
“Marlene held a special place on the tour.” Charlie Mechem, a long-time resident of the desert and former commissioner of LPGA between 1990 and 1995, said that she was not only an excellent player but also beautiful, charismatic, and popular. The tour and golf in general will miss her.
Hagge-Vossler appeared in the documentary “The Founders”, a 2016 film about the 13 founders. The only founders still living at that time were Marilynn Smith (Louise Suggs), Shirley Spork, and Hagge Vossler. Spork died at the age 94 in April 2022, after living for many years in the desert. Hagge-Vossler was the only founder still alive.
Mechem, speaking of the LPGA’s founders, said, “I do not know of an organization that remembers its founders. Fortunately, they have been embraced by them in recent years.” “I’d like to think I had a role in that.”
Sandra Palmer, who is also a desert resident and will be inducted in to the World Golf Hall of Fame 2024, recalls the respect that players showed for the founders of the game in the 1960s & 1970s. She added, however, that Hagge Vossler also earned respect for her own game.
“Marlene is a hell of a sportswoman.” Palmer stated that she could play flat. She could hit the driver from the deck. She was also a fierce rival.
Palmer remembered seeing Hagge Vossler, along with other early LPGA stars at a Dallas tournament when Palmer was in high school. She played with Hagge Vossler when Palmer joined the LPGA, in 1964.
Palmer stated that “She was smart and had opinions on many things.”
Susie Berning, a U.S. women’s open winner, a World Golf Hall of Famer, and a desert-based instructor, recalled the early days of her tour career with Hagge-Vossler.
“When I joined the tour in 1964, we called Marlene mother because she looked after me and mothered me,” Berning said, who is a frequent visitor to Hagge Vossler over the past year. “But she did this with all the players. We would all rent and stay together in the same house. We probably lived in Rochester’s same house for ten years.
Berning stated that Hagge-Vossler’s cooking made her a popular housemate. Berning spoke about Hagge Vossler’s competitiveness.
Berning stated that she would “almost give you the stink eye on the golf course.”
A junior golf sensation
Hagge-Vossler became a national phenomenon even before the LPGA formed. Her family moved to Eureka, S.D. She won the Long Beach City Boys Championship at age 10, and continued to win regular golf events throughout the 1940s. She won regular and junior golf competitions throughout the 1940s. This included the first U.S. Junior Girls in 1949. Hagge-Vossler also won women’s tourneys in Palm Springs, Indio and what was to become her adopted home, the Coachella Valley. Hagge-Vossler was named the 1949 female athlete of year by The Associated Press.
Hagge-Vossler stated in a 2013 interview that it was nearly impossible for junior female golfers to participate in tournaments and get on high-profile courses. Marlene and Alice found their patron saint, Dolores Hope – the wife of Bob Hope, a famous female golfer.
Hagge-Vossler recalled that it was difficult to be a female golfer in those days. Women were not allowed on some of the more snobby golf courses in L.A. Children under 16 were not allowed to participate in the California State Amateur or L.A. City. Hope would bring Alice and I to these courses, and no one would say no to her. “She was instrumental in the L.A. Country Club, Bel Air and other clubs.”
Hagge-Vossler married Dick Hagge in 1955, the former husband of her sister. The couple divorced in 1965. She married Ernie Vossler in 1995, a golf professional known for creating golf courses such as PGA West and La Quinta Resort. Vossler died in 2013 and they remained married.
By: Larry Bohannan
Title: Marlene Hagge-Vossler, last of the LPGA founders, dies at 89
Sourced From: golfweek.usatoday.com/2023/05/16/marlene-hagge-vossler-lpga-founder-dead/
Published Date: Tue, 16 May 2023 19:09:00 +0000
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