Golf: Kathy Whitworth, winningest pro golfer in history, dies aged 83
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Kathy Whitworth was the most successful LPGA golfer with a record 88 titles. She died at the age of 83 on Saturday.
PHOTO: AFP
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LOS ANGELES – Kathy Whitworth, whose 88 LPGA Tour victories are the most ever by a player on a United States professional men’s or women’s circuit, collapsed and died suddenly on Saturday while celebrating Christmas Eve with family and friends, her long-time partner Bettye Odle said. She was 83.
“It is with a heart full of love that we let everyone know of the passing of the winningest golf professional ever,” Odle said in a statement on Sunday. “Kathy left this world the way she lived her life – loving, laughing and creating memories.”
Raised in New Mexico, Whitworth was the youngest of three sisters and enjoyed tennis as a youngster. She began playing golf at 15 with her grandfather’s clubs and, after winning titles as an amateur and attending Odessa College in Texas, turned pro at 19 and joined the LPGA Tour.
“I was really fortunate in that I knew what I wanted to do,” Whitworth said in a remembrance published on the LPGA Tour’s website.
“Golf just grabbed me by the throat. I can’t tell you how much I loved it. I used to think everyone knew what they wanted to do when they were 15 years old.”
Her mother and father supported her amid a sluggish start to her pro career and she won the first of her 88 LPGA Tour titles at the Kelly Girls’ Open in 1962. She competed on the women’s senior circuit, the Legends Tour, then retired from competitive golf in 2005.
A wooden case at her home course, Trophy Club Country Club in Roanoke, Texas, houses numerous trophies and 88 nickel-plated plaques engraved with details of her victories.
“I’m glad when I look back on it that I didn’t succeed right away,” Whitworth said. “When it happened, I was ready.”
She went on to claim six Major championships, was named LPGA Tour’s Player of the Year seven times and became the first LPGA player to pass US$1 million (S$1.34 million) in career earnings.
She claimed her final title at the United Virginia Bank Classic in 1985. She earned more than US$1.7 million in her career in an era when purses were modest.
The Associated Press named Whitworth the Female Athlete of the Year in 1965 and 1966, and she was inducted into the LPGA Tour and World Golf halls of fame.
“Winning never got old,” she said.
Her career included a rivalry with late World Golf Hall of Famer Mickey Wright, who is second behind Whitworth in LPGA Tour wins with 82. Tiger Woods and Sam Snead are tied for the most titles on the men’s PGA Tour with 82.
Her contemporaries said Whitworth’s fiercely competitive nature is what set her apart. “She just had to win,” her contemporary and fellow Hall of Famer Betsy Rawls told Golf Digest in 2009.
“A lot like Mickey Wright and Louise Suggs. There’s just something that drives them. Kathy was a very intelligent person. It was unacceptable for her to make a mistake.
“She hated herself when she made a mistake. She was wonderful to play with – sweet as she could be, nice to everybody – but oh, man, she berated herself something awful. And that’s what drove her.”
LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan praised Whitworth’s impact both on and off the course.
“She inspired me as a young girl and now as the commissioner and I know she did the same for so many others,” she said on the LPGA website.
“We all mourn with Bettye, her family and the entire golf world.” REUTERS
