Judy Bell, a trailblazer as USGA's first female president, dies at 89

Judy Bell, the USGA’s first female president, died Monday at her home in Colorado. She was 89 years old.

Bell was an accomplished amateur golfer and businesswoman who served as USGA president from 1996-99 as part of a 31-year career with the association.

Bell was born Sept. 23, 1936, in Wichita, Kansas, the youngest of Carl and Mariam Bell’s four children and their only daughter. Mariam Bell served as president of the Kansas Women’s Golf Association while Carl owned a grocery store, which Judy began working at when she was 10 years old.

When Judy Bell was 14 years old, she played in her first U.S. Women’s Open, and two years later, she made it to the semifinals of the 1952 U.S. Girls’ Junior Amateur, where she lost to Mickey Wright. She was twice a U.S. Women’s Amateur quarterfinalist w