Six-Time LPGA Tour Winner Jo Ann Prentice Passes Away at Age 92
By Steve Eubanks Six-time winner and one of the original LPGA pioneers, Jo Ann Prentice, passed away on Sunday, May 18, 2025, at the age of 92. A native of Birmingham, Ala., Prentice is one of few female golfers in the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame alongside several notable Alabamians such as Jesse Owens, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Carl Lewis. Prentice was also instrumental in creating the Birmingham Classic, a tournament she never won but one that remained a popular mainstay on the LPGA Tour for a decade from 1972 to 1982. Her most notable victory came in 1974 in Rancho Mirage, Calif. at the Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle, the event that would become the LPGA’s first major of the season, The Chevron Championship. On April 21, 1974, Prentice defeated Jane Blalock and Sandra Haynie in a playoff for what was, at the time, the largest check in women’s golf. She won again three weeks later, this time a two-shot victory over Laura Baugh at the American Defender Raleigh Classi...