A unique mother-daughter bond

Their respective national championship wins came 25 years apart, but Kathy Cornelius and daughter Kay Cornelius still hold the distinction as the only mother-daughter duo to have won individual United States Golf Association titles. Kathy’s USGA victory came at the 1956 U.S. Women’s Open Championship at Northland Country Club in Duluth, Minnesota, while daughter Kay’s USGA win came at the 1981 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at Illahe Hills Country Club in Salem, Oregon. It’s a record only matched on the men’s side by the father-son duo of John Richardson, who won the 1987 U.S. Senior Amateur, and his son Kemp Richardson, who won both the 2001 and 2003 U.S. Senior Amateur crowns.

A host of siblings also have captured individual USGA titles — but for 42 years, the Cornelius women’s record has remained intact. “I don’t know why that record still stands with all the girls now entering the game,” said Kay Cornelius, currently the LPGA golf instructor at Mesa (Arizona) Country Club. Their family’s bragging rights got its start when Kathy ...