The room filled up quickly. By 2:45 in the afternoon on Feb. 5, it was hard to get a seat. The banquet room of the Trophy Club Country Club, a busy facility on a hilltop about 12 miles from the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, maxed out at 300 attendees so seating was at a premium that Sunday. Still, about 20 invited guests lingered in the vestibule, visiting with old friends and introducing themselves to new ones until they realized they might be left standing in the aisles. Whit would have loved that. She would have no doubt made a joke or two about it.
There would have been more people, lots more, but Kathy Whitworth’s closest friends wanted to keep this celebration of life as tight and intimate as you could for the greatest winner of all time. Judy Rankin visited with Hollis Stacy, only stopping briefly to say hello to Rosie Jones and Donna Capone. Amy Alcott held court with JoAnne Carner and Angela Stanford, and Stacy Lewis told Whitworth stories with Brittany Lang.
“Did you play in Whit’s junior tournament?” I asked Stacy, referring to the Kathy Whitworth Invitational, one of the premier girls’ events in the country celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Whitworth attended every meeting leading up to those tournaments, and she made a point of being out on the course, regardless of weather, to watch every girl in the field.