Kathy Whitworth died on Christmas Eve at the age of 83, leaving behind the legacy of the winningest professional golfer ever with 88 championships.
That’s six more than Sam Snead and Tiger Woods — making her the record holder for all tours, everywhere.
She won those 88 tournaments from 1962 to 1985 and became the first LPGA Tour player to record more than $1 million in career earnings. She passed away suddenly on Saturday, Christmas Eve, while celebrating with family and friends.
Whitworth played tennis as a youth and didn’t pick up a club until she was 14, when she was invited by a friend to play at Jal Country Club. She told the Albuquerque Journal in 1989 that she “whiffed the ball” on her first swing and was so mad that she returned the next day to play again. She played by herself, paying the $1.50 green fee before her parents bought an associate membership for $25.
Professional golf didn’t come easy for her. She nearly quit in 1959, in the middle of a difficult rookie season in which she won just $1,217 and had a scoring average north of 80.
Halfway through that first season, Whitworth went to her parent’s house in New Mexico where they told her she could try something else if golf didn’t work out. Her father and a few other businessmen subsidized her career with $5,000 a year for three years.
Whitworth’s 88 wins are six more than fellow Hall Of Fame member Mickey Wright.
“She just had to win,” was how fellow Hall Of Fame member Betsy Rawls described Whitworth. “A lot like Mickey Wright and Louise Suggs. There’s just something that drives them. Kathy was a very intelligent person. It was unacceptable for her to make a mistake. She hated herself when she made a mistake. She was wonderful to play with — sweet as she could be, nice to everybody — but oh, man, she berated herself something awful. And that’s what drove her.”
By 1981 Whitworth passed the million dollar mark in career earnings.
LPGA founder Louise Suggs once said of Whitworth, “Mickey (Wright) was the greatest golfer, but Kathy was the greatest winner.”
Gary Player Files Lawsuit Against Son, Grandson:
Back in 2021 Gary Player’s 1974 Masters trophy was sold for $523,483 along with other Player memorabilia, including his South African Open Trophy, the irons he used to win the 1965 U.S. Open and the shoes worn in his 52nd Masters appearance. Player, in his complaint, alleges that his son, Marc and grandson Damian Player breached an agreement that required the items to be returned to Gary.
“Only with the greatest reluctance and after many years of trying to avoid this did Gary have to enforce his rights in this way,” Gary Player’s attorney, Stuart Singer, told the Palm Beach Post.
Damian Player was part of a separate suit because he allegedly solicited buyers for memorabilia held in 19 lockers at a storage facility in South Carolina. He also allegedly sold or helped sell multiple Rolex watches to a person in Florida “for significant sums of money.”
However, this isn’t Gary’s and Marc’s first legal dispute. In 2020, Gary won a $5 million lawsuit from unpaid royalties between 2014-18 from the Gary Player Group, which Marc Player runs. Gary Player also re-acquired the rights to his name and likeness from the company.
Additionally, Gary Player’s oldest son, Wayne Player, has been banned from the Masters after he promoted a golf ball brand at the 2021 tournament during a ceremonial tee shot for Lee Elder, the first Black golfer to play at Augusta National.
