Shirley Spork

Spork was raised outside Detroit in Redford, Michigan and grew up across the street from an 18-hole golf course.[1][2] As a child, she began to collect, wash and resell golf balls and at age 13, used these funds to buy her own golf clubs.[1] She began to practice after hours.[1] She played in tournaments in Detroit as young as age 14 and the Detroit Free Press wrote in 1941 that she "appears to be one of the future stars of Detroit."[3] She went on to attend a golf school given by the Free Press.[4] One of her first major wins took place in 1944 at a Red Cross golf event.[2]

Spork wanted to play golf after high school, but was discouraged by her parents.[1] Instead, she started to attend Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University) in 1945.[5] She had "top honors" at the Women's District Golf Association tournament in June 1946.[6] At college, she won the 1947 national individual intercollegiate golf championship, playing in between final exams.[7][8] She was runner-up in the intercollegiate championship in 1948.[9] She graduated from college in 1949.[9] Soon after this, she went pro and began to play professional events in 1950.[10][11] In the fall of 1950, Spork was hired to work at the health and physical education department of Bowling Green State University.[12]

Spork was one of the thirteen founders of the LPGA in 1950.[13][14][15] In 1951, she toured the United Kingdom and France.[16] She also started teaching golf at Tamarisk Country Club in Palm Springs, California in 1954.[17] She was also involved with creating a teaching division in the LPGA which became the Teaching and Club Professional Membership.[13] In 1962, she came in second in the LPGA Championship.[11] For a few years in the mid to late 1970s, Spork worked as an educator for the National Golf Foundation.[17]

Spork has continued to golf into her 90s.[14] She was awarded the LPGA Teacher of the Year Award in 1959 and again in 1984.[17] In 1968, she joined the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame.[9] She was added to the Eastern Michigan University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1981.[9] She received the Heritage Award from the SCPGA in 2017.[18] Spork was inducted into the PGA of America Hall of Fame in 2019.[13] Spork is also featured in a documentary about the LPGA, The Founders (2016).[14] She wrote about her career in her 2017 autobiography, From Green to Tee.[19]

• Spork, Shirley (2017). From Green to Tee. CreateSpace. ISBN 9781541170988.
• Spork, Shirley (1972). Golf Instructor's Guide. with Lorraine Abbott and Ellen Griffen. National Golf Foundation. OCLC 11226610.

• Vold, Mona (1999). Different Strokes: The Lives and Teachings of the Game's Wisest Women. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 4. ISBN 0684848635.