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The World Golf Hall of Fame will welcome five new members next year, it has been confirmed.

Two-time US Open champion Retief Goosen leads the ‘Class of 2019’. Elected through the ‘Male Competitor Category’, the South African sat within the Official World Golf Ranking’s top ten for more than 250 weeks from 2001 through 2007 and has racked up more than 30 worldwide wins.

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Australian golfer Jan Stephenson, pictured below, has been added from the ‘Female Competitor Category’. The three-time major champion amassed more than 20 professional victories, including 16 on the LPGA. She is also one of the founders of the Women’s Senior Golf Tour.

Jan Stephenson

The three other inductees were all chosen from the ‘Lifetime Achievement Category’. They are Billy Payne – the former Chairman of Augusta National Golf Club – as well as Peggy Kirk Bell and Dennis Walters.

The Class of 2019 was elected by the Hall of Fame’s Selection Commission, which debated a group of 15 finalists. The inductees each passed the required 75% voting threshold, which constitutes approval by at least 12 of the 16 members.

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The selection commission was co-chaired by Hall of Fame members Nancy Lopez, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Annika Sorenstam and included the members of the World Golf Foundation Board of Directors and a mix of institutional and at-large seats.

The five new members will formally be added to the World Golf Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Pebble Beach in June.


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Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

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