PALM DESERT, Calif., March 6 (UPI) -- Alice Bauer, one of the 13 founders of the LPGA Tour, died at her home Wednesday of complications from colon cancer. She was 74.
Diagnosed with cancer six years ago, Bauer is the sister of Marlene Bauer Hagge, another of the tour's founders and an LPGA Hall of Famer.
"As a founder of the LPGA, Alice's passion and love for the game and the association provided the foundation of the LPGA of today," LPGA commissioner Ty M. Votaw said. "Her fighting spirit will live on with the LPGA forever and she will be greatly missed."
Bauer was part of the group of golfers to form the LPGA in 1950. But she failed to win an LPGA event, coming closest in 1955 when she lost a playoff to Marilynn Smith in the 1955 Heart of America Tournament. In 1956, Bauer was a career-best 14th on the money list.
A native of South Dakota, Bauer was the state's Woman Athlete of the Year when she was 14.
With Bauer's passing, there are seven living LPGA founders.
