Monahans, Texas
1999
88
Six
Seven-time Vare Trophy winner (1965, 1966, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972); seven-time Player of the Year (1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1973)
1975
Kathy Whitworth’s rookie year on the LPGA Tour was 1959, beginning a career that saw her notch 88 victories, making her the winningest professional golfer of all time. Six of those wins were major championships coming at the 1965 and 1966 Titleholders Championships, the 1967, 1971, and 1975 KPMG Women's PGA Championships, and the 1967 Women’s Western Open.
In 1967 at the Raleigh Ladies Invitational, Whitworth earned her 30th title, becoming the second-youngest player to reach 30 career wins at 27 years, 6 months, and 27 days behind Mickey Wright. She also holds the record for most holes-in-one in a career at 11. Kathy was the Tour’s leading money winner eight times 1965-1968, 1970-1973) and was the first female golfer to reach $1 million in career earnings in 1981.
Whitworth served as the United States captain for the first U.S. Solheim Cup team in 1990 and was president of the LPGA Tour Player Executive Committee from 1967-1968, 1971, and 1989. Kathy was named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year in 1965 and 1967 and she was inducted into both the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame and the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1975. She’s also a member of the New Mexico Hall of Fame, Texas Sports Hall of Fame, Texas Golf Hall of Fame, and the Women's Sports Foundation Hall of Fame.
Kathy won the Metropolitan Golf Writers and Golfcasters Gold Tee Award in 1984 and in 1985, earned the William Richardson Award from the Golf Writers Association of America for consistent outstanding contributions to golf. The LPGA Tour gave Whitworth the 1986 William and Mousie Powell Award and the 1987 Patty Berg Award and she was recognized as the "Golfer of the Decade" by Golf Magazine for the years 1968 to 1977 during the 1988 Centennial of Golf in America celebration. In 2006, Whitworth was named the PGA First Lady of Golf and received the Linda Vollstedt Award for Service and Leadership in Women’s Sports in 2008.
Whitworth attended Odessa College and won the 1957 and 1958 New Mexico State Amateur Championship before she became professional at 19 years old.
Tune in to watch as the LPGA Tour tees it up for their first major championship of the 2024 season. The Club at Carlton Woods plays host to The Chevron Championship. The 132-player field, highlighted by 10 of the top 10 in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings, will compete for a $7.9 million purse.
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