It was March 5, 1956, when California native Mickey Wright won for the first time on the LPGA Tour, having joined the organization the year prior in 1955. She captured the Jacksonville Open title on that date at Jacksonville Country Club in Jacksonville, Fla., winning by just one stroke over Joyce Ziske with a 72-hole total score of 294 to take home a $900 first-place check.

It was that victory that jumpstarted what was a legendary career for Wright, one that saw her win 82 LPGA Tour titles, the second-most of all time only behind Kathy Whitworth with 88, the winningest golfer in history. Wright’s win tally also matches that of Sam Snead and Tiger Woods on the PGA Tour, two golfers widely considered to be some of the best athletes to ever play the game.

Of her 82 wins, 13 of them came at major championships, and across the 1961 and 1962 seasons, Wright became – and remains – the only LPGA Tour member to ever possess all four major championship titles at the same time, winning the LPGA Championship and U.S. Women’s Open in 1961 and then triumphing at the 1962 Titleholders Championship and Women’s Western Open the next season.

Wright became the second LPGA Tour member after Louise Suggs to complete the Career Grand Slam with her win at the 1962 Women’s Western Open, earning that distinction at just 27 years, 2 months and 29 days old. She still holds the Tour record for most wins in a single year at 13, a slate of trophies that she racked up during the 1963 season.

She is a member of both the LPGA Hall of Fame and the World Golf Hall of Fame and won the Vare Trophy five times throughout her career. Wright picked up four U.S. Women’s Open victories in 1958, 1959, 1961 and 1964, tying the record that Betsy Rawls first set in 1960 with her fourth and final U.S. Women’s Open win at Worcester Country Club in Massachusetts. Wright is also still the only player to have won what’s now known as the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship four times, earning those titles at the 1958, 1960, 1961 and 1963 editions of the tournament.

Wright passed away just three days after her 85th birthday on February 17, 2020.

On This Date: Mickey Wright Collects First of 82 Titles on LPGA Tour

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