Moving Golf Foreward

Picture the fun of Dolly Parton — bright makeup, blonde (but with a normal-sized do), a little bit loud, but endearing and smart as a whip. Now picture Billie Jean King, a champion for women’s rights in the sports world and a campaigner for gender equality in opportunity and compensation.

Blend these two images together, and you get just a hint of the passion and drive that have propelled Tallahassee golf legend Becky Sauers to a high station in golf history.

In a printed athletic skort and top — even though she’s not picking up a club today — Becky Sauers, 71, is filled with stories and memories from every golf course in Tallahassee. She has been the golf professional at four of the six private clubs in Tallahassee: Killearn, Summerbrooke, SouthWood and Capital City.

Photo by The Workmans

Sauers’ resume dazzles: LPGA Golf Professional of the Year 1987; founder of the Tallahassee Junior Golf Association; LPGA National Advisory Board; LPGA Southeast Teacher of the Year; writer for Golf Digest; Golf for Women magazine’s Top 50 Teachers in the Country; founder of Lady Links Golf Association; and the director of the Classical School of Golf in Tallahassee.

As a college student who had never teed up a small, dimpled sphere, Sauers had no idea that she would become a nationally recognized professional golfer playing at the U.S. Open and courses around the world. But once she did pick up a club, her future began to spool into focus.

“My family came to Tallahassee from a little town in Georgia,” Sauers said. “My siblings had music and art talents, but I was a bit of a tomboy.”

At Florida High, the athletic Sauers played softball, basketball (though she’s short) and track. But life changed when after attending FSU for a year, she met and married a young golfer on the FSU team. Plus, husband Jack Sauers’ father was a golf professional who liked to teach.

Becky Sauers introduces members of the next generation of lady golfers to the game she has long been passionate about. Parker Bradford lined up a putt at the practice green at Capital City Country Club while Molly Bowersox looked on. Sauers enjoyed success as a professional golfer, playing in the U.S. Women’s Open and internationally. Photo by The Workmans

“We moved up to Pennsylvania where his parents owned a golf course,” Sauers said. “I was bored there without friends or family, so his father began to teach me how to play. And I loved it! Loved it! It was almost immediately that I decided I wanted to become a pro!”

With skilled teachers, long hours on the course, innate talent and by passing a series of tests and exams, Sauers turned professional three years after she had first sunk a putt.

After playing in prestigious professional tournaments, Sauers realized her skills and interests were more geared toward outreach. As the mother of twins, she moved toward teaching, mentoring and helping to promote golf for women.

With her husband employed as the pro at the Killearn golf course, Sauers began to develop what she calls her “political” skills in promoting women’s golf in the city and lobbying for equitable prizes. Oh, and she, too, became a pro at the Killearn course.

Members of the Lady Links Golf Association, which was formed by Becky Sauers 31 years ago, got together for a clinic at the Capital City Country Club in 2022. When formation of the association was reported in a newspaper ad, 400 women immediately expressed interest in learning to play golf. Photo courtesy of Becky Sauers

One of Sauers’ proudest and most enduring contributions to Tallahassee golf over the years has been the 31-year-old Lady Links Golf Association that she founded as an organization that would welcome women to learn, play and even travel to foreign sites to enjoy the sport of golf.

“When you think back to when we started, women weren’t even allowed on the course until after 2 p.m.,” Sauers recalled. “But that first day in 1992 after we ran an ad in the paper, we had 400 women show up wanting to learn golf!”

At each of four Tallahassee courses, Sauers has taken her Lady Links following with her as the pro.

“Burt Yancey, another pro golfer, was a big help with one of my other favorite projects, the Classical School of Golf that I started at Killearn,” Sauers added. Currently, she is the school’s director at the Capital City Country Club.

Sauers is thrilled by the arc of interest in women’s golf in the United States.

“The pay inequities remain disappointing, but the opportunities are growing,” she said. “I just got a call from a university saying women’s golf scholarships are open and available!”

For Sauers, there is the simple delight in knowing that “probably 90% of Tallahassee golfers who’ve ever had lessons here were my students. I was a pioneer in teaching hard work, practice and integrity. And I loved it all.”