Remembering Kathy Whitworth | LPGA

“It is with a heart full of love that we let everyone know of the passing of the winningest Golf Professional ever, Kathy Whitworth. Kathy passed suddenly Saturday night celebrating Christmas Eve with family and friends. Kathy left this world the way she lived her life, loving, laughing and creating memories.” – Bettye Odle, long-time partner of Kathy Whitworth

“The golf world and the world in general lost one of its most incredible women with the passing of Kathy Whitworth. Kathy was a champion in the truest sense of the word, both on the golf course and off. In the short time I spent with Kathy, I was truly blown away by her and her approach to the game and to life. Her strength, insightfulness and vibrancy were obvious from the minute you met her! She inspired me as a young girl and now as the commissioner and I know she did the same for so many others. We all mourn with Bettye, her family and the entire golf world.” – LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan

REMEMBERING KATHY WHITWORTH – GOLF’S GREATEST WINNER

By Ron Sirak 

The dining room at Trophy Club Country Club near Flower Mound, Texas, gazes upon the rolling hills and old oak trees through which two courses meander, one named for the club’s most famous member, Kathy Whitworth, the other the lone design by the icon of Texas golf, Ben Hogan.

Inside the dining room the wall opposite the windows appears at first to be a shrine to the rich golf history of a state that gave the game Hogan, Byron Nelson and Babe Zaharias, among others. The glass case running nearly the length of the room overflows with the spoils of victory.

But closer inspection reveals the hardware was all earned by just one daughter of the Lone Star State —Kathy Whitworth — whose 88 LPGA victories are the most ever on a professional tour.

Whitworth, who along with Mickey Wright gave the game golf’s greatest rivalry, passed away suddenly on Saturday evening, December 24, while celebrating Christmas Eve with friends. She was 83. As LPGA Founder Louise Suggs said: “Mickey was the greatest golfer, but Kathy was the greatest winner.”

That Whitworth fashioned such a career after a rookie season in 1959 in which she had a stroke average of 80.30, won only $1,217, coming within a hairsbreadth of quitting, is testimony of the grittiness that defined her. 

What started as a plan concocted around her family’s kitchen table in Jal, New Mexico, a company town tucked so far in the southeast corner of the state that it is almost in Texas, ended up being a blueprint for greatness, albeit one that needed years to pencil in all the lines.

There was reason during Whitworth’s early LPGA seasons to think she was never going to win, let alone set a record that may never be broken. If there is a lesson from Whitworth’s odyssey it is this: Do what you love, commit to it completely and learn from your mistakes.

“I was really fortunate in that I knew what I wanted…