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With the recent sad sports news about the passing of Mississippi State football coach Mike Leach and Pittsburgh Steelers Hall-of-Fame running back Franco Harris, a third sports giant died last week, too.
Far from a household name, this quiet sports legend captured 88 professional golf wins while on tour.
Though she was not regarded as the most talented professional golfer of her time, she dominated women’s golf just as much as Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus have done on the men’s tour.
Yet, her passing on Christmas Eve at the age of 83 was hardly noticed by most of the football-dominated sports media.
She may have liked that, too.
She once said, “When I’m asked how I would like to be remembered, I feel that if people remember me at all, it will be good enough.”
Kathrynne Ann Whitworth had more professional golf wins than any other golfer – man or woman.
Kathy Whitworth’s 88 victories are six wins ahead of her closest competition.
LPGA legend Mickey Wright picked-up 82 wins in her injury-shortened 14 year professional golf career.
On the men’s side, sweet swinging Sam Snead and Tiger Woods have accumulated 82 career wins each.
The funny thing about Kathy Whitworth is that she never believed that she had the type of golf swing which would be good enough to compete at the highest levels.
Growing up in the oil-dominated Permian Basin area of west Texas and eastern New Mexico, Kathy Whitworth excelled as a young tennis player. Like many of us, she lost interest in tennis over time but fell in love with golf.
Using her grandmother’s set of clubs, 15-year old Kathy Whitworth began playing golf in nearby rural New Mexico. She learned to play golf at a nine-hole golf course located on property owned by El Paso Natural Gas Company and primarily used by the company’s employees.
Said Whitworth, “Golf just grabbed me by the throat. I can’t tell you how much I loved it.”
Kathy Whitworth was a quick learner on the golf course, too. She won the first of her two New Mexico State Amateur titles at age 17.
According to legendary Texas golf instructor Harvey Penick, Kathy Whitworth asked her Mom to drive 500 miles to Austin to see him. She knew that Coach Penick (who later mentored PGA Tour players Tom Kite and Ben Crenshaw) might be able to help improve her golf game.
Kathy Whitworth quietly wanted to try playing golf at the highest level someday soon.
In his “Little Red Golf Book”, Harvey Penick described Whitworth as having a very natural golf swing which was all her own. The two would remain life-long friends. Soon after Kathy Whitworth returned to New Mexico following her initial lessons, she enrolled in nearby Odessa Junior College.
She hated going to college.
Whitworth dropped out of school a few months later and wrote back to Coach Penick. She told him, “I guess you’ll want to kick me in the seat of the pants, but I want to go on the pro tour!”
Once again, her mother would drive this determined young lady across the massive state of Texas. In December, 1958, Kathy participated in her first professional golf tournament in Beaumont, Texas. She made the cut, a small paycheck, and was on her way in ladies’ professional golf.
However, success on the LPGA Tour would not come as easily as first believed.
Kathy Whitworth played in 26 events the following year in 1959. She won less than $1,300 – for the entire year!
Disappointed by her rookie season efforts, it was back to Austin, Texas and another visit to Harvey Penick to see if he could offer some assistance. She was sorely lacking in self-confidence.
Kathy Whitworth (a future golf Hall-of-Famer) once stated, “I never had a golf swing.”
Harvey Penick disagreed.
He tells that Whitworth was the best long distance putter he had ever seen. Most importantly, Harvey Penick worked to bolster her confidence and improve her mental toughness. He reassured the 20-year old Whitworth that she could and would eventually win on tour.
By 1962, a 22-year old Kathy Whitworth finally broke through with her first LPGA victory at the Kelly Girls Classic in Baltimore.
One down, 87 more to go!
In the late 1960’s, my father took me to see the LPGA tournament in Bossier City at Palmetto Country Club on a Sunday. The Shreveport Kiwanis Invitational was a regular tour stop which was played in five straight years through the year1970.
I remember seeing Kathy Whitworth on the golf course. At 5’9” tall, she was much taller than most of the other LPGA golfers. She and Carol Mann (who was 6’3”) really towered over most of the other top players in the field such as Donna Caponi, Judy Rankin, and the two LPGA Sandras – Palmer and Haynie.
Most of the LPGA players impressed me with their poise under pressure and incredible touch around the greens.
The prize money for professional golfers during the 1960’s was quite puny – for both the men’s and women’s tours.
Kathy Whitworth won eight times on the LPGA Tour in both 1963 and 1965. She earned an average of about $1,500 in each of those victories. In both seasons, her total annual earnings were less than $50,000.
Kathy Whitworth began to dominate women’s golf in the mid-to late 1960’s. She was named the Associated Press Female athlete of the year in both 1965 and 1967.
She recorded an incredible eleven wins on the LGPA tour in 1968. Again, her total earnings from those victories in 1968 came to less than $50,000 for the entire season.
When her golf game was at its peak in 1969, Kathy Whitworth and two other LPGA stars (Sandra Haynie and Carol Mann) were among the first women to participate in a “Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf” made-for-television event.
The match was played at the Bangkok Sports Club in Thailand. It was filmed during the peak of the Vietnam War. Massive bombing would take place in nearby Cambodia (less than 300 miles away) soon after the filming of their golf match.
Kathy Whitworth recalled, “We were thrilled to be there. I do remember that after every shot they had to reset the cameras. It was nothing like today where you’ve got handheld cameras everywhere. It took a long time.”
Like Arnold Palmer on the PGA Tour, Kathy Whitworth would eventually become the first female golfer to earn more than $1 million during her professional career. It happened in 1981.
Like Phil Mickelson on the men’s tour, Kathy Whitworth captured six golf majors. Also like Phil, she was unable to win the US Open.
She once declared, “I would have swapped being the first to make a million for winning the Open, but it was a consolation which took some of the sting out of not winning,”
Also in 1981, Kathy Whitworth reached another goal. She tied the LPGA’s Mickey Wright and the PGA Tour’s Sam Snead with her 82nd career victory.
Whitworth later admitted that she mentally struggled with all of the pressure of trying to become the first million dollar winner on the ladies’ tour and attempting to tie the professional record of 82 career wins.
Now she felt a new pressure. She hoped to establish a new record for most career victories.
Kathy Whitworth would win six more LPGA events during the next four years. Her final victory (#88) came in the 1985 United Virginia Bank Classic.
Her 1985 first prize of $30,000 was a vast improvement over those $1,500 checks for tournaments won during her early days on the LPGA Tour!
Now approaching age 46, Kathy Whitworth struggled to keep up with the youngsters of the mid-1980’s LPGA Tour. Young stars like Nancy Lopez, Pat Bradley, and JoAnne Carner were now dominating the tour.
Though Whitworth would continue to compete on tour for a few more years, 1985’s win would mark her final victory.
LPGA founder Louise Suggs said: “Mickey Wright was the greatest golfer, but Kathy was the greatest winner.”
The famously shy Whitworth laughed and reluctantly admitted, “Winning never got old!”
A member of the LPGA Hall-of-Fame and the World Golf Hall-of-Fame, Kathy Whitworth’s gritty attitude and killer putting stroke led her to a record of 88 professional wins.
Some 35 years later, only Tiger Woods (82 wins) lurks anywhere close to that record.
I think her record will be safe for a long time!
Rest-in-peace, Kathy Whitworth! We will definitely remember you!