This article originally appeared in the July issue of NCGA Golf Magazine
An early sign that Dorothy Delasin was a special player came in 1995 when she won a title competing for San Francisco-based Washington High School.
What made her win at that year’s Academic Athletic Association All-City tournament so amazing was that, at the time, Delasin was competing on Washington’s Boys’ team since there was no Girls’ squad.
Just a year later, Delasin, who grew up in The City, won the California Women’s Amateur and U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship.
It was all just a beginning for Delasin, a Filipina American who began playing at age 8.
In 1998, still a teenager at 18, Delasin won the NCGA/CIF NorCal High School Girls’ title, the NCGA Junior, the Junior World Championship and the California Junior Girls’ Championship.
To cap off her amateur career, she’d add a U.S. Women’s Amateur crown in 1999.
Still, Delasin wasn’t finished.
A year after her U.S. Women’s Amateur victory, Delasin won as a rookie on the LPGA Tour, capturing the Giant Eagle LPGA Classic in a playoff over NCGA Hall of Famer Pat Hurst.
During play, Delasin had her father on the bag as caddie. She’d use a golf bag that was a small, thin nylon model with tripod legs and wore no logos on her clothes, nor had a prominent trademark on her ball. She’d mark her ball and visor with her own smiley-face logo.
At the time still just 19, Delasin would be the youngest player in 25 years to win an LPGA event.
In 2001, Delasin made it back-to-back titles at the Giant Eagle LPGA Classic. She’d later tack on two more professional titles at the 2001 Samsung World Championship and 2003 Mobile LPGA Tournament of Champions.