At 6 feet 3 inches tall, World Golf Hall of Fame Member Carol Mann always had a way of towering over the competition. Once she hit her stride professionally, Mann reached heights which would eventually lead her to golf’s highest honor – being inducted into the Hall of Fame.
In 1969, Carol Mann enjoyed the kind of season any golfer would envy. She won her first tournament in April – the Dallas Civitan Open – and won seven more times that year, culminating in October with a playoff victory over Kathy Whitworth at the Corpus Christi Civitan Open. Following a 1968 campaign in which she won 10 tournaments, including the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average, Mann capped a two-year run with 18 wins and finished at the top of the LPGA Tour money list.
“I had been growing all along in my ability to play better and win tournaments,” Mann said. “I won four times in 1966, four times in 1967, so I was getting used to winning and got better and better. I liked winning and wanted to do it more. You put a horse in front of food and he’s going to eat. I was filling myself up with the food of success.”
Her success earned recognition from long-time Boston Globe cartoonist Phil Bissell.
Bissell, who averaged five cartoons per week on local and national subjects, gained notoriety in the Northeast as the designer of the “Pat Patriot,” the logo used by the New England Patriots from 1961-1992. He first met Mann during an LPGA Championship at Pleasant Valley Country Club in Sutton, Massachusetts, where she was paired with Dolores Hope, who served as the tournament’s honorary chairman.
“[Carol] was a doll,” Bissell said. “I really got a kick out of her. I had one-on-one time with people like Carol that money just couldn’t buy.”
The cartoon, which can currently be seen in Mann’s locker at the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Florida, is a social commentary on the time that is now more relevant than ever, nearly a half-century since its publication. In Bissell’s cartoon, Mann is celebrated for her victories in back-to-back weeks at the Southgate Ladies Open and the Tournament of Champs, and for surpassing Kathy Whitworth on the LPGA Tour money list with earnings of $35,547 through August of that season.
Click here for more from the World Golf Hall of Fame about Mann and her legacy on the LPGA Tour.
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