Lauren Howe was one of the best female players in the country at various times during the mid- and late 1970s and through much of the ’80s.
Her first big breakthrough came in 1973 when she won the San Francisco Women’s City Championship shortly before turning 14 and moving to Colorado. The following year, she advanced to the finals of the U.S. Girls’ Junior, losing in the title match 7 and 5 to Nancy Lopez. In 1975, I Howe was the co-medalist in the stroke-play portion of the same national championship. And in 1976, she was the solo stroke-play medalist.
In 1975, at age 16, she not only won the CWGA Junior Match Play, but the open-age CWGA Stroke Play. With girls’ high school golf not officially sanctioned until 1990, Howe was the No. 1 player on the boys’ team at St. Mary’s in Colorado Springs for the three years she spent in high school.
In 1976 as a 17-year-old, Howe qualified for the U.S. Women’s Open in suburban Philadelphia. That same year, she won the Mexican Women’s Amateur.
After a year at the University of Tulsa—as a teammate of Lopez—Howe won the prestigious Women’s Western Amateur in 1977. That same year she was named the Woman Athlete of the Year by the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame.
In 1978, Howe joined the LPGA Tour after winning the Q-school tournament, becoming the youngest medalist at that time and setting a scoring record that stood for more than two decades.
In 1983, after recording her victory in the LPGA Tour’s Mayflower Classic in Indianapolis, Howe was named Golf Person of the Year by the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame. That season she finished 19th on the LPGA money list.
During her 13-year LPGA Tour career, Howe also placed second in the 1986 Mazda LPGA Hall of Fame Championship, losing in a playoff to Amy Alcott. That season, Howe notched five top-10 finishes on the LPGA circuit.
A golf instructor since 1991, Howe spent 2003-08 teaching at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Fla., before returning to Colorado, where she continues to instruct golfers of all ages.
1983 Golf Person of the Year
The 13-year LPGA Tour player won her first and only event on the LPGA Tour, the Mayflower Classic in Indianapolis.
