When you grow up as a downhill skier, you have to learn to pick yourself up.
That lesson was never lost on Patty Sheehan.
Having grown up partly in Lake Tahoe, Sheehan’s father, Bob, was an Olympic ski coach. So it was natural that she’d pick up the sport. At 13, she was so good she was ranked the No.1 downhill skier in the nation for her age.
Golf was secondary, until Sheehan became a scratch player at age 18. She’d play first at University of Nevada-Reno before heading further west to San Jose State, where she won the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women title.
And what a game she brought. Having already won three state titles in Nevada, Sheehan won the California Women’s Amateur in both 1977-‘78. She was runner-up at the 1979 U.S. Women’s Amateur and went undefeated on the 1980 Curtis Cup team. When Patty turned pro in 1981, she earned LPGA Tour Rookie of the Year honors.
Her bounce back attitude would result in one of the greatest careers in LPGA history.
Through the 2003 season, Sheehan won 35 tournaments, including the two U.S. Women’s Opens (1992, 1994), three LPGA Championships (1983, 1984, 1993) and a Dinah Shore in 1996. In 1995, her win at the SAFECO Classic qualified her for the World Golf Hall of Fame. In 2019, she was inducted into the NCGA Hall of Fame.
It was Patty’s 1992 U.S. Women’s Open that was her crowning achievement. She birdied the 71st and 72nd holes, and then went on to defeat friend, fellow NCGA Hall of Famer and former Spartans teammate Juli Inkster in a playoff. It was sweet redemption, as three years earlier at the 1989 U.S. Women’s Open, Sheehan had lost despite holding an 11-shot lead in the third round.
Fittingly, and in testament to her never give up spirit which was learned on the slopes, in 2002 Sheehan was one of the torch bearers for the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City.