SAN DIEGO – San Diego State women's golf head coach Leslie Spalding is proud to announce that World Golf Hall of Famer Betsy King will be the honored guest speaker at the Aztecs' tournament banquet on Sunday, March 24, at The Farms Golf Club in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., prior to the team's home event, the Lamkin Invitational, which slated for March 25-27.
The Aztecs' tournament banquet is set to begin at 5:45 p.m., and limited seating is available to the general public for $75 per person. Persons interested in attending should contact Coach Spalding directly via e-mail at lspalding@sdsu.edu.
King, who was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1995, will discuss her successful career in college and on the LPGA Tour, as well as Golf Fore Africa, an organization she founded in 2007 after a visit where she saw the devastating plight of AIDS orphans and extreme poverty. By enlisting the support of LPGA players and other golfers, King and Golf Fore Africa have raised over $6 million to build health clinics and bring clean water to villages in Zambia and Rwanda.
Golf Fore Africa has a goal of raising $10 million over the next five years to reach 200,000 people in rural Africa with clean, fresh drinking water.
A native of Reading, Pa., King played collegiately at Furman University in Greenville, S.C., where she was a member of the 1976 national championship team. She was the low amateur at the 1976 U.S. Women's Open before joining the LPGA Tour in 1977.
King starred in the professional ranks for the next 28 years, posting 34 victories, including six major championships, before retiring in 2005. From 1985-90, she won 20 LPGA Tour events, more than any other golfer in the world, male or female. King finished in the top 10 on the money list every year from 1985-95 and was named LPGA Player of the Year on three occasions in 1984, 1989 and 1993.
King also competed in five Solheim Cup tournaments and served as captain of the U.S. squad that defeated the Europeans, 16-12, in the 2007 Solheim Cup in Halmstad, Sweden.
Christened in 2013, the Lamkin Invitational will feature a match-play format for the fifth straight year. Last season, the Aztecs instituted a stroke-play phase to determine match-play team seeds for the first time in event history.
Along with No. 53 San Diego State, this year's highly competitive Lamkin Invitational field includes eight other top-75 schools in No. 7 Vanderbilt, No. 27 Pepperdine, No. 35 San José State, No. 44 California, No. 45 Texas Tech, No. 49 Augusta, No. 68 UC Davis, No. 75 Sacramento State, while Central Arkansas, Portland State and UC Irvine round out the list of competing squads.