The bright side of the Pung golf legacy

To label Jackie Pung one of the most heart-rending figures in golf history is hopefully the proper way of categorizing someone who is best known for a scorecard error that overwhelmed all the good play and excellent golf deeds she achieved.

Her infamous scorecard error in the 1957 U.S. Women’s Open at Winged Foot, where she was disqualified for signing for a score lower than what she actually shot, cost her the victory. It ruined what had been an incredible finish. Pung, playing the 18th hole tied with Betsy Rawls, made a 40-foot putt to win by a stroke. But Pung’s playing partner, Betty Jameson, had put Pung down for a 5 on the fourth hole when she actually had 6. In looking over her card after 18, Pung signed for the correct overall total but incorrect hole scores.

Pung was DQ’d and Rawls declared the winner. As time went on, Pung’s notorious error became all she was known for in the timeline of golf history, reducing her to a sad, mournful rules victim, which the march of time did nothing to change. Pung in teary disgrace in black-and-white photos was a must in any accounting of golf's bleakest competitive moments. In fact, however, all who personally witnessed the conclusion were devastated by the calamity. Winged Foot members and USGA officials took a collection for Pung that totaled more than $3,000, a generous consolation gift.

In a happy ending to the life of Jacqueline (Jackie) Liwai Pung, who died on March 15, age 95, in her home state of Hawaii, golf history will show she was far from the symbol of a nasty rules incident. She was named the top woman golfer of all-time from Hawaii in 2005 in a story I compiled for Golf Digest. She won the 1952 U.S. Women’s Amateur and five LPGA Tour events. She was a golf prodigy, first playing golf at age 6 and winning three straight Hawaiian Women’s Amateur titles from 1937-1939 as a teenager; she won it again in 1948. After the Women’s Amateur victory, she joined the LPGA in 1953, the first Hawaiian player to do so. Her tour career also included 14 second-place finishes, and her engaging personality and long-ball ability made her a favorite with fans.

Prior to the 1957 debacle, Pung had another near-miss in the Women’s Open in 1953, and Rawls was involved in that one, too, beating Pung in a playoff.

Pung preferred home life in Hawaii to the tour, and she quit the tour in 1964 and became the first woman director of golf at Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, and later had that title at Waikoloa Village Golf Course. She was awarded the 1967 LPGA Teaching Professional of the Year. She ultimately is recognized for having lived an ambassadorial life in Hawaii and was inducted into the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame in 1988, a much happier picture.