Kathy Whitworth set a benchmark in golf no one has ever touched, whether it was Sam Snead or Tiger Woods, Mickey Wright or Annika Sorenstam. Her 88 victories are the most by any player on a single professional tour.
Whitworth, whose LPGA Tour victories spanned nearly a quarter-century and who became the first woman to earn $1 million for her career on the LPGA, died on Christmas Eve, her longtime partner said. She was 83.
Whitworth won the first of her 88 titles in the Kelly Girls Opens in July 1962. She won six majors during her career and broke Mickey Wright's record of 82 career wins when Whitworth captured the Lady Michelob in the summer of 1982.“Winning never got old,” Whitworth once said. She was the LPGA player of the year seven times in an eight-year span . She won the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average seven times and she was the leading money winner in eight seasons.Snead was credited with a record 82 wins on the PGA Tour, a total Woods has since matched. Wright won 82 times on the LPGA Tour, while Sorenstam had 72 wins when she retired after the 2006 season at age 36.
She soon was a two-time winner of the New Mexico State Amateur. After briefly attending Odessa College, she turned pro at age 19 and joined the LPGA Tour in December 1958.