Amy Alcott

The winner's leap into Poppie's Pond at the Dinah Shore — one of golf's most familiar celebrations — began with Amy Alcott, who jumped in after her 1988 victory and started a tradition. By the time she was done, Alcott had 29 LPGA Tour wins and five major championships, and a place in the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Birth and Death Dates:
b. Feb. 22, 1956

Career Highlights:
Alcott turned professional at eighteen in 1975 and won in her third start, taking LPGA Rookie of the Year honors. Her five majors came over twelve years: the 1979 Peter Jackson Classic, the 1980 U.S. Women's Open — where she won by nine strokes over Hollis Stacy at five under par — and the Nabisco Dinah Shore three times, in 1983, 1988 and 1991. The 1980 season brought her the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average and Golf Magazine's Player of the Year award.

The Dinah Shore wins made her part of golf iconography. After the 1988 title she leapt into the pond beside the 18th green at Mission Hills, and the leap became the tournament's signature moment, repeated by champions ever since; her first LPGA win, back in 1975, had come in just her third start as a professional, at the Orange Blossom Classic.

The World Golf Hall of Fame elected her in 1999, and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame inducted her in 2000 — she also holds places in the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. After tour life she turned to golf course design and, from 2007, to coaching the girls' golf team at the Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, not far from her Santa Monica home.

Origin:
Kansas City, Missouri