Vanderbilt has established itself as one of the preeminent women’s golf programs of the 21st century, but thanks to LPGA Hall of Fame member Dinah Shore, BA’38, the university’s strong connection with the women’s game goes back nearly 75 years.
Shore didn’t play golf at Vanderbilt; the first women’s team teed off almost 50 years after the sociology major and president of the Women’s Student Government Club graduated. But after establishing herself as one of entertainment’s biggest stars—a singer, actress and talk show host who won nine Emmys, a Peabody Award, Golden Globe and three separate stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—Shore emerged as a pioneering supporter of women’s golf.
In 1972, Shore and business executive David Foster founded an annual women’s golf tournament near Palm Springs, California, with the richest prize money in the sport. The event gained the status of an LPGA major in 1983, known for years simply as “the Dinah Shore.” Now officially called the Chevron Championship, it remains one of the LPGA’s five majors. Until her death in 1994, Shore personally presented the championship trophy, now called the Dinah Shore Trophy, to the winner. She was the first non-player inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame, and a statue of her at the Mission Hills Country Club, former home of the Chevron Championship, bears the inscription, “The first lady of golf.”
“Most people that I know still call it the Dinah Shore,” Morgan Pressel told NBCSports.com of the tournament she won in 2007. “She has had that much of an impact on this event and on women’s golf.”
In her memory, the LPGA Foundation, in coordination with the National Golf Coaches Association, established the Dinah Shore Trophy in 1994. The award is presented annually to an outstanding collegiate women’s golfer. Qualifications include maintaining a GPA of at least 3.2 and a scoring average of 78 or better while competing in at least half of a team’s events.
In 1999, Mallory Crossland became the first Vanderbilt student-athlete to receive the award. Crosland was the first Vanderbilt women’s golfer to compete in the individual portion of the NCAA Championship, and as a fitting embodiment of what Shore helped make possible, has gone on to a career in broadcast production with the PGA of America.
