Jan Stephenson’s elevation into the World Golf Hall of Fame last year was the punctuation mark the Aussie icon needed on her playing career.

A product of Newcastle north of Sydney, Stephenson was a dominant force within the junior ranks and soon started pitting her skills against professionals with far greater experience.

Her athleticism and aggressive way of playing marked her as something out of the ordinary and in her first year as a professional claimed the 1973 Wills Australian Ladies Open.

She joined the LPGA Tour the following year and her 16 career wins still sees her ranked 35th for all-time wins on the LPGA Tour.

Three of those 16 victories were major championships yet it was Stephenson’s exploits off the golf course that brought her – and women’s golf – to the attention of the broader public.

First was the cover of Sport Magazine’s ‘Sex In Sports’ issue in May 1977, a brief romance with Donald Trump, a calendar and that now infamous photo of Stephenson in a bathtub covered by nothing more than golf balls.

It simultaneously catapulted Stephenson and the LPGA Tour itself into a new level of consciousness within the sporting world and in many ways overshadowed what she accomplished in her career.

Inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985, Stephenson won a total of 26 professional tournaments and her remarkable life has been mooted as a potential Hollywood movie with Margot Robbie in the lead role.

The career of Randall Vines could not have been a greater contrast.

The Brisbane native turned professional in 1966 and immediately took his talents to Europe. In 1967 he was runner-up at the Spanish Open and played in the Open Championship for the first time after successfully navigating qualifying.

In September that year – and boosted by an ace at the par-3 eighth hole in the final round – Vines won the first of two European titles at the Swiss Open, following that up with victory at the 1968 Engadine Open also in Switzerland.

Earlier that year Vines had stunned Australian golf with a 17-stroke win at the Tasmanian Open, a victory that was considered the largest winning margin in a tournament anywhere in the world.

It was the first of nine victories in Australia, two of which were unique for the formats in which they were won.

Only Colin Johnston had previously won the Australian PGA Championship in both match play and stroke play formats, Vines equalling the feat with back-to-back wins at The Lakes (stroke play) and Bonnie Doon (match play) in 1972-73.

Vines also had the honour of representing Australia at the 1973 World Cup where he and Errol Hardvigsen finished tied for seventh.

Jan Stephenson
Career wins: 26
Major wins: 3 (1981 Peter Jackson Classic, 1982    LPGA Championship, 1983 US Women’s Open)     
LPGA Tour wins: 16
Women’s Australian Open: Won (1973, 1977)
Legends Tour wins: 3

Randall Vines
Career wins: 13
Major wins: Nil
Australasian Tour wins: 9
Australian PGA: Won (1972, 1973)
Australian Open: T8 (1977)