Leaderboard: Second round of Travelers

Kathy Whitworth set a benchmark in golf no one has ever touched, whether it was Sam Snead or Tiger Woods, Mickey Wright or Annika Sorenstam. Her 88 victories are the most by any player on a single professional tour. Whitworth, whose LPGA Tour victories spanned nearly a quarter-century and who became the first woman to earn $1 million for her career on the LPGA, died on Christmas Eve, her longtime partner said. She was 83. Bettye Odle did not disclose a cause of death, saying only that Whitworth died suddenly Saturday night while celebrating with family and friends. “Kathy left this world the way she lived her life — loving, laugh and creating memories,” Odle said in a statement released by the LPGA Tour. Whitworth won the first of her 88 titles in the Kelly Girls Opens in July 1962. She won six majors during her career and broke Mickey Wright’s record of 82 career wins when Whitworth captured the Lady Michelob in the summer of 1982. Her final victory came in 1985 at the United Virginia Bank Classic. “Winning never got old,” Whitworth once said. All that was missing from her career was the U.S. Women’s Open, the biggest of the women’s majors. Upon being the first woman to surpass $1 million in career earnings in 1981, she said, “I would have swapped being the first to make a million for winning the Open, but it was a consolation which took some of the sting out of not winning.” Sorenstam referred to her on Twitter as the LPGA’s all-time victory leader and a “total class act” who will be dearly missed. “Thanks for setting the bar so high, Kathy,” she wrote. Whitworth was the AP Female Athlete of the Year in 1965 and in 1967, when she easily beat out Wimbledon singles champion Billie Jean King. Whitworth was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1982. She was the LPGA player of the year seven times in an eight-year span (1966 through 1973). She won the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average seven times and she was the leading money winner in eight seasons. But she was identified by one number — 88. Snead was credited with a record 82 wins on the PGA TOUR, a total Woods has since matched. Wright won 82 times on the LPGA Tour, while Sorenstam had 72 wins when she retired after the 2006 season at age 36. “I think Mickey had the best swing, and was probably the greatest golfer,” Betsy Rawls once told Golf Digest. “But Kathy was the best player of the game that I have ever seen.” Whitworth was born in Monahans, a small West Texas town, and learned to play golf in New Mexico. She started at age 15 in Jal, New Mexico, on the nine-hole course built for the El Paso Natural Gas employees. She soon was a two-time winner of the New Mexico State Amateur. After briefly attending Odessa (Texas) College, she turned pro at age 19 and joined the LPGA Tour in December 1958. “I was really fortunate in that I knew what I wanted to do,” Whitworth once told Golf Digest. “Golf just grabbed me by the throat. I can’t tell you how much I loved it. I used to think everyone knew what they wanted to do when they were 15 years old.” Wright had the more aesthetically pleasing swing. Whitworth was all about grinding, and about winning. Whitworth won eight times in 1963 and 1965, and she had 11 victories in 1968. In none of those years did she earn more than $50,000. All these years later, the LPGA Tour total prize fund for 2023 will top $100 million. Whitworth continued to conduct junior clinics and stay active in the game. “I don’t think about the legacy of 88 tournaments,” she once said. “I did it because I wanted to win, not to set a record or a goal that no one else could surpass. I’m not some great oddity. I was just fortunate to be so successful. What I did in being a better player does not make me a better person. “When I’m asked how I would like to be remembered, I feel that if people remember me at all, it will be good enough.”

