The Legend

Mary Kathryn was the best woman golfer of all time. She is better known as Mickey Wright, and began playing golf at nine years old and that is when she started playing in tournaments. Mickey is the best long ball hitter who has ever played the game. She was born 1935 in San Diego California. At fourteen, Harry Pressler took her under his wing and began to teach and develop her swing. Mickey was also taught by Stan Kertes and Texas Pro Earl Stewart. Her father wanted her to go to school, she tried but missed golfing too much. She was able to leave and begin golfing again. She won her first LPGA in 1956 and she won three times in 1957. In 1958, she won three regular events and the U.S. Open.

Mickey Wright hit a down hill slide. It started with a growth on her foot. Even though she had an operation to fix it, she became extremely tired and did not want to play anymore. Her sponsors kept insisting she keep on playing, and she did, more so than anyone else. She started having adverse sun reactions, and did not want to fly anymore. She went home and became a recluse in Florida. In 1979 she woke up, and played in the Coca Cola classic She gave them all a run for their money, but at the end she did not win. No one knows why she retired at the age of 34.

She might have retired because of the pressure and stress the sponsors were putting on her. They had threatened that, if she did not play then no one else could play either. For her nothing was lost by retiring she had been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1964. In her early years she held the LPGA on her shoulders.