BELLEAIR, Fla. – More than one LPGA Tour legend will be recognized this week in different parts of the country. One day, almost to the minute, after Annika Sorenstam takes the microphone at Pelican Golf Club for a pre-tournament press conference at the event that bears her name – The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican – another indominable figure of the LPGA will be recognized nearly 900 miles away.

Kathy Whitworth, the winningest professional golfer in history who passed away at age 83 last Christmas Eve, will be inducted into the PGA of America Hall of Fame on Wednesday during the PGA Annual Meeting in Frisco, Texas, not far from where Whitworth lived for most of her life.

Whitworth is part of a class of inductees that includes Bob Dolan, the PGA professional at Columbia Country Club in Chevy Chase, Md.; Don Wegrzyn, who spent 47 years at Old Elm Club outside of Chicago; Coach Herb Wimberly, who led the men’s golf team at New Mexico State for 37 years; Suzy Whaley who was the first female president of the PGA of America; and renowned golf broadcaster and former University of Houston golfer Jim Nantz.

Already a member of the LPGA Hall of Fame, the World Golf Hall of Fame, the Texas Golf Hall of Fame, the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, the New Mexico Hall of Fame and the Women’s Sports Foundation Hall of Fame, the PGA of America honor will add a capstone to Whitworth’s remarkable life and career.

Kathy Whit, as her closest friends called her, running the names together as one, captured 88 titles from 1962 to 1985, more than any man or woman in history. Tied for second on that list are the late Sam Snead and Tiger Woods, who have 82 PGA Tour wins a piece.

She was the Rolex LPGA Player of the Year seven times and won the Vare Trophy for low scoring average a record seven times in eight years between 1965 and 1972. In both 1965 and 1967, she was named Female Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press, and Golf Magazine named Whitworth “Golfer of the Decade” for the years from 1968 to 1977, a 10-year span in which Jack Nicklaus won eight major championships, was the PGA Tour money leader five times and was a four-time Player of the Year.

Legend Kathy Whitworth Inducted into the PGA of America Hall of Fame

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