News & Events

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Mickey Wright R.I.P.

Feb 20, 2020

Mickey Wright, one of the dozen greatest golfers of all time – and the greatest women player – died February 17 in Florida.  She was 85 years old. From the New York Times obituary:

"She was named the Woman Athlete of the Year by The Associated Press in 1963, when she won 13 L.P.G.A. tournaments, still a record for a single season, and in 1964, when she won 11 times. Wright, in 1961 and ’62, and Tiger Woods, in 2000 and ’01, are the only golfers to have captured four consecutive majors."

Mickey was the dominant player on the LPGA Tour in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, and won 82 LPGA tournaments and 13 major championships, including four U.S. Women’s Opens in the 7 year period 1958-1964.  She was the daughter of a San Diego lawyer and attended Stanford for a single year before turning professional in 1954. 

In 2017 she gave a great interview to Golf Digest Magazine, discussing the influences of her father, her teachers and how she built her famous swing (which Ben Hogan described as “the finest golf swing I ever saw”), and how the thought of a single great shot stayed with her for her entire life. Mickey Wright believed there is golf in Heaven.  So do we. This is how she described it in that interview:

"There's got to be golf in heaven. I hope I get there and that it's just me and my 2-iron. Or maybe a couple of angels will be looking on. Everything will look like Sea Island Golf Club did in the old days, sedate and beautiful. I'll be facing that shot to a well-trapped green again, trying to duplicate that shot from 1957. If it's really heaven, I'll pull it off."

 

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