One of the best female golfers of all-time passed away on Monday at the age of 85. According to Joel Beall of Golf Digest, Mickey Wright of San Diego, CA died of a heart attack at in Port St. Lucie, FL.
Wright was a 13-time major winner and 82-time winner on the LPGA Tour. She is second all-time in wins overall and major titles on the LPGA Tour. Only Kathy Whitworth of Monahans, TX has more overall wins (88) than Wright. Only Patty Berg of Minneapolis, MN has more major wins (15) than Wright.
Of Wright’s 13 major titles, four each came at the U.S. Women’s Open and the LPGA Championship. Wright also won the 1961 and 1962 Titleholders Championship and the 1962, 1963 and 1966 Western Open.
The Titleholders Championship was a major from 1937-1942, 1946-1966 and again in 1972. Held at the Augusta Country Club, Wright won in back-to-back years in 1961 and 1962 despite having a combined score of +18.
Wright won the 1962 Western Open in Montgomery, AL in a playoff over Mary Lena Faulk of Chipley, FL. In 1963 at the Maple Bluff Country Club in Madison, WI, Wright hammered the field as she beat her nearest opponent, Whitworth, by nine strokes. In 1966, Wright beat Australia’s Margie Masters and Jo Ann Prentice of Birmingham, AL by one stroke at the Rainbow Springs Golf and Country Club in Dunnellon, FL.
Wright won her record four LPGA Championships at three different courses. She won the 1958 LPGA Championship in Pittsburgh, PA, despite being +8. In 1960, Wright won at the Sheraton Hotel Country Club in French Lick, IN and her last two LPGA Championships came in 1961 and 1963 at the Stardust Country Club in Las Vegas, NV. Wright won in 1963 despite being a +10. Wright’s 10-over par was actually the worst score ever for a winner at the LPGA Championship.
Wright is tied with Betsy Rawls of Spartanburg, SC for the most U.S. Women’s Open titles. She won at the 1958 U.S. Women’s Open at the Forest Lake Country Club in Bloomfield, MI, at the 1959 U.S. Women’s Open at the Churchill Country Club in Pittsburgh, at the 1961 U.S. Women’s Open at the Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, NJ and the 1964 U.S. Women’s Open at the San Diego Country Club in her birthplace of San Diego.
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