The Australian Women's Register

Summary

In 2006, Patricia Bridges was awarded the first ever life membership of the newly established golfing organisation, Golf Australia. It was a fitting tribute to her for her years of service to the sport. Throughout a career in golf administration that spanned four decades, she has held several positions on the executive of the Australian Ladies’ Golf Union, including president. In 1994, at the age of seventy-two, she was appointed Chairman of the Women’s Committee of the World Amateur Golf Council, the first Australian man or women to hold an executive position on an International Golf Committee. In the same year, she negotiated exclusively with Holden to sponsor the resurgence of the Women’s Australian Open Championship. The trophy for the winner of the Women’s Australian Open is named the Patricia Bridges Bowl, in her honour.

Patricia Bridges was respected for her organisational skills and her ability to move with the times. At an media conference in 2006 announcing the timing and whereabouts of the 2007 Women’s Open, organisers played a video of some of the up and coming women players. Bare midriffs were once banned in women’s golf but plenty were on show throughout the video. One shot showed images of a young woman with a tattoo on her lower back. ‘Good grief,’ muttered a member of the crowd. ‘Why not?’ responded Mrs. Bridges.

Events

• 1964

  Appointed to the Australian Ladies’ Golf Union

• 1969

  Appointed Australian Team Selector

• 1970

  Elected president of the Australian Ladies’ Golf Union

• 1976

  Re-elected president of the Australian Ladies Golf Union

• 1991

  Elected to her third term as president of the Australian Ladies Golf Union

• 1970

  Invited to travel to the United States to investigate promoting a Women’s Open Tournament in Australia

• 1981

  For services to Golf and the Community

  OBE