Pat Lesser (left) receives the trophy from USGA’s Virginia Dennehy, after defeating Mickey Wright (right) in the 1950 U.S. Junior Girls Championship that was played in Hamburg, N.Y. Courtesy USGA Museum
Pat Lesser was the wunderkind of American women’s golf in the mid-20th century. Winner of the 1950 U.S. Girls’ Junior and 1955 U.S. Women’s Amateur. Low amateur in three U.S. Women’s Opens. Member of the 1954 and 1956 U.S. Curtis Cup teams. Lesser more than held her own against some of the greatest names in women’s golf history – Zaharias, Wright, Berg, Suggs.
Lesser also was a pioneer in women’s sports. Decades before Title IX – when there were no women’s college golf programs – she attended a university with a big-time athletic program and competed on the men’s team, often as its No. 1.
Yet, Pat Lesser is all but forgotten in golf circles, a consequence of her decision in 1957 – at the age of 24 – to retire from top-flight competitio…