CHANDLER — Kathy Cornelius, the 1956 U.S. Women's Open champion and one of only three mothers to win the championship, died on Sept. 28 at age 93. Cornelius was a seven-time winner on the LPGA whose career spanned nearly 30 years after she joined the tour in 1956 and won twice as a rookie.
That rookie breakthrough came in an 18-hole playoff at Northland Country Club in Duluth, Minnesota, where Cornelius defeated Barbara McIntire to win the U.S. Women's Open on eldest daughter Karen's second birthday. "She was humble, steadfast, just lived life the same way that she played," said daughter Kay. "You didn't know if she was over par or under par when you looked at her. We can aspire to live life like that. Deep down inside, she was content."
Kathy and Kay hold a unique place in golf history as the only mother-daughter duo to win USGA championships. Twenty-five years after her mother's title, Kay became the youngest winner of the U.S. Girls' Junior in 1981 at age 14. Kathy McKinnon grew up in Lake Worth, Florida, picked up golf at age 13, and at 16 drove 180 miles north to Lakeland to study journalism and play on the men's team at Florida Southern College, where she subbed in when the team was shorthanded. There she met Bill Cornelius, an assistant at Cleveland Heights Golf Course. She married and turned professional in 1953, leaving school early. "I just couldn't resist the urge to play golf," she told Golfweek in a 2022 interview.
Cornelius won seven times against legends including Betsy Rawls, Patty Berg, Kathy Whitworth and JoAnne Carner. Her titles included the 1962 Babe Zaharias Open and the 1956 Hot Springs 4-Ball Invitational with World Golf Hall of Fame member Beverly Hanson, and her final victory came at the 1973 Sealy-Faberge Classic at age 40 in a playoff against Judy Rankin for $25,000. Bill traveled with the family and worked part-time for Golf Pride grips. Life on tour meant traveling strictly by car and walking every round as a family. "We didn't have daycare," said Kay. "We walked 18 holes every day and lived and breathed every stroke." Rankin, 81, said, "Kathy was the most mild-mannered person you will ever know," adding, "I don't ever remember Kathy ever hitting the ball poorly." Cornelius, who lacked great speed or length but was consistently sound technically with Bill's help, is one of three mothers to win the U.S. Women's Open, a feat later matched by Susie Maxwell Berning in 1972 and 1973 and Juli Inkster in 1999 and 2002.
The couple opened a driving range in Litchfield Park, Arizona, when Kay was 4 and later owned the golf components company Magique Golf until the early 2000s. Kathy resided in Chandler, Arizona, and lived by herself until last December before entering a memory care facility nine months ago, where staff rolled out a putting mat that lit her up and where she played "My Country 'Tis of Thee" on a dining room piano three times a day. "I think it was a memory from 85 years prior," said Kay, "from watching her mom play the piano." Kathy is preceded in death by husband Bill, who died in 2019, and is survived as a great-grandmother. While she quit competitive golf many years ago, she often carried an old pitching wedge on neighborhood walks to hit pitch shots from tree to tree.