Birmingham native and LPGA pioneer Jo Ann Prentice has died at the age of 92, the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame and the LPGA have announced.

Prentice, who died on Sunday, joined the LPGA Tour in 1956, the circuit’s seventh season, and played full-time with the touring pros for 24 years.

“The LPGA Tour was blessed to have pioneers like Jo Ann Prentice who added depth and color to those early years while building the foundation on which we all work and play today,” LPGA interim commissioner Liz Moore said in a statement released on Tuesday afternoon. “Jo Ann did it all. She was a fantastic and consistent player, a wonderful teacher, an entrepreneur and a great friend. Her six wins came against some of the stiffest competition in our history. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends.”

Prentice’s victories featured the biggest winner’s check in the LPGA Tour’s history at the time and what remains the circuit’s longest playoff.

In 1972, Prentice won the Corpus Christi Civitan Open in a 10-hole playoff over Sandra Palmer and Kathy Whitworth.

Prentice’s victory at the Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner’s Circle in Palm Springs, California, in 1974 in a playoff over Jane Blalock and Sandra Haynie came with a check for $32,000.

Prentice also won the All State Ladies’ Invitational in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1965, the Dallas Civitan Open in 1967, the Burdine’s Invitational in Doral, Florida, in 1973 and the American Defender-Raleigh Class in 1974 on the LPGA Tour.

In 1962, Prentice finished second to Murle Lindstrom at the U.S. Women’s Open at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

The LPGA also cited Prentice as having an “instrumental” role in the creation of the Birmingham Classic. Played at Green Valley Country Club, the tournament was an annual stop on the LPGA Tour from 1972 through 1982. (Green Valley Country Club is now Hoover Country Club.)

Prentice purchased Tuckaway Country Club in Oneonta in 1971 and operated the golf course until moving to Arizona.

Prentice was the third women inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame when she was enshrined in 1991. She followed Leah Atkins and Jennifer Chandler into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.