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The 2021-22 PGA TOUR regular season has arrived at its final fortnight. It always feels like the last few days of senior year in high school. Once class it dismissed, the field for the FedExCup Playoffs will be determined, as will the qualifiers for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals. Many golfers will reunite sooner and later, while some never will. Get those yardage books signed now, fellas. RELATED: Play Pick ‘Em Live | The First Look | Inside the Field Donald Ross designs will serve as the stages for both of the next two tournaments. Detroit Golf Club hosts this week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic for the fourth time, and a field of 156 has assembled. For what it should expect inside the ropes, how Cam Davis completed the mission en route to his breakthrough victory, and more, continue reading beneath the ranking of those projected to contend. POWER RANKINGS: ROCKET MORTGAGE CLASSIC Webb Simpson, Adam Scott, Matt Kuchar and Cameron Tringale will be among the notables reviewed in Draws and Fades. Although its bones can be traced to the 19th century, Detroit GC very much caters to the 21st-century approach of relying on advances in equipment to mitigate trouble found off the tee, the worst rough of which will reach four inches. In short, it pays to be long. That said, much like Ross’ Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina, site of next week’s Wyndham Championship, Detroit GC allows for all skills sets to shine. Proper tracks oblige like that. The stock par 72 tips at 7,370 yards for the second straight year. There are two courses on the property – the North and the South – and almost all of the North Course is utilized. Because the par-4 third hole uses a tee on the South Course and a green on the North Course, the routing for the RMC is classified as a composite. Not unlike last week at TPC Twin Cities, capitalizing on the par 5s in Motown will matter. They frequently do on par 72s but compared to its siblings – the par 3s and par 4s – the four par 5s stand tallest. Last year’s field averaged 4.71 to position Detroit GC as T16-hardest among 51 courses during the super season of 2020-21. En route to his playoff victory, Cam Davis led the field in par-5 scoring at 4.25. He was bogey-free 12-under with an eagle and 10 birdies. Even though he’s one of the longest off the tee, his skill set has played up on shorter tracks more often, so last year’s success is evidence both of how the course rewards execution and his capacity to adapt. It’s a good thing, too, because the Aussie didn’t dazzle like most winners, but he maximized on his chances. He ranked T24 in greens hit, but he averaged just three GIR above field average over 72 holes, 55 to 52. Yet, he ranked second in converting his looks into par breakers. Detroit GC made possible his coronation as a PGA TOUR winner with spikes of brilliance atop a balanced bag. The 5,150-square foot greens feature a common blend of Poa and bentgrass. They should reach the max prepared length of 12½ feet on the Stimpmeter deep into the tournament, too. After early-week rain passes, sunny and dry conditions will drop anchor. Wind could be a mild factor early, but it won’t be generating any headlines. Daytime highs will be in the 80s. It’s customary summer weather in the Lower Peninsula. ROB BOLTON’S SCHEDULE PGATOUR.com’s Rob Bolton recaps and previews every tournament from numerous perspectives. Look for his following contributions as scheduled. MONDAY: Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Draws & Fades WEDNESDAY: Pick ’Em Preview SUNDAY: Medical Extensions, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Rookie Ranking * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf, which also publishes on Tuesday.

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PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Tiger Woods was in a cheerful mood by the end of his topsy-turvy third-round 72 (3-under total) at THE PLAYERS Championship at a cool, blustery TPC Sawgrass on Saturday. He had reversed his front-nine slide with birdies at 12, 16 and 17, avoided falling victim to the 54-hole cut, and even enjoyed a belly laugh with his playing partner, Kevin Na, after both of them birdied the penultimate hole with short putts. “Kevin, he almost picked the ball out of the hole before it even got there,â€� Woods said with a smile. “And I had pretty much a kick-in, so I tried to emulate him as best I possibly could, meanwhile still trying to make the putt–I got to make the putt first, so I thought we had a good laugh about it.â€� Woods almost even managed to forget about his quadruple-bogey 7 at the island 17th hole the day before. Almost. The only player to win this tournament in May and March, Woods came here in search of his 81st PGA TOUR title. But he essentially took himself out of the tournament with Friday’s two water-balls on 17. He only found out later that after the first one he could have dropped on the path to the green. “Yeah, I talked to (Golf Channel analyst David Duval) about it last night,â€� Woods said Saturday after he salvaged a 72 despite hitting just 8/14 fairways and ranking deep in negative numbers in Strokes Gained: Putting, his worst stats of the week. “I didn’t realize that, where my ball had crossed, where my ball — I thought it had crossed on the green and just hopped over the back and that was it. Go right to the drop area.â€� According to the new Rules of Golf, though, he could have dropped a club-length from where he entered the hazard, as long as he kept the entry point between himself and the hole. That would have allowed him to putt or chip his ball up the path and potentially save bogey. MUST READS: Tiger Woods “At the very least, he cost himself three shots,â€� Brandel Chamblee said in a nighttime Golf Channel segment in which he, Duval and Frank Nobillo recreated the scene. “Unfortunately, I just didn’t know that’s where the ball had crossed,â€� Woods said Saturday, adding that he would have known he was entitled to drop on the path. “There’s no marshals up there and so it is what it is.â€� At least he got revenge with a tap-in birdie on 17, a five-stroke improvement over the day before, even if it will be remembered more for the comic moment he shared with his playing partner.  Na is known for the quick pick-up, but he and Woods had never played together in a tournament over the last 16 years Na has been on TOUR. Na putted first, from 4 feet, 5 inches, and chased his ball into the hole, nearly scooping it up before it rattled around in the white plastic insert. “I do that all the time,â€� said Na, who shot 78 (3-over), and will miss the 54-hole cut. “He’s seen it. I asked him, ‘You’ve seen it?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I’ve seen it but I’ve never seen it in person.’ And then he had a little one, kinda mimicking me. He didn’t get there fast enough. And you gotta use the left hand. He used the other hand. I’ll give him a lesson later.â€� In other Woods news, he said he will play in the World Golf Championships-Dell Technologies Match Play, March 27-31. “Well, I’m guaranteed to play three rounds in a couple weeks,â€� he said, “and so that’s basically like a tournament, and we’ll see from there.â€�

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