Texas Golf has produced some of the greatest players in Golf history including names like Hogan. Nelson, Trevino, Crenshaw and Spieth which will stand the test of golfing time.
But when it comes to Lone Star female players, the greatest winner in professional golf history, Kathy Whitworth, still lives in North Texas, and is involved in a myriad of golf events including an ambassador to the LPGA’s Volunteers of America event at Old American Golf Club in The Colony and her junior events at Mira Vista Country Club in Fort Worth.
Whitworth who lives in Trophy Club and at age 82 remains a keen observer of the women’s and men’s professional game. While the last of her 88 professional victories (the most ever for a male or female golfer) came in 1985, plus an amazing 95 runner-up finishes, she has actively remained a part of the game she loves and dominated and will be a constant presence at the VOA Classic
Since leaving competitive golf, she has served as the first captain of the women’s Solheim Cup team, has hosted her own hugely successful junior tournament the Kathy Whitworth Invitational at Mira Vista Country Club in Fort Worth along with forging relationships with players 50 years her junior.
A native of a tiny Jal, New Mexico, where her dad had a hardware store, Whitworth moved to West Texas for college and drove hundreds of miles to be taught by legendary Texas golf teacher Harvey Penick in Austin.
Whitworth won the first of her 88 professional titles in 1962 and continued her winning ways for more than two decades. The winner of six major championships, she was named LPGA Player of the Year seven times, the Female Athlete of the Year twice by the Associated Press and Golfer of the Decade for the 1960s and ‘70s by the World Golf Hall of Fame who inducted her in 1975
She released a book titled, Kathy Whitworth’s Little Book of Golf Wisdom, from Skyhorse Press, modeled after her teacher and friend Penick’s book of short stories from her career and bits of her wisdom for golf success.
Still healthy and mobile, on the go as much as possible, Whitworth slowed down enough to talk with OTL Senior Writer Art Stricklin about her career, her love for golf year, why Asians females dominate golf and her favorite thing about going to professional events these days.
OTL: At an age when many golfers are just happy to be retired or playing golf with their friends, you’ve still avidly involved in ladies professional and amateur golf, hosting your own amateur event and going to many others, why is that?
KATHY WHITWORTH: Are you kidding me? It’s my life, that’s all I’ve ever done. I’m never not interested in what the girls are doing. I always like to see what is going on.
OTL: Does anything about today’s LPGA seem familiar to when you played your golf on Tour?
KW: It certainly was a lot different than when I was playing. We only had 35 players then, and we never thought about working out or the travel we had to do, we just did it. I not sure we thought it was that tough. The thing I enjoy the most about the Tour today are the great course conditions. We were happy to have any grass at all on the greens. I like to come to the VOA tournament so I can just walk on the greens and think how nice it would be to putt on something like this when I was playing.
OTL: Do you know much about Champions Golf Club, the site of the Women’s Open last year, a national championship you were never able to win.,.
KW: I have been there before, but never played the course. I never had much success in that tournament, I guess I just wanted it too much. It’s disappointing.
OTL: Do you think ta course Should be set up tough for a national championship?
KW: I’ve never played there, but have been there before and there are a lot of hard, long fairways, and hard greens to read. It should be a tough challenge, but I know the Korean girls are fun to watch.
OTL: Why is that?
KW: This is just my opinion, but they are not more talented than our (American), girls but they are better shot makers and better iron players. Their teachers must do a really good job with them and working on their swing. You have to know your game. The Korean girls can manage and adjust their game.
OTL: Do you think they are harder workers than the American girls?
KW: No I don’t, otherwise they would all be No. 1, but they certainly have been successful. (5 of the 7 winners of the VOA LPGA Classic in North Texas have either been from South Korea or Japan). The Korean who won the year before (2108) knew how to adapt her swing to the conditions
OTL: What are some other changes you see on today’s women’s professional tours that are different from when you played?
