Horace Cort/Associated Press
Marilynn Smith, who help found the Ladies Professional Golf Association in 1950, when the women’s game was barely a blip on the national sports scene, and went on to win 21 tour events, including two major championships, died on Tuesday in Goodyear, Ariz. She was 89.
Her death, which was announced by the LPGA on its website, left Marlene Bauer Hagge and Shirley Spork as the last survivors among the 13 pioneers of the women’s tour.
The LPGA said Smith, who would have turned 90 on Saturday, made her last public appearance on March 24 greeting players as they walked off the 18th green at the Bank of Hope Founders Cup tournament in Phoenix.