Golf: New Girl in Town

For the past five years, the Bermuda-shorts world of women’s golf has been dominated by Mickey Wright. But two months ago, Mickey, 30, was forced into temporary retirement by a severely sprained left hand, brought on, her doctor thinks, by her habit of toting her huge wardrobe from her car to motel room by hooking the clothes hangers over her fingers. While she languishes, a new girl has turned up with a club that is easily as magical as Mickey’s. At 25, Kathy Whitworth is the same size as Mickey (5 ft. 9 in., 145 Ibs.), but there the similarity ends. While Mickey is a classic golfer with near-perfect techniques, Kathy is simply a natural athlete who compensates in strength for what she lacks in finesse.

Better Than Eating. In Cincinnati’s Buckeye Open last week, Kathy shot up from behind with a 207 score to win her sixth victory this season in 17 starts, stretched her winning streak to three consecutive matches. The $1,500 first-place purse raised her 1965 earnings to $17,285, v. $12,036 for second-ranking Carol Mann. At that rate, with 13 more tournaments remaining, Kathy stands a chance to break Mickey Wright’s record of $31,269 for a single season.

When she was a kid in Jol, N. Mex. (pop. 3,000), Kathy Whitworth didn’t know a golf cup from a hole in the ground. Her only sport was refrigerator raiding, at which she excelled massively; at 14, she weighed 215 Ibs., going on 250. At about that time she tried golf. She liked it so well that she practically gave up eating. By the time she graduated from high school, she had dropped down to 175 Ibs. and had shown so much promise as a golfer that her mother began taking her regularly the 400 miles to Austin for special lessons. Within a couple of years, she had won a few tournaments; at 19 she began traveling the grueling almost year-round pro circuit.

Swing a Stick. She seldom finished in the money. But by 1962 and 1963, she stood second only to Mickey Wright in winnings. Then, in 1964 she froze up and finished third. The setback had a salutary effect. Instead of relying on her booming 225-yd. drives, Kathy learned to develop her short game. Now her colleagues rate her as the best putter this side of the men’s dressing room, and her chip shots have literally won tournaments.

If there is any strain from staying ahead of the other girls, Kathy doesn’t show it. “Sure,” she says, “at first it scared me, but every time you play under pressure, you learn to know your reactions and not to panic. Some day I may get tired, but right now, so long as I can stand up and swing a stick, this is what I want. I’ll tell you one thing: it sure beats that 8-to-5.”