Sandy LaBauve and Rita Reasons enter the LPGA Professionals Hall of Fame after decades spent teaching, mentoring and changing women’s golf.
Sandy LaBauve and Rita Reasons didn’t build their careers by simply teaching golfers how to hit better shots. They helped change who gets invited into the game in the first place.
The LPGA announced Thursday that LaBauve and Reasons will be inducted into the 2026 LPGA Professionals Hall of Fame, recognizing two careers defined by instruction, leadership and an aggressive commitment to expanding opportunities for women and girls in golf.
LaBauve’s resume is especially difficult to separate from the explosive growth of LPGA/USGA Girls Golf.
After seeing how few girls were participating in golf during the late 1980s, LaBauve began developing programs specifically designed to make the sport more welcoming and accessible to young women.
Those small efforts ultimately helped provide the foundation for LPGA*USGA Girls Golf, which reached its one-millionth participant in 2023. The organization has since grown to more than 700 sites and impacts roughly 220,000 participants annually, according to the LPGA.
“My initial calling was to grow girls’ golf,” LaBauve said in announcing the honor. “The LPGA Foundation embraced the seed I planted.”
Her influence hasn’t stopped with junior golf. LaBauve has taught more than 40,000 lessons, worked extensively within the LPGA Professionals organization and earned recognition as one of the sport’s leading instructors.
Reasons took a very different road into golf.
Before becoming an LPGA Professional, she worked in banking and performed with the Nashville Symphony after studying music performance. Golf came later, but once it did, Reasons built a teaching career that has lasted more than three decades.
She eventually became co-owner of the Nancy Quarcelino School of Golf at Gaylord Springs Golf Links in Nashville, teaching everyone from beginners and juniors to competitive players.
Reasons also created the first LPGA/USGA Girls Golf chapter in Tennessee and directed it for 25 years, while her Women’s Beginner School has helped introduce thousands of women to the sport.
She credited a simple philosophy for much of that work: take care of new golfers because they represent the future of the game.
“Being inducted into the LPGA Professionals Hall of Fame is the greatest honor of my career,” Reasons said.
The Hall of Fame recognition ultimately celebrates more than two teaching careers.
LaBauve and Reasons helped create something golf constantly says it wants: more people playing, more women participating and more young golfers believing the game belongs to them.
