Kathy Whitworth Dies: player, male or female, won more tournaments than Kathy Whitworth, who passed away on Saturday at the age of 83. Whitworth won 88 times on the LPGA Tour between 1962 and 1985, more than either Tiger Woods or Sam Snead did on the PGA Tour.
She outperformed other legendary players like Mickey Wright, JoAnne Carner, Nancy Lopez, and Pat Bradley. She became the first woman on the LPGA Tour to earn more than $1 million in her professional career.
According to the LPGA and Whitworth’s longtime partner Bettye Odle, Whitworth passed away unexpectedly on Christmas Eve while enjoying the holiday with family and friends. In a statement released by the LPGA, Odle said, “Kathy left this world the way she spent her life, loving, laughing, and creating memories.”
According to LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan, the golf industry and the world lost one of its most remarkable people with Kathy Whitworth’s demise. Kathy embodied the definition of a champion on and off the golf course.
I was extremely impressed with Kathy and her approach to the game and life during my brief time with her. She exuded confidence, knowledge, and energy the moment you met her.
As a young girl and as the commissioner, she inspired me, and I’m sure she did the same for many other people. With Bettye, her family, and the golf community, we all mourn.
Two years after taking up the sport, Whitworth won the 1957 New Mexico Women’s Amateur and repeated the feat the following year. She nearly left the professional game in 1959, in the middle of a challenging debut season in which she won just $1,217 and had a scoring average above 80, before ultimately breaking through for the first of her record 88 victories.
Whitworth visited her parents in New Mexico halfway through her first season and was advised by them that if golf didn’t work out, she could try anything else. For three years, $5,000 a year in support came from her father and a few other businessmen.
Whitworth scored her maiden victory at the 1962 Kelly Girls Open, three and a half years after recording five second-place finishes. Before earning her second victory of the year, she placed second six more times.
From there, her career took off, and in 1981, she earned more than $1 million. Although Whitworth’s golf game was initially relatively unrefined, Betsy Rawls told the LPGA that Whitworth improved throughout her first years on Tour. She was renowned for having extremely high standards for herself. Similarly, we can now see individuals looking for Kathy Whitworth Dies.
Rawls remarked that she “simply had to win.” “Reminds me a lot of Louise Suggs and Mickey Wright. They are motivated by something. Kathy had a high level of intelligence.
She shouldn’t have made a mistake; it was unacceptable. When she erred, she despised herself. She was fun to play with, as lovely as she could be, and kind to everyone, but gosh, she was hard on herself. That’s what motivated her, too.
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Who Was Kathy Whitworth?
American professional golfer Kathrynne Ann Whitworth died on December 24, 2022 (she was born on September 27, 1939). More than any other player on the LPGA or PGA Tours, she won 88 LPGA Tour competitions throughout her playing career.
Whitworth finished in the top two 181 times, including 93 times as a runner-up. She was the first woman on the LPGA Tour to collect $1 million in earnings during her career in 1981. The World Golf Hall of Fame includes her as a member.
What Is The Professional Career of Kathy Whitworth?
Whitworth won the Kelly Girls Open, her debut competition, in 1962. She won 88 tournaments on the LPGA Tour between that and the United Virginia Bank Classic triumph in 1985, more than any other player, including those who competed on the PGA Tour for men. Six of them were essential titles.
She became one of only four LPGA players to have won the Orange Blossom Classic five times when she did so in 1974. At the 1990 inaugural Solheim Cup match, she led the American team. In 1981, she became the first LPGA player to earn $1 million.
Whitworth won the Vare Trophy for the best scoring average by an LPGA Tour player a record seven times between 1965 and 1972, was named LPGA Player of the Year seven times between 1966 and 1973, was inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame in 1975, and the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1982.
In 1965 and 1967, she received the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year award. During the celebration of the 100th anniversary of golf in America in 1988, she was named “Golfer of the Decade” by Golf Magazine for the years 1968 to 1977.
For consistently exceptional contributions to golf, she was given the William Richardson Award by the Golf Writers Association of America in 1986. Additionally, she is a member of the Women’s Sports Foundation Hall of Fame, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, the Texas Golf Hall of Fame, and the New Mexico Hall of Fame.