Kathy Whitworth has set a benchmark in golf that has never been touched by anyone, be it Sam Snead or Tiger Woods, Mickey Wright or Annika Sorenstam. Her 88 wins are the most for any player in a professional league.
Whitworth, whose LPGA Tour victories spanned nearly a quarter of a century and was the first woman to earn $1 million on the LPGA, died on Christmas Eve, her longtime partner said. . She was 83.
Bettye Odle did not disclose the cause of death, only saying that Whitworth died suddenly on Saturday night while celebrating with family and friends.
“Kathy left this befitting the way she lives – loving, laughing and creating memories,” Odle said in a statement released by the LPGA Tour.
Whitworth won the first of her 88 titles at the Kelly Girls Opens in July 1962. She won six major titles in her career and broke a career record of 82 wins. of Mickey Wright when Whitworth captured Lady Michelob in the summer of 1982.
Her last win came in 1985 at the United Virginia Bank Classic.
Whitworth once said, “Victory never gets old.
All that’s missing from her career is the US Women’s Open, the biggest of any professional women’s tournament. As the first woman to earn more than a million dollars in her career in 1981, she said, “I would trade being the first to make a million dollars to win the Open championship, but it’s a consolation that some people can’t win.”
Whitworth was AP Female Athlete of the Year in 1965 and 1967, when she easily defeated Wimbledon singles champion Billie Jean King. Whitworth was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1982.
She was the LPGA Player of the Year seven times over an eight-year period (1966 to 1973). She’s won the Vare Trophy seven times for the lowest GPA, and she’s the highest earner in eight seasons.
But she is identified by a number – 88.
Snead is credited with a record 82 wins on the PGA Tour, Woods’ tally since then. Wright won 82 times on the LPGA Tour, while Sorenstam had 72 wins when she retired after the 2006 season at the age of 36.
Betsy Rawls once told Golf Digest: “I think Mickey has the best swing and probably the greatest golfer. “But Kathy is the best player of the game I’ve ever seen.”
Whitworth was born in Monahans, a small town in West Texas, and studied golf in New Mexico. She started playing at the age of 15 in Jal, New Mexico, on the El Paso Natural Gas staff nine-hole course.
She soon won the New Mexico state amateur competition twice. After briefly attending Odessa College (Texas), she turned professional at the age of 19 and entered the LPGA Tour in December 1958.
“I’m really lucky because I know what I want to do,” Whitworth once told Golf Digest. “Golf is strangling me. I can’t tell you how much I love it. I used to think everyone knew what they wanted to do when they were 15 years old.”
Wright has a more aesthetically pleasing turn. Whitworth is all about honing, and about winning.
Whitworth won eight times in 1963 and 1965, and she won 11 times in 1968. In no year did she earn more than $50,000. All years after that, the total LPGA Tour prize pool for 2023 will amount to $100 million.
Whitworth continues to run junior clinics and is actively involved in the game.
“I don’t think about the legacy of the 88 leagues,” she once said. “I did it because I wanted to win, not to set a record or a goal that no one else could surpass. I’m not a great weirdo. I’m just lucky to be as successful as I am. So, what I did to become a better player did not make me a better person.
“When I was asked how I wanted to be remembered, I felt that if people remember me, that’s enough.”
