Mickey Wright, a Hall of Famer who won 82 LPGA titles and 13 major championships during a legendary career, has died at age 85, according to the Associated Press.
Wright’s attorney, Sonia Pawluc, told the AP that Wright died Monday of a heart attack. Pawluc said Wright had been hospitalized for the last few weeks after suffering injuries in a fall.
Wright was one of the most important figures in golf throughout the early 1960s, a private person by nature but a constant presence on the course while playing some 30 tournaments each year and winning at a rapid rate. She later allowed the public into her life in a different way, offering more than 200 artifacts to the USGA Museum for her own personal room at the Far Hills, N.J. shrine.
Wright’s swing was the envy of the golf world. It’s one she began building at age 15 while taking lessons from Harry Pressler, an esteemed instructor in California. Wright and her mother traveled 250 miles round trip to see Pressler every Saturday for two years.
Born in San Diego, California, Wright maintained a private life after retiring from golf and spent her final years at a quiet Florida villa. Feb. 14 marked her 85th birthday.
Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson considered Wright’s swing the greatest in golf history and Kathy Whitworth, who holds the all-time record with 88 career wins, maintained Wright was the best player she’d ever seen. A four-time U.S. Women’s Open champion, Wright is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and was named Female Golfer of the Century by the Associated Press in 2000.
Wright was awarded the Bobby Jones Award in 2010 – one of two items she said she kept rather than donate to the USGA. She also kept a favorite photo which hung in her living room because it matched the drapes.