Kathy Whitworth ’s athletic talent and decision to maintain a high-pitched criterion for achievement precede her to become one of the bestwomengolfers .
Kathrynne Ann Whitworth was born in Monahans , Texas , in 1939 and raised in Jal , New Mexico , where her father and female parent die hard a hardware store .
A instinctive athlete , and inclined to play sport despite the societal stigma this meant for someone of her gender in her multiplication , she took up golf at the years of 15 and showed enough hope from the start that a teacher of the high repute accept her on as a student – the groovy Harvey Penick .
At 19 , Whitworth won her second serial New Mexico State Amateur title and allow for a college in Odessa , Texas , where she had a golf game eruditeness , to turn pro .
Whitworth seemed gear up to illume up the women ’s golf world right from the scratch line , but her fuse find to be a slow one . In her first season on the circuit , 1959 , she enter 26 events and succeed a wonderful sum of $ 1,217 on the basis of a scoring norm of 80.30 . Nevertheless , she hung in there to become the biggest winner in American golf game history .
It is difficult to imagine that the tall , slender , tautly muscled woman devotee check for so many years weighed over 200 pound sign when she was in high school . " I ’d probably be the fat lady in the circus if it had n’t been for golf , " Whitworth once say . " It proceed me out of therefrigerator . "
As she gradually pared down to her playacting weight , 145 , which she assert throughout her life history , her game improved consequently . In 1962 , Whitworth pull ahead her first LPGA tournament , the Kelly Girl Open , and won one more that time of year .
In 28 coming into court in ' 62 ( she was a workhorse , playing an average of 25 tourney a year from 1959 - 91 ) , she hit duple figures for the first time inmoneywon on the class – $ 17,044 .
Although not a very long hitter of the ball , Whitworth was prospicient enough for her time . More of import , she put together a very working and quotable golf swing . It was n’t the kind that last for the ages , and it was n’t the flowing poetry in motion of Mickey Wright , but neither was it Nancy Lopez ’s exotic manifestation . It was decently down the eye , which is where Whitworth played most of her golf . The Whitworth swing held up very well .
In 1963 , Whitworth won eight tournament . She had a smooth ' 64 , with only one victory , but in 1965 she advance eight more times , including her first major , the Titleholders Championship , which she won again the next year .
In 1967 , she won eight events let in two more major league – the LPGA Championship and the Western Open . She was on a long and full bankroll , but after her 1973 time of year , when she won seven times , the physical and emotional stress of play at such a in high spirits level for a decade did take its bell .
She even had a feeling to carry it in . But it was only a notion , it was not Whitworth , and she came back to acquire again and again . In all , she won 88 LPGA event , which is the all - time record book among both humans and women .
It is a curious concurrence that just asSam Sneadon the men ’s side won more tourney than any other of his gender ( 81 functionary plus a British Open ) but never won the U.S. Open , so it was with Kathy Whitworth , who never could take the U.S. Women ’s Open . And just as in Snead ’s case , the missing major in her record book does n’t at all diminish Whitworth ’s career .
What ’s more , it should be added that while accumulating her free-enterprise record , Whitworth make at one time or another every LPGA administrative office at least once – from treasurer to three - clock time prexy – a time- and energy - consuming labor that Snead and the other great never had to take on .
Though her gain handbag were as humbled as $ 800 , Whitworth won so much that she became the first cleaning woman to reach $ 1 million in life history prize money .