KW: When I played, we had three types of clubs made by Wilson, Spaulding and McGregor and that’s what you could choose from. Today, there are so many choices, it can look confusing sometimes.
OTL: What about the game itself?
KW: One thing that hasn’t changed, it’s not how far you hit it, it’s what you do with your shot. How can you work it and where can you place it. The Korean girls are very good at managing and adjusting their game that way.
OTL: Any other big changes?
KW: I remember Byron Nelson once said the biggest change to golf was the invention of the lawnmower for the golf course. I laughed, but I think that is true. We didn’t have any grass on the greens and not much in the fairway. I wish we had the grass to play on. They don’t get bad lies now, the greens are pristine.
OTL: The Texas players like Stacy Lewis, McKinney’s Brittany Lang and Fort Worth’s Angela Stanford and Dallas’ Gerina Pillar rate chances to play in their home state. Did you feel extra pressure playing in Texas?
KW: Not really. I won several times in Texas, in Waco, Amarillo, Dallas and San Antonio. I played in the last Texas U.S. Women’s Open at Colonial (1991) Country Club but I was really passed my prime there and played in the Legends of Golf tourney in Austin with men which was really a lot of fun.
OTL: Do you get to see some of your friends from the LPGA and your golfing days when you’re traveling?
KW: Sure, I’m going up to see people I played with. I do a lot of corporate and charity stuff. It’s nice to still be wanted and people still call me all the time.
OTL: One of the reasons people may have never seen you play or heard much about your game is there is no Women’s Senior Tour. Why is that?
KW: Well, several people have tried. Jane Blalock’s corporation has tried to put together a senior tournament, but it’s a tough sell. Nancy Lopez was the biggest name we had, but she decided not to be involved.
OTL: Some people know you grew up in West Texas, were taught by Harvey Penick in Austin and went to school in Odessa. How long have you been in North Texas?
KW: I’ve lived here nearly 20 years. I lived in Taos (New Mexico) for a couple of years, but it didn’t work out. This is close to the airport, close to some good golf courses and close to my friends and golfing partners.
OTL: Do you see get to watch some PGA Tour and LPGA Tour events on TV?
KW: I get to see plenty on TV, plus I host my own junior tournament in Fort Worth each March, the Kathy Whitworth Invitational at Mira Vista. We had some of the good young players on the Tour come through my tournament so it’s fun to see them play out there. I just want to give something back.
OTL: Is that why you’re still involved in teaching?
KW: Harvey always said you should give something back to the game, so that’s why I want to teach and help out. That’s why I did the book, to pass along some tips I’ve learned in golf. I molded it after Harvey’s book of golf wisdom. It’s not as good, of course, but it a compilation of things I learned from him and others.
OTL: Byron Nelson once said one of his golf records would never be broken. Not the 11 straight wins, but the 18 in a single season because today’s top pros don’t usually play that much. Will your record of 88 LPGA wins ever be broken?
KW: Oh, yeah, I certainly think it will. I think Annika (Sorenstam) have done it and there may be others. Who certainly could do it
OTL: Why do you think that is?
KW: Annika was motivated and talented enough and ready to do it (Sorenstam has 73 wins).. Records are made to be broken and Annika is a great person, the few times I’ve been with her. There is no guarantee, of course. Will she still be motivated? Will she stay healthy? I certainly think she can. But it didn’t happen.
OTL: You mentioned the times you’ve been with Annika. Do you think players today remember you or your great LPGA career.
KW: The younger ones, who have been through our junior tournament, like Paula Creamer and others, probably do. Maybe some of the older ones do, but most of the ones in the middle probably don’t. The majority of the player don’t (know about my career)
OTL: Why is that?
KW: Men are always better at golf history than women.
OTL: You don’t seem to be slowing down much at age 821, are you looking forward to a more golf in your future ?
KW: Certainly. I’m blessed with good health to travel and don’t think I don’t know it. Most of the girls out here probably don’t know who I am, but I know them, and that’s what matters.
OTL: Thanks for the time,
By Art Stricklin