Edean Anderson Ihlanfeldt, pronounced island-felt,[1] (April 15, 1930 – April 27, 2020) was an American amateur golfer from Montana, coach and founder of the University of Washington women's varsity golf team, and one of the most successful female golfers in the Pacific Northwest.[citation needed] She won several amateur tournaments, including the Canadian Women's Amateur and the U.S. Senior Women's Amateur.[2][3]
Anderson began training at age 13; in 1944, at age 14, she won her first out of six consecutive Montana State Women's Amateur golf championships (1944–49),[2] with a local outlet calling her a child prodigy.[3] In 1949, Anderson moved to Corvallis, Oregon to attend Oregon State University,[2] where she joined the sorority Alpha Phi.[4] While there, she practiced with friend and fellow golfer Grace DeMoss, competing as both partners and opponents at times.[2] Anderson would continue a streak of winning one major championship a year until 1954. That year Anderson met her husband Robert Ihlanfeldt while playing golf. He proposed a week later, and the two were married in two months.[3][5]
During the first two decades of her career after graduation, Ihlanfeldt won numerous tournaments: "five Pacific Northwest titles, the Washington state crown four times, the Trans-Mississippi championship, and the 1952 Canadian Open crown."[3]
In 1974, Ihlanfeldt brought the U.S. Women's Amateur to Seattle and founded the women's varsity golf program at the University of Washington; she accepted no salary during the time she coached the team for the next eight years. In 1989, the University inducted her into its Hall of Fame.[1]