By Roseanna Smith
Communications Intern

Mickey Wright left golf with a laundry list of accomplishments.

Wright ranks just behind Kathy Whitworth on the list of all-time wins — Whitworth at 88, Wright at 82. Wright won four U.S. Opens, four LPGA Championships, three Western Opens, and two Titleholders Championships. She led the LPGA money list for four years and won the Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average five consecutive years, starting in 1960. In 1963, Wright recorded 13 wins.

Mickey Wright

She was voted the Associated Press Woman Athlete of the Year in 1963 and 1964, was inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame in 1964 and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1976.

During her reign from 1956-1969, the San Diego-born golfer was the talk of women’s golf, noticed for her success and devotion to the game. With help from Los Angeles-based professional Harry Pressler as a teen, Wright developed her swing — which was noticed by many, including PGA Texans Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson. But as contemporary Betsy Rawls noted in an article written for Golf Digest in 2000, Wright’s dedication to creating a perfect swing led to a kind of obsession.

“In Mickey's eyes, great golf was hitting fairways and greens,” Rawls wrote. “The first thing she wanted to know about someone else's good round was how many greens that player had hit in regulation. She would be visibly contemptuous if that player had hit fewer than 17 or 18 greens. To her it just wasn't right that hitting great golf shots did not automatically translate into good scores.”

That same fierce determination helped Wright form opportunities for other female golfers by accepting roles as a speaker, LPGA president and behind-the-scenes worker. Wright’s public relations campaign was more out of necessity for the organization than a love of the limelight despite her record-breaking seasons and wins.

Wright won the U.S. Girls’ Junior at age 17, three years after she had first carded a 70 at a local tournament. Her professional career began after the summer of 1954 when she recorded a runner-up finish at the U.S. Women’s Amateur, a fourth-place finish at the U.S. Women’s Open and won the World Amateur. She left Stanford where she was studying psychology to pursue her bright golf future.

Wright seldom has participated in tournaments since undergoing two foot surgeries prior to her retirement at age 34. Her last victory was in 1973 at the Colgate-Dinah Shore where she sank a 25-foot birdie putt using a putter she had used exclusively for 18 years.

In a 1981 New York Times article, Whitworth explained her friend’s decision to end her involvement with golf.

''Mickey was by far the best woman golfer I've ever seen,'' she said. "The tour wasn't fun for her any more. Too much business. Too much hype. Everybody wanted her.”

The 73-year-old still does not make many public appearances, preferring to live quietly in her Port St. Lucie, Fla., home. In 1994, however, she did accept an invitation to be honored by the Memorial Tournament and she finished second at the Sprint Senior Challenge in Daytona Beach, Fla.

''I guess it seems strange to some people that I haven't stayed active, but I did it and did play for so long, I just didn't want to do it anymore,” Wright said.

Still, Wright’s records seem to speak for themselves.