Golf’s True Friend

Editor's note: Judy Rankin prepares this weekend to say her final goodbyes as a broadcaster. In honor of her singular mark on golf as both a player and a broadcaster, we revisit Steve Eubanks' intimate longform profile of one of the game’s most admired figures. This piece originally published on May 28, 2019.
It was one of those moments when all of life’s turning points flash before you; when all the sights, sounds, smells and feelings from seven decades wash over you like a warm wave, triggered by one simple sentence.
Judy Rankin, the 74-year-old member of the World Golf and LPGA halls of fame and a staple of golf television coverage for the past 35 years, was going through the myriad preparations that continue to occupy her life 57 years after she began her professional career. Whether it’s getting from her home in Midland, Texas, to the next event – the trip to the recent U.S. Senior Women’s Open in Southern Pines, N.C., where she was the celebrity starter, proved more challenging than she would have liked – or meandering from spot...