Patty Sheehan turned professional and joined the LPGA Tour in 1980. She won LPGA Rookie of the Year honors in 1981 with her first professional victory coming at the Mazda Japan Classic. She was strong throughout the 1980s, winning four times in both 1983 and 1984 and winning the LPGA Championship in both seasons. She won LPGA Tour Player of the Year in 1983 and was one of several athletes named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 1987.

Sheehan started off the 1990s with five wins in 1990. She won the U.S. Women's Open in 1992 and 1994, the Mazda LPGA Championship in 1995 and the Nabisco Dinah Shore (now known as the Kraft Nabisco Championship) in 1996. That would be her final LPGA victory. She qualified for the LPGA Hall of Fame by winning her 30th tournament in 1993. She finished in the Top 10 on the LPGA money list every year from 1982-93.

Sheehan played on the U.S. Solheim Cup team five times (1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2002) and captained the team in 2003.

Sheehan become one of the first LPGA players to publicly announce that she was a lesbian. Sheehan and her partner Rebecca Gaston have two adopted children.

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