Biography

Mickey Wright World Golf Hall of Fame: Year Inducted: 1964

Mickey Wright's 13 wins in 1963 remain the most in a single LPGA season. Ben Hogan described her swing as the best he ever saw. So did Byron Nelson. For 14 years, she dominated women's golf, winning 82 tournaments and carrying the Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour on her shoulders. Mickey Wright was not burdened by potential-potential, in her words, was but a hope to be fulfilled. What made her retire, at age 34, was the burden of being Mickey Wright.

"The pressure was so great," remembers Kathy Whitworth. "Sponsors threatened to cancel their tournaments if she didn't play. And, knowing that if they canceled, the rest of us wouldn't be able to play, Mickey would always play."

The buzzword today is burnout. Wright played 33 tournaments in 1962, another 30 in 1963 and 27 in 1964. She won 10, 13 and 11 tournaments in those years, and as the LPGA's president, it was Wright's duty to promote the tour by doing every conceivable interview and attending every press conference that was scheduled. That just wasn't her. "I'm not real good as far as wanting to be in front of people, glorying in it and loving it," Wright has said. "I think you have to love that to make that kind of pressure tolerable. It finally got to where it wasn't tolerable to me."

It had also reached the point where there wasn't much left to accomplish. Wright won the U.S. Women's Open and the LPGA Championship four times each. She won the Vare Trophy five times, was the leading money winner four times, twice had winning streaks of four straight tournaments and held LPGA records for lowest round (62), lowest nine-hole score (30) and most birdies in a round (nine).

At the peak of her career, Herbert 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, she fused her hitting action smoothly with the rest of her swing, which was like Hogan's in that all the unfunctional moves had been pared away, and like Jones' in that its cohesive timing disguised the effort that went into it."

Citing an adverse reaction to sunlight, an aversion to flying and foot problems, Wright cut back her schedule dramatically after the 1969 season to lead a quieter, simpler life, in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Although she came back in 1973 to win the Dinah Shore, Wright knew that she had fulfilled her potential and elected to bow out on her terms. "I maintain that she could have won 100 tournaments if she hadn't quit early," says Whitworth, who won 88.

Born Feb. 14, 1935, in San Diego, Wright began to hit balls with her father at age 4. At the age of 11 she received her first lesson at La Jolla CC, and within a year had broken 100. Three years later, she posted a round of 70 in a local tournament and, in 1952, Wright won the USGA Girls' Junior championship for her first national title.

For a year, Wright studied psychology at Stanford, but she left school after her freshman year to play a fulltime schedule. In the summer of 1954, she lost in the final of the U.S. Women's Amateur, finished fourth in the Women's Open to Babe Zaharias and won the World Amateur staged by golf promoter George S. May. Those three tournaments convinced Wright to leave school and turn professional.

"Golf has brought me more rewards, financially and personally, than I ever could have earned had I become the psychology teacher I set out to be," Wright said later in life. "I feel as if I've earned my own version of a master's degree in psychology in study and experience, trial and error, on golf courses throughout the United States. For psychology...is as integral a part of good golf as an efficient swing."

Professional Majors:

LPGA Championship: 1958, 1960, 1961, 1963
U.S. Women's Open: 1958, 1959, 1961, 1964
Titleholders Championship: 1961, 1962
Women's Western Open: 1962, 1963, 1966

Other Significant Victories: LPGA Tour: 69

1956: Jacksonville Open
1957: Sea Island Open, Jacksonville Open, Wolverine Open
1958: Sea Island Open, Opie Turner Open, Dallas Open
1959: Jacksonville Open, Cavalier Open, Alliance Machine International Open
1960: Sea Island Open, Tampa Open, Grossinger Open, Eastern Open, Memphis Open
1961: St. Petersburg Open, Miami Open, Columbus Open, Waterloo Open, Spokane Women's Open, Sacramento Valley Open, Mickey Wright Invitational
1962: Sea Island Women's Invitational, Milwaukee Open, Heart of America Invitational, Albuquerque Swing Parade, Salt Lake City Open, Spokane Open, San Diego Open, Carlsbad Cavern Open
1963: Sea Island Women's Invitational, St. Petersburg Women's Open, Alpine Civitan Open, Muskogee Civitan Open, Dallas Civitan Open, Babe Zaharias Open, Waterloo Women's Open Invitational, Albuquerque Swing Parade, Idaho Centennial Ladies' Open, Visalia Ladies' Open, Mickey Wright Invitational
1964: Peach Blossom Invitational, Clifford Ann Creed Invitational, Squirt Ladies' Open Invitational, Muskogee Civitan Open Invitational, Lady Carling Eastern Open, Waldemar Open, Milwaukee Jaycee Open, Visalia Ladies' Open, Tall City Open, Mary Mills Mississippi Gulf Coast Invitational
1965: Baton Rouge Invitational, Dallas Civitan Open
1966: Venice Ladies Open, Shreveport Kiwanis Invitational, Bluegrass Ladies Invitational, Pacific Ladies' Classic, Shirley Englehorn Invitational, Mickey Wright Invitational
1967: Shreveport Kiwanis Club Invitational, Bluegrass Invitational, Lady Carling Open, Pensacola Ladies Invitational
1968: Port Malabar Invitational, Palm Beach County Open, Tall City Open, 500 Ladies Classic
1969: Bluegrass Invitational
1973: Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner's Circle

Other Wins:

1959: Hoosier Celebrity
1961: Haig and Haig Scotch Mixed Foursomes (with Dave Ragan)
1962: Naples Pro-Am (with Marilynn Smith)
1963: Haig and Haig Scotch Mixed Foursomes (with Dave Ragan), Shell's Wonderful World of Golf1966: Ladies World Series of Golf, Shell's Wonderful World of Golf
1967: Seven Lakes Invitational

Other Accomplishments:

Vare Trophy: 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964
LPGA leading money winner: 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964

References
http://www.wgv.com/hof/member.php?member=1124