The 100 Greatest Ever Golfers by Andy Farrell

Author:Andy Farrell
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781907642364
Publisher: Elliott & Thompson

MICKEY WRIGHT

Born February 14, 1935, San Diego, California

US Open champion 1958, ’59, ’61 and ’64; LPGA champion 1958, ’60, ’61 and ’63; Titleholders champion 1961 and ’62; Western Open champion 1962, ’63 and ’66

Mickey Wright never played golf in Britain, so for golf writers like Liz Kahn and Pat Ward-Thomas even catching a glimpse late in her career was a blessing. ‘Meeting Mickey and seeing her play was a highlight in my life,’ said Kahn. Ward-Thomas wrote: ‘From the moment she stood to the ball there was an impression of authority seen only in the finest men.’ Wright had the power of Babe Zaharias but was the total opposite as a personality, far more in the modest mould of Joyce Wethered. Wright and Wethered are contenders – for many the only contenders – for the greatest woman golfer of all time.

Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan said Wright’s swing was the best they had ever seen. Herb Warren Wind described her as a ‘tall, good-looking girl who struck the ball with the same decisive hand action that the best men players use, her swing like Hogan’s in that all the unfunctional [sic.] moves had been pared away, and like Jones’s in that its cohesive timing disguised the effort that went into it.’

Like Hogan, Wright was a perfectionist, even well before she turned professional. She had a drive to win like another southern Californian, Tiger Woods. Like Wethered, Jones and Nelson, she had an intense period of winning and then backed away from full-time golf. Her four US Opens has only been matched by Betsy Rawls, her four LPGA Championships is still a record, and her 13 majors second only to Patty Berg. In 1961 she won three majors in the season and two years later she won a record 13 times. She won 81 times between 1956–69, then just once more.

It was advice from Rawls that turned a player with a superior swing who won regularly into a superstar who could not lose. ‘Betsy taught me the most important thing of all – to take responsibility for everything that happens to you on a golf course, not to blame the greens for bad putting, the caddie for bad club selection or the fates for a bad day.’

Publicly, Wright spoke out against the prize funds in men’s golf, not because she wanted paying more but because ‘it is self evident that there is something wrong when a golfer makes $20,000 for a weekend of work, while a professor or scientist can’t make that in a couple of years. It seems like a phoney value system to me.’ She agreed with an LPGA proposal to cut the first-place prize money and pay out more to players down the leaderboard, which could only adversely affect her.

Wright attracted attention to women’s golf not only by her personality but also by the sheer quality of her play. Judy Rankin said: ‘She made the golfing world sit up and take notice, and when they started looking past her they saw us.

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