Golfer Kathy Whitworth won 88 tournaments in her career – more than anyone else. She didn’t change her sport, in which women had a hard time for a long time, with her actions, but not with words.
Kathy Whitworth almost gave up the chance of a great career very early in her life. In 1959, the then 20-year-old took part in the LPGA Tour for the first time, the American women’s golf tour, which had then just passed its first decade since its inception. Whitworth had only picked up a golf club for the first time five years earlier, now the native Texan was already playing in the top league – and failed there on the first attempt.
She earned just over $1,000 in prize money in her rookie season, she didn’t get any good results and set a limit: “I talked to my parents and we decided: I’ll try for three years, that’s enough Money – they said, ‘If you can’t make it, come home and we’ll find something else,'” Whitworth later said.
Without the big pressure, she started to calm down and get better – and eventually the best. In the next 50 years, Whitworth won 88 tournaments, more than anyone else in golf – Tiger Woods, for example, shares the men’s record with Sam Snead, both have celebrated 82 victories. Whitworth, who also finished second in tournaments 95 times, won six major tournaments and captained the American team at the inaugural Solheim Cup – the women’s equivalent of the Ryder Cup – in 1990. There are few golfers who can be compared to Whitworth: the legendary Jack Nicklaus would be one, four months younger than Whitworth, who like her won at least one tournament per season for 18 years. Of course, both now have a place of honor in the Hall of Fame of golf.
Whitworth was among those who pioneered the work that benefits millions of young women golfers today
However, the impressive numbers are only one facet of Kathy Whitworth’s career. She is also representative of the rise of women’s golf, which was still in its infancy in the late 1950s: many clubs would not even let women play on their courses, at LPGA tournaments there were even isolated complaints from club members, who had to wait for their leisure rounds because of Whitworth and her colleagues. Women were allowed to watch, but professional athletes should only be the men, please.
Back then, 35 women played in a tournament, Whitworth and players like Mickey Wright (who died in 2020) and Louise Suggs, who died in 2015 – almost 92 years old – did the pioneering work from which millions of young golfers benefit today, because the sport with shed a little more of its sometimes repulsive, masculine elitism every decade. Whitworth, however, didn’t transform her sport with bold words and loud campaigns like Billie Jean King did with tennis – she was a quiet winner and a brilliant golfer. Some say to this day nobody has ever mastered a putter better than Kathy Whitworth. This earned her respect from men and women who were inspired by her athletic achievements.
On December 24, Kathy Whitworth died at the age of 83 surrounded by her family.