Kathy Whitworth, probably the most profitable LPGA golfer with a file 88 titles, has died on the age of 83, the ladies’s tour introduced Sunday.
Her wins are six greater than Sam Snead and Tiger Woods, who maintain the profession file for the boys’s sport.
“It’s with a heavy coronary heart that we share the information that LPGA Corridor of Famer Kathy Whitworth has died on the age of 83,” the tour stated on its official Twitter account.
An announcement on the LPGA’s web site by Bettye Odle, Whitworth’s long-time associate, stated that “Kathy handed all of the sudden Saturday evening celebrating Christmas Eve with household and pals.” In addition to her 88 event victories — which included six majors — Whitworth was runner-up 93 instances in a profession which began in 1959.
“I used to be actually lucky in that I knew what I wished to do,” Whitworth as soon as stated.
“Golf simply grabbed me by the throat. I can’t let you know how a lot I liked it. I used to suppose everybody knew what they wished to do once they had been 15 years outdated.”
Her nice rival, Mickey Wright, ended her profession with 82 titles. Nonetheless, 13 of these got here within the majors.
“Mickey was the best golfer, however Kathy was the best winner,” stated LPGA co-founder Louise Suggs.
LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan described Whitworth as “one of the unimaginable girls.”
“Kathy was a champion within the truest sense of the phrase, each on the golf course and off,” she stated in a press release.
Whitworth gained at the least as soon as over a file 17 consecutive years, establishing her greatness towards a number of generations of girls’s golf stars.
Her first LPGA title got here on the 1962 Kelly Ladies Open and her final was captured on the 1985 United Virginia Financial institution Basic.
