Kathy Whitworth passed away at age 83 on Christmas Eve. While fans of golf know all about Tiger Woods and Sam Snead, both of whom accumulated 82 victories apiece during their distinguished careers on the PGA Tour, Whitworth was a largely forgotten longtime member of the LPGA Tour who won 88 times between July of 1962 and May of 1985. In many ways her career had the very same timeline as Jack Nicklaus, who won his first title in 1962 and won his final championship at the 1986 Masters.
However, the LPGA Tour was very much a minor circuit that featured great competition but lacked the media coverage and the prize money afforded the men. Yet during the second generation of the LPGA Tour when Whitworth competed against the likes of Mickey Wright, Carol Mann and Donna Caponi to the third generation featuring JoAnne Carner. Pat Bradley and Patty Sheehan, no one knew how to win like Kathy Whitworth.
Whitworth grew up in the eastern New Mexico town of Jai. Her father owned the local hardware store and served as the town’s mayor. She attended Odessa College in west Texas for one year. She started playing golf as a 14-year-old and was accomplished enough that she won back-to-back New Mexico Women’s Amateur titles in 1957 and 1958. In December of 1958 she decided to turn professional as a 19-year-old and the following spring headed out onto the fledging LPGA Tour.
Kathy’s first three years on the LPGA Tour were a matter of her getting her beak wet by qualifying into tournaments and trying to make enough money to keep her career going. Her career was enhanced by the fact that she sought out Austin, Texas teaching professional and University of Texas golf coach Harvey Penick to serve as her coach. It turned out to be a very wise career choice that lasted multiple decades.
In July of 1962 Whitworth won her first LPGA event, beating Sandra Haynie by one stroke to win the Kelly Girls Open (Greater Baltimore Golf Classic). She followed it up three months later with a four-stroke victory over the ultra-gifted Mickey Wright (82 LPGA wins, 13 LPGA major titles), and from that point onward there was no stopping Kathy Whitworth. The following year she won eight times on the LPGA Tour, had one victory in 1964, took home eight titles in 1965, found the winner’s circle nine times in 1967, had an unheard of 10 victories in 1968. She closed out the 1960s with nine wins in 1969. She definitely knew how to win.
It’s sort of ironic to say that Kathy Whitworth’s winning ways slowed down in the 1970s, but she still found victory lane multiple times in multiple years. She had a pair of victories in 1970, won four times in 1971, added five titles in 1972, and had another big year in 1973 when she accumulated seven more LPGA Tour wins. From 1980 through 1986 Kathy won eight more times while in her 40s on a tour that now featured the likes of Nancy Lopez, a three-time winner of the New Mexico Women’s Amateur, Hollis Stacy and Beth Daniel. Her final win on the LPGA Tour came at the United Virginia Bank Classic in 1985 when she was 46 years old. She would stay competitive through the new millennium, playing in her final professional event at the 2005 BJs Charity Classic.
To go along with her 88 wins, Whitworth collected six major titles during an era when there were only two or three majors each year. For instance, she won the 1977 Dinah Shore five years before it became a major. She was the LPGA Player of the Year each and every year from 1966 through 1973. She won the Vare Trophy for having the lowest scoring average on tour from 1966 through 1972. She had enough player performance points to be inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame in 1975 and entered the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1982. She was a two-time Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year, was named Golfer of the Decade by Golf Magazine, is a member of the New Mexico HOF, Texas Sports Hall of Fame, and the Women’s Sports Foundation Hall of Fame. She passed away Dec, 24 at her home in Flower Mound, Texas.
The captain of Team USA at the very first Solheim Cup in 1990, Whitworth was quoted as saying, “Golf just grabbed me by the throat. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed it.” A very well grounded individual, Kathy also once said, “What I did in being a better player does not make me a better person.” When all is said and done, no one knew how to win like Kathy Whitworth.
Closer to home
On the local golf scene, Jack Lucich of Clearlake passed away this past Wednesday, Jan. 4, at St. Helena Adventist Hospital. He had suffered a severe stroke five days prior. His son Jon, a graduate of Lower Lake High School, and other family members were by his side in St. Helena.
Lucich was best known as a top-notch rules official for the NCGA and the USGA. He officiated hundreds of golf tournaments from the Pac 12 Tournament to the NCAA Regionals to the Joe Morgan Classic to the California State Amateur to PGA Tour Q School. He officiated the first 28 versions of the Lake County Junior, was an active rules official for the Lake County Amateur Golf Circuit, and served as the head rules official for me at 14 North Coast Section Golf Championships.
He was also politically active, serving as the first mayor of the City of Clearlake as well serving as a member of the Lake County Planning Commission. He was also known as a competitive golfer who competed in the San Francisco City Amateur for close to three decades, entered U.S. Senior Amateur Qualifying, and coming out on top as the On the Links Net Golfer of the Year in 2003 and 2009. He refused to play in senior net events and always entered the net flight against younger competition. He was a past Adams Springs Golf Club net club champion.
Lucich and I competed in net better ball events starting in 1981. We qualified for the NCGA Zone Competition in Monterey seven times and represented Adams 19 times in Two Man Competitions. A very intense golfer, Lucich was a great partner because he never gave up and was capable of the miracle shot when one least expected it. His wife of 60-plus years, Sharon, passed away in the spring of this past year.
The Northern California golf scene has lost one of its more iconic members with the passing of Jack Lucich. Sad to say, but the Adams Springs annual Memorial Tournament has one more past member to add to its perpetual plaque.
