It was just a matter of time before women's golf would split between
amateur and professional.
Women's golf improved dramatically in the 1930's as more and more
competition was offered on the local and state levels. Nationally, the women's associations benefited from the growth of women's golf across the US.
However, women could not earn a living in golf by teaching or promotion without having to give up amateur status. Giving up amateur status meant not being able to play competitive golf. Male golfers in America have had the option of being a professional or amateur golfer from the beginning of the PGA.

In the 1930's and early 1940's there were very few tournaments for professional women golfers, and almost none offered prize money.
This new professional status literally made them outsiders to the sport that they loved. A good example is Helen Hicks, who turned professional to work for Wilson Sporting Goods in 1935.

"Miss Helen Hicks was given the title 'business woman golfer' rather than 'golfing professional', the latter being considered an undesirable appellation in those days. Indeed, women aspiring to become professional golfers were accused by their playmates, both men and women, of being somehow, traitors to the purity of the sport and had to deal with considerable harassment when they made their choice."

The Women's Professional Golf Association (WPGA) was the initial attempt to organize and promote professional women's golf. At the head of this effort was Hope Seignious who along with Betty (no relation to Helen) Hicks and Ellen Griffen began the enterprise. The WPGA was incorporated in 1944. Unfortunately the ground breaking organization barely survived 5 years.

From The LPGA: The Unauthorized Version by Liz Kahn

A quote from Betty Hicks
"The first organization of women's professional golf was conceived in wrath, born into poverty, and perished in a family squabble. Thus was the Women's Professional Golf Association born a bawling scrawny child of early day feminists, a beggar of a child pleading for tournaments and for amateurs to play those tournaments."

The two surviving efforts of this early venture were in hindsight critical to professional women's golf today. One was the establishment in 1946 of the US Women's Open and the other was an organizational platform from which the current LPGA was launched.
By 1949 the WPGA was dead and from that experience the Ladies Professional Golf Association was born. Fred Corcoran of Wilson Sporting Goods was named advisor. The LPGA was officially chartered in 1950 and it's founders and chartered members were: Patty Berg, Babe Didrickson Zaharias, Alice and Marlene Bauer, Bettye Mims Danoff, Helen Dettweiler, Helen Hicks, Opal Hill, Betty Jameson, Sally Sessions, Marilynn Smith, Shirley Spork and Louise Suggs.

Women's professional golf had an uncertain start. Through perseverance and
vision these followers of the 1st wave of women golfers succeeded, opening
a new era for women's golf. Professional women's golf is thriving and here to stay, coexisting with amateur women's golf; giving women a chance to compete at whichever level they chose.

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