In recent years the likes of Annika Sorenstam and Lydia Ko have taught us that things change. Low scores and extraordinary exploits, the like of which we’ve never seen before, do happen but some records just look like they will never change. Whatever the reason, be it a different era or more defined playing opportunities, some numbers will never likely be exceeded.
MOST LPGA TOUR WINS
Kathy Whitworth’s 88 wins really is something else. Over a 23-year period the American captured six Majors along 82 regular wins. Her best season came in 1968 when she enjoyed her ‘only’ double-digit season and, on four occasions, Carol Mann was runner-up to Whitworth. Bizarrely Mann also won 10 times in the same year, Whitworth was second in half of them, and neither won a Major – there were only two that year. Incredibly Whitworth was also a runner-up 93 times in her career which is another stat that will surely never be surpassed. The next most successful golfer is Mickey Wright with 82 wins with Annika Sorenstam, over a span of just 13 seasons, in third on 72. For some sort of context Inbee Park is the highest of those still playing with 21 victories, one ahead of Lydia Ko.
MOST WOMEN'S MAJORS
Patty Berg won 15 Majors which sounds beatable but, in truth, the prospect of it ever happening is so remote. Think of all the expectation that there was on Michelle Wie and she ended up with one Major. Lydia Ko’s last Major success came in 2016. Lilia Vu might have won two Majors in 2023 but the last time that this happened was in 1999. To state the bleeding obvious winning a Major is hard and it takes an awful lot out of the modern-day player. Berg won three of her Majors at the Titleholders Championship, a tournament that was later designated a Major by the LPGA Tour. There have been four different periods of the women’s Majors and Berg’s came in the first of those – between 1937-58 the American picked up 15 wins in the big ones, seven apiece at the Titleholders and Western Open (five of them in a matchplay format) along with one US Women’s Open.
SOLHEIM CUP CAPTAINCIES
Mickey Walker captained Europe in the first four matches and we can probably say with some certainty that this will never again be repeated. These days the captaincy is a very different beast, with too many players having a claim to lead their continent. In the men’s game it tends to be a one-and-done deal, in the women’s game Suzann Pettersen and Stacy Lewis will have back-to-back captaincies given that the matches will run in successive years as they return to even-numbered years and away from the Ryder Cup years. Walker was the European skipper in the inaugural matches at Lake Nona before overseeing the shock victory at Dalmahoy. There would then be two heavy defeats before handing over to Pia Nilsson in 1998. Juli Inkster captained the US team in three straight matches, winning twice before being pipped at Gleneagles and that winning putt by Pettersen.
OLDEST SOLHEIM PLAYER
When Juli Inkster represented the US team at the age of 51 years and 91 days in 2011 at Killeen Castle she was 18 years older than the next most senior player in Ireland. The American played her way onto the team and it would be her ninth appearance as a player, she would also double up as an assistