Ann Gregory

The Story

Ann Gregory of Gary, Indiana became the first Black woman to compete in a USGA championship when she teed off in the 1956 U.S. Women's Amateur at Meridian Hills Country Club — an entry made possible by the Chicago Women's Golf Club, which joined the USGA largely so she could play. Called the "Queen of Negro Women's Golf," she won roughly 300 tournaments, took the UGA national title in 1950, and played 27 USGA championships across four decades. In 1971 she finished runner-up at the U.S. Senior Women's Amateur — the first African American runner-up in a USGA women's event — and at 76 she won a golf gold medal at the 1989 U.S. Senior Olympics.