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The headline read: “Winningest golfer ever.”
“Jack Nicklaus, of course,” I thought to myself.
I’d been doing research for a new project, clicking through articles to calculate how many more wins Tiger Woods needed to surpass Sam Snead’s and Jack Nicklaus’ records.
Eighty-two PGA Tour wins, 18 major championships. Those were the universally known marks to beat, right?
Wrong.
Kathy Whitworth was 15 years old when she first picked up a golf club in the small ranch-turned-oil town of Jal, New Mexico.
Jal was a place where everyone knew everyone. Whitworth’s father was elected the town’s mayor and her mother volunteered at the local church and Salvation Army. Meanwhile, Kathy spent her time beating the bass drum in her high school’s band – her graduating class only had 28 students.
One day, after playing tennis, her friends suggested they head to a local golf course. Whitworth had never played golf, but she considered herself a good athlete and decided to tag along with her grandfather’s clubs.
Kathy Whitworth, the winningest player on the LPGA and PGA tours, dies at 83
“I could not believe that I couldn’t play this golf. That was the hardest thing I ever tried my life. But it just grabbed me, I fell in love with it and I can’t remember playing tennis again,” Whitworth recently recalled.
Sixty-nine years later, Whitworth had become golf’s winningest pro on a major tour after amassing 88 LPGA victories. Six more than Snead and Woods on the PGA Tour, and six more than Mickey Wright on the LPGA.
When I first learned about Kathy Whitworth, I was surprised, disappointed and annoyed. Surprised I didn’t know much about her. Disappointed I hadn’t heard her name spoken more often. And annoyed she hadn’t gotten the attention her male counterparts received.
I approached our features department at Golf Channel about doing a piece about her life and career; they graciously agreed. A few months later, in November, I found myself on a flight to Dallas,…
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