LPGA veteran and World Golf Hall of Fame member Hollis Stacy will be inducted into the Legends Hall of Fame this month. The native of Savannah, Ga., will be inducted into the Legends Hall of Fame on Oct. 11, at French Lick Resort in French Lick, Ind. The induction ceremony will take place prior to the start of the Senior LPGA Championship, set for Oct. 14-16.
“I was excited to hear I will be inducted into the Legends Hall of Fame,” said Stacy, 65, winner of 18 LPGA Tour events, including four major championships. “To be included with my friends is just a neat thing. I have known them as friends, but I have also looked up to all of them in one way or another.”
The middle child of 10 children, Stacy grew up in a sports family as the daughter of Clemson University all-conference football player Jack Stacy and mother Tille, an amateur golfer who served on the United States Golf Association’s U.S. Girls’ Junior Committee and USGA Women’s Committee.
Stacy’s siblings also excelled in golf, playing collegiately and winning state and USGA championships, but it was Hollis who credits her upbringing in a large, competitive family for molding her tenacity whenever she found herself in contention.
“I had so much psychological warfare, I wasn’t going to lose,” she explained.
Stacy won her first USGA title at age 15 at the 1969 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship and defended her title in 1970. She faced a future fellow Hall of Famer in Amy Alcott at the 1971 Girls’ Junior and won in a playoff with a 15-foot birdie putt to become the first and only player to earn three consecutive U.S. Girls’ Junior titles.
Stacy won the 1970 North and South Women’s Amateur Championship in Pinehurst, N.C., and was a member of the 1972 U.S. Curtis Cup team. She also played collegiate golf at Rollins College in Florida.
An LPGA rookie in 1974, Stacy won her first tournament three years later in her home state at the 1977 Lady Tara Classic outside Atlanta.
“Looking back at my career, probably the single most important moment was winning in Georgia,” she said. “It was my first victory and having my father walk the back nine holes with a severe war injury prompted me to birdie a few more holes to secure a victory over JoAnne Carner.”
Her next win came two months later at the 1977 U.S. Women’s Open, which she won by two strokes over Nancy Lopez. Stacy would win one more LPGA title in 1977, and added two more U.S. Women’s Open victories in 1978 and 1984. In addition, she won the 1983 Peter Jackson Classic, an LPGA major championship that later became the du Maurier Classic in Canada.
During one stretch on the LPGA Tour from 1977-1983, Stacy recorded 82 top-10 finishes. She also recorded one win in Japan at the 1984 Nichirei Cup.
Her final LPGA tournament victory came at the 1991 Crestar-Farm Fresh Classic in Virginia. Stacy played her last year on the LPGA Tour in 2000.
The following year, she became age-eligible to compete on the 2001 Legends Tour. To date, she has played in 41 events, posting nine top-10 finishes with one Legends Tour victory at the 2001 Shopko Great Lakes Classic in Green Bay, Wis. For the last two years, she has also made the 36-hole tournament cut at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open Championship, tying for 28th in 2018, and tying for 33rd this year.
“It gives me great pride that all of us strived to continue playing golf without much support from the ruling bodies,” said Stacy, who was inducted into the 2012 World Golf Hall of Fame. “It has not been easy. We basically started and advocated for senior-level competition ourselves and it shows the sisterhood that golf has given all of us.”
“We no longer compete at the same level that we once did, but by still playing golf, there’s an opportunity to see life-long friends and to give veteran women players a place to compete,” added Stacy, who remains as the only woman to have won three U.S. Girls’ Junior and three U.S. Women’s Open championships.
She is one of only five women in history with six or more USGA titles.
The Senior LPGA Championship presented by Old National Bank at French Lick Resort is in its third season and is the induction site for the annual ceremony. The Legends Hall of Fame is a permanent exhibit featured at the resort.
“As a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and as one of the greatest names in women’s golf, Hollis Stacy is certainly a worthy recipient of this honor,” said Jane Geddes, CEO of The Legends Tour. “She has been a member of the Legends Tour since its inception and has faithfully supported the tour and its players throughout the years. The Legends Tour congratulates Hollis as the newest inductee into the Legends Hall of Fame.”
Stacy joins current Legends Tour Hall of Fame members Shelley Hamlin and Sherri Turner (inducted in 2018), Sandra Palmer and Nancy Scranton (2017), Sandra Haynie and Elaine Crosby (2016), JoAnne Carner and Rosie Jones (2015), Nancy Lopez and Jane Blalock (2014), and Jan Stephenson and Kathy Whitworth (2013).
About The Legends Tour
The Legends Tour is the official senior tour of the LPGA, providing competitive opportunities for female golfers, professional and eligible amateurs, age 45 and over. The tour was founded in 2000 by 25 veteran LPGA Tour professionals to showcase the talents of some of the greatest women’s golfers of all time. The Legends Tour now has more than 120 members, including 14 LPGA and World Golf Hall of Fame members. Legends Tour members have over 750 combined LPGA Tour victories, including 84 major championships. In its 18 seasons, The Legends Tour has awarded more than $17 million in prize money and helped raise over $24 million for charity. The Legends Tour has hosted nearly 100 charity golf events and professional tournaments nationwide in multiple states and overseas in Japan and Australia. For additional information on The Legends Tour, log on to www.thelegendstour.com.