Profile: Betty Burfeindt, LPGA Major Winner

Betty Burfeindt was a professional golfer on the LPGA Tour from the late 1960s into the early 1980s. She won multiple tournaments, including one major championship.

Full name: Betty Jane Burfeindt

Date of birth: July 20, 1945

Place of birth: New York, New York

Nickname: BB (sometimes spelled BeeBee)

Her Biggest Wins

Betty Burfeindt had four official wins on the LPGA Tour:

• 1972 Birmingham Centennial Classic
• 1972 Sealy LPGA Classic
• 1973 Child & Family Services Classic
• 1976 LPGA Championship

In the Majors

The high point of her pro golf career happened in Lutherville, Maryland, in 1976, when Betty Burfeindt won a major championship title. It was the 1976 LPGA Championship, the major that today is known as the Women's PGA Championship.

Burfeindt, 30 years old at the time, scored 71-72-73 over the first three rounds and led by one stroke over Judy Rankin going into the final round. After the first nine holes of that final round, Burfeindt stretched her lead over Rankin to three.

But Rankin rallied, and they were tied going to the 16th hole. That's where Burfeindt sank a 12-foot birdie putt that turned out to be the winner. Her one-stroke lead held up on the final two holes, and she won with 287 to Rankin's 288. Both players carded 71s in that final round.

Three years earlier, Burfeindt had finished runner-up by one stroke in the 1973 LPGA Championship. Burfeindt's 70-70 finish over the final two rounds was better than anyone else in the tournament, but Mary Mills made four birdies over the back nine to beat Burfeindt by one.

Burfeindt also finished in the Top 10 in the 1972 LPGA Championship, tying for seventh. Her only Top 10 showing in any other major was a tie for fifth place in the 1972 U.S. Women's Open.

More About Betty Burfeindt

Betty Burfeindt attended Cortland State University in New York, where she played field hockey, softball, basketball and volleyball in addition to golf. Golf, though, was only available as an intramural sport at the time. She graduated in 1967 with a degree in Physical Education. (In 1974, she became the first woman inducted into the Cortland State athletic hall of fame.)

In 1968, aged 22, she was a physical education teacher at Ponce de Leon High School in Coral Gables, Florida, when she scored 70 in the second round of the 36-hole, stroke-play qualifying for the 1968 U.S. Women's Amateur. At the time, that was the lowest qualifying round on record for the USWA, tied the same year by Shelley Hamlin. Alas, Burfeindt lost in the first round of match play.

She turned pro in 1969 and joined the LPGA Tour that year. And she almost immediately stood out because, at only 5-foot-4 and 115 pounds, Burfeindt was one of the longest hitters on the LPGA. That was a facet of her game that remained true throughout her career.

Unfortunately, something else that was true through most of her career is that she was plagued by injuries. Burfeindt's start in 1969 was threatened by a serious thyroid condition, something she had surgery to correct after the 1970 season. She still finished second in the Rookie of the Year voting for 1969, however, and placed inside the Top 50 on the money list as a rookie.

In 1971, Burfeindt won the a closest-to-the-pin contest during the Sears Women's World Classic. The prize was a mink coat, which she later sold to help cover her tour expenses.

Among the instructors Burfeindt worked with early in her career were Johnny Revolta, Ernie Vossler and Manuel de la Torre. And something she was working on, well, worked: She made a huge leap from 1971 to 1972. Her LPGA Tour scoring average dropped by more than four strokes from the first year to the second, and she won twice in 1972.

Burfeindt's first LPGA victory was in the 1972 Birmingham Centennial Classic. She claimed the title by two strokes over runner-up Murle Breer.

Two weeks later, Burfeindt won again at the 1972 Sealy LPGA Classic, beating runner-up Kathy Ahern by four. She also had two second-place finishes during the year, in the Heritage Village Open and Lady Pepsi Open.

Burfeindt finished 1972 fourth on the LPGA Tour money list, and third in scoring average at 72.99. She finished in the Top 10 in 20 out of 28 starts (including both the U.S. Women's Open and LPGA Championship) and was named the tour's most improved player.

In 1973, Burfeindt continued her hot streak: She won once and had five second-place finishes. The victory was in the Child & Family Services Open (sometimes called the Chicago Open). Two of her runner-up showings were playoff losses, including her title defense in the Birmingham Classic where Gloria Ehret won on the first extra hole. In the Pompano Beach Classic, Sandra Palmer beat Burfeindt on the first playoff hole.

Her other runner-up finishes in 1973 were in the LPGA Championship, Alamo Ladies Classic and National Jewish Hospital Open. Burfeindt was seventh in scoring average for the year, and for the second year in a row finished fourth on the season-ending money list.

In 1974, plagued by nagging injuries, Burfeindt fell to 52nd in money. She rebounded to 26th in 1975.

And in 1976, Burfeindt posted what turned out to be her last LPGA victory in the LPGA Championship. She finished 11th on the money list, but at the end of the year underwent knee surgery.

Burfeindt was rarely a factor after 1976 as her physical issues held back her game. The last of her second-place finishes was in 1977, and she still managed Top 30 money-list finishes in 1977 and 1978. But she started dropping in 1979, and by 1981 had cut back to just 14 starts. That was the first year since her rookie season of 1969 that Burfeindt made fewer than 20 starts on the LPGA Tour. She made the decision to retire from the tour at the end of 1981.

The 1982 LPGA media guide noted that Burfeindt's interests included "photography and art graphics, and her murals can be found in some of the finest homes in Palm Springs." That's a reference to Palm Springs, Calif., where Burfeindt lived at the time, and she spent the next four decades living in and around the Coachella Valley.

Her post-LPGA Tour career including working both as a professional photographer — she owned a pet photography business for many years — and as a golf instructor. In 1984, Burfeindt became head teaching pro at Springs Country Club in Rancho Mirage. Into her late 70s, she was still using that club as the base for her golf instruction.

Sources:
(Book titles are affiliate links; commissions earned)
Alliss, Peter. The Who's Who of Golf, 1983, Orbis Publishing.
Cortland State University. Athletics, SUNY Cortland C-Club Hall of Fame, Betty Burfeindt, https://www.cortlandreddragons.com/honors/suny-cortland-c-club-hall-of-fame/betty-burfeindt/25.
Elliott, Len, and Kelly, Barbara. Who's Who in Golf, 1976, Arlington House Publishers.
LPGA Tour. 1974 LPGA Player Guide, Biographies, Betty Burfeindt, 1974, Ladies Professional Golf Association.
LPGA Tour. 1979 LPGA Player Guide, Biographies, Betty Burfeindt, 1979, Ladies Professional Golf Association.
LPGA Tour. 1982 LPGA Player Guide, Biographies, Betty Burfeindt, 1982, Ladies Professional Golf Association.
Rothmiller, David. "Betty Burfeindt: From golf pro to pet photographer," Patch.com, August 13, 2011, https://patch.com/california/palmdesert/golf-pro-specializes-in-pet-portraits.
Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune. "Mary Mills Charges to Win LPGA Title," Universal Press International, June 11, 1973.
Spokane (Wash.) Daily Chronicle. "Putt Does It," Associated Press, May 31, 1976.
The (Passaic, N.J.) Herald-News. "Betty Burfeindt, 22, Sets U.S. Amateur Mark," Associated Press, August 15, 1968.
United States Golf Association. Official USGA Record Book, 1895-1990, Triumph Books, 1992.