Cathy Whitworth set a standard in golf that no one Sam Snead or Tiger Woods, Mickey Wright or Annika Sorenstam could ever touch. Her 88 wins are more than any player on the professional tour.
Whitworth, whose LPGA Tour victories spanned nearly a quarter century and became the first woman to earn $1 million on the LPGA, died on Christmas Eve, her longtime partner said. She was 83 years old.
Betty Odle has not released a cause of death, saying Whitworth died suddenly Saturday night while celebrating with family and friends.
“Kathy left behind something precious in the way she lived her life — loving, laughing and creating memories,” Odle said in a statement released by the LPGA Tour.
Whitworth won the first of her 88 titles when she captured Lady Michell in the summer of 1982.
Her last victory came in 1985 at the United Virginia Bank Classic.
“Winning never gets old,” Whitworth once said.
Missing her career is the US Women’s Open, the largest women’s major. In the year When she became the first woman to surpass $1 million in career earnings in 1981, she said, “I would have changed it to being the first to win the Open and win a million, but that was some consolation for not winning.” .”
Whitworth was the Female Athlete of the Year in 1965 and 1967, easily defeating Wimbledon singles champion Billie Jean King. Whitworth He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1982.
She was the LPGA Player of the Year seven times in an eight-year span (1966 to 1973). She won the Vare Cup seven times with the lowest average and was the leading money winner in eight seasons.
But she is distinguished by one number: 88.
Snead has 82 wins on the PGA Tour, a total Woods has since matched. Wright has won 82 times on the LPGA Tour, while Sorenstam won 72 times when she retired at age 36 after the 2006 season.
“I think Mickey had the best swing and was probably the greatest golfer ever,” Betty Rawls once told Golf Digest. “But Cathy was the best player of the game that I ever saw.”
Whitworth was born in Monahans, a small West Texas town, and learned to play golf in New Mexico. She started at age 15 in Jall, New Mexico, on a nine-hole course built for El Paso natural gas workers.
She soon became a two-time New Mexico state amateur. After briefly attending college in Odessa (Texas), she turned professional at age 19 and joined the LPGA Tour in December 1958.
“I was very fortunate to know what I wanted to do,” Whitworth once told Golf Digest. “Golf just grabbed me by the throat. I can’t tell you how much I love it.” I thought everyone knew what they wanted to do at 15.”
Wright had a more graceful swing. Whitworth was all about grinding, and winning.
Whitworth won eight times in 1963 and 1965 and had 11 wins in 1968. But she never earned more than $50,000 in those years. After all these years, the 2023 LPGA Tour’s total prize fund will exceed $100 million.
Whitworth Jr. continued to hold clinics and stay active in the game.
“I don’t think about the legacy of 88 races,” she once said. “I did it because I wanted to win, not to set a record or a goal that no one else can beat. I’m not a big freak. I was lucky to be this successful. Being a better player doesn’t make me a better person.”
“When asked how I want to be remembered, I feel it would be nice if people remember me.”
