If Amy Alcott wins the LPGA Chicago Challenge at Naperville`s White Eagle Golf Club this weekend, she`ll join perhaps the most select Hall of Fame in sports.
Only a dozen women-two in the last 10 years-have been admitted to the LPGA Hall of Fame since it opened in 1967. In most sports, entrance to the Hall of Fame is based on a vote, but the only credential in the LPGA is tournament victories.
Alcott has been chasing her 30th victory for more than a year, but she isn`t exactly frustrated. For her, the victory that opens the door to the Hall might not taste any sweeter than the Orange Blossom Classic triumph that started her rolling in 1975.
”Basically, I feel like I`m in my own Hall of Fame,” she said Monday after a Marshall Field`s promotional appearance in the Loop. ”It`s important. Maybe to other players it`s the pinnacle. But if something happened to me tomorrow and I couldn`t play golf again, I`d feel very satisfied with what I`ve done.
”I`ve won tournaments all over the world, and I`ve won them in just about every way. I don`t need someone assigning me a number to let me know I`ve had a successful career.”
Alcott, who has won $2.84 million on the tour, isn`t downgrading the honor of joining such Hall of Famers as Patty Berg, Babe Didrikson Zaharias and Nancy Lopez. But she thinks induction should be put to a vote, and that the Hall should recognize humanitarian and goodwill achievements.
If it came to a vote, Alcott would be in the Hall already. But the rules require players to amass 30 victories if they include two major tournaments
(Alcott has won five majors); 35 if they include one major; or 40 if the player hasn`t won any majors.
”It`s archaic,” Alcott said. ”Can you imagine telling a woman who`s just starting out now that she needs 30 wins to be in the Hall of Fame? There are golfers that will be overlooked.”
A change could come one day, but for now the only way into the Hall is through the victory column. Alcott is closer than every other tour pro but Patty Sheehan, who also has 29 victories but isn`t appearing here this week.
Alcott came close to clinching her invitation many times last season, including finishing second in the Atlantic City Classic and third in the U.S. Women`s Open. But this year she has placed no higher than eighth, and she`s not competing in every event.
”I still love to play, and I still love to compete,” she said. ”But I don`t want to go out every week. There`s a time when golf is your whole life, but that`s not true for me any more.”
This week, she`ll be taking on par-72, 6,274-yard White Eagle, an Arnold Palmer-designed course making its debut on the LPGA Tour.
Alcott, who will see the layout for the first time Tuesday, doubts a new venue favors a veteran or a youngster. All she knows is White Eagle`s 18th green is surrounded by water; that will come in handy if she takes her Hall-clinching victory and decides to celebrate by re-enacting the greenside plunges that marked her Dinah Shore victories in 1988 and 1991.
”If I win, I won`t have to go very far for a swim, will I?” she said.
