Kathy Whitworth set a benchmark in golf that nobody has ever touched, whether it was Sam Snead, Tiger Woods, Mickey Wright or Annika Sorenstam. Her 88 wins are the most of any player on a single skilled tour.
Whitworth, whose LPGA Tour victories spanned nearly 1 / 4 of a century and who became the first woman to earn one million dollars on the LPGA, died on Christmas Eve, her longtime partner said. She was 83 years old.
Bettye Odle didn’t reveal the cause of death, saying only that Whitworth died suddenly Saturday night while celebrating with family and friends.
“Kathy has left what’s value living her life – loving, laughing and making memories,” Odle said in an announcement issued by the LPGA Tour.
![Kathy Whitworth, the greatest professional golfer of all time, has died at the age of 83.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/kathy-whitworth-dead-83.jpg?w=683)
Whitworth won the first of her 88 Kelly Girls Opens titles in July 1962. She won six majors in her profession and broke Mickey Wright’s record of 82 profession wins when Whitworth caught Lady Michelob in the summer of 1982.
Her final victory got here in the 1985 United Virginia Bank Classic.
“Winning never gets old,” Whitworth once said.
Her profession was only missing the US Women’s Open, the biggest women’s tournament. Being the first woman to exceed $1 million in profession earnings in 1981, she said, “I’d trade being the first to earn one million for winning the Open, but it surely was a consolation that eased the sting of not winning a bit.”
![Kathy Whitworth, captain of the United States team, holds the trophy after the US team defeated Europe in the inaugural Solheim Cup golf tournament, November 18, 1990.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/kathy-whitworth.jpg?w=717)
Whitworth became AP Female Athlete of the Yr in 1965 and 1967 when she easily defeated Wimbledon singles champion Billie Jean King. Whitworth was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1982.
She was the LPGA Player of the Yr seven times in eight years (1966-1973). She won the Vare Trophy for lowest point average seven times and was the top moneymaker in eight seasons.
But she was identified by one number – 88.
Snead is credited with a record 82 wins on the PGA Tour, a complete Woods has since tied. Wright won 82 times on the LPGA Tour while Sorenstam had 72 wins when she retired after the 2006 season at the age of 36.
![Kathy Whitworth at the Volunteers of America Texas Shootout on April 30, 2016.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/kathy-whitworth-2.jpg?w=1024)
“I feel Mickey had the best swing and was probably the best golfer,” Betsy Rawls once told Golf Digest. “But Kathy was the best player I’ve ever seen.”
Whitworth was born in Monahan, a small town in West Texas, and learned to play golf in Latest Mexico. She began at the age of 15 in Jal, Latest Mexico on a nine-hole course built for workers of El Paso Natural Gas.
She soon became a two-time winner of the Latest Mexico State Amateur Championships. After briefly attending Odessa (Texas) College, she turned pro at age 19 and joined the LPGA Tour in December 1958.
“I used to be very lucky because I knew what I desired to do,” Whitworth once told Golf Digest. “Golf just grabbed me by the throat. I can not inform you how much I loved it. I used to think everyone knew what they desired to do after they were 15.”
![Kathy Whitworth concentrates on placing a putt while playing at the Sleepy Hole golf course in Suffolk, Virginia, May 8, 1982.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/kathy-whitworth-4.jpg?w=768)
![Kathy Whitworth of San Antonio, Texas extends her arms to the winners' cup as she leads a group of 36 into the final round on Sunday, November 27, 1965. Ga.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/12/kathy-whitworth-3.jpg?w=1024)
Wright had a more aesthetic swing. Whitworth was all about grinding and winning.
Whitworth won eight times in 1963 and 1965, and in 1968 she had 11 wins. In none of those years did she earn greater than $50,000. In spite of everything these years, the LPGA Tour’s total prize fund for 2023 will exceed $100 million.
Whitworth continued to run junior clinics and remained energetic in the game.
“I do not take into consideration the legacy of 88 tournaments,” she once said. “I did it because I desired to win, not set a record or goal that nobody else could beat. I’m not some big weirdo. I used to be just lucky to be so successful. What I did to be a greater player doesn’t make me a greater person.
“After they ask me how I’d wish to be remembered, I feel like if people remember me at all, that is adequate.”