Stephenson joins the Hall of Fame

Jan Stephenson becomes the second Australian woman to be admitted to the World Golf Hall of Fame. Image: Getty.

Jan Stephenson has become the seventh Australian to be recorded at the World Golf Hall of Fame in California.

Stephenson, a triple big winner, joins Karrie Webb, David Graham, Peter Thomson, Greg Norman, Kel Nagle and Walter Travis.

She was included today in a beautiful ceremony

"Golf has taken me on a wonderful journey that allowed me to travel around the world and make relationships that lasted a lifetime, and now it has brought me to the World Golf Hall of Fame," she said. "It really is a dream come true. I am so honored to belong to such great champions of golf."

The 67-year old was a groundbreaker for the sport when she acted as the face of the LPGA Tour in the 1970s. But beyond the fame she drew as a gender symbol for the sport, she was a fantastic player, with 26 professional titles, 16 of which were won on the LPGA Tour. She also won the 1977 Women & # 39; s Australian Open.

She had her brother and sister with her at the ceremony, and Webb, the only other Australian woman to be initiated, was also in the audience.

Stephenson recalled that her parents took the family to the north of Sydney for the weekend and got to know the game at the Tuggerah Lakes Golf Club as a girl. Her father worked night shifts so that he could drive her to tournaments; her mother worked two jobs. "I immediately fell in love with the sport," she said.

She said she believed her era was "the most colorful and competitive" in the history of the LPGA Tour. "To be counted among those stars as a world golf hall of a famer is not just an honor but it is so humble."

Stephenson was introduced alongside South African Retief Goosen and the Americans Peggy Kirk Bell, Billy Payne and Dennis Walters.

She lives in Tampa, Florida and has a golf course.