Judy Rankin says it's 'dreamlike' receiving honorary degree from University of St. Andrews

USA Today

01-07-2025

When Judy Rankin first received an email from the University of St. Andrews last December, she thought it was a prank and asked a couple friends to look it over.
Six months later, when her day in Scotland finally arrived, 80-year-old Rankin said it felt like a dream being awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) from the historic and prestigious school. Previous honorary graduates include Arnold Palmer, Renee Powell, Bob Dylan, Hillary Clinton and Dame Judi Dench.
"I think almost anybody can imagine when this comes to your email one day in December, you can't think it's possibly real, why you and what did you do to deserve this," Rankin told Golfweek. "Let me just say I've enjoyed this as much as anything I've done in a very long time, maybe as much as anything I've ever done."
Rankin, 80, won 26 times on the LPGA before blazing a trail in television. She covered five Open Championships at the Old Course, including Jack Nicklaus' farewell in 2005 and Tiger Woods' completion of the career grand slam in 2000.
"I feel like I know this golf course like the back of my hand, and I only ever played it once," Rankin told the graduates, "but I've been around it with some of the really great players in the world, both men and women."
Rankin was accompanied on the trip by good friend Sandra Post, the first Canadian to play on the LPGA, as well as close family friends from Midland, Texas. Her brother, sadly, had some travel woes. Rankin was on her own when she first arrived in St. Andrews.
"Here it was OK to be myself," she said. "It was a little coming home of sorts. I'm sure there are lot of people in the game and lot of people in television who feel that way, too."
Rankin turned pro at the age of 17 and has said that if she hadn't gone to the LPGA, she wanted to attend the University of Missouri and study journalism. As it turns out, she didn't need a degree to become a broadcast legend.
For her speech – Rankin said it wasn't meant to be a "forever talk" – she thought about it a little bit over time and wrote down a few things the day before.
'Find joy in small things; as you age, they will stack up and it'll become a whole library of the small things that made you smile," she told the graduates. "And when you think back on them, they'll make you smile again.
"Be grateful. Find contentment, and you will have a good life.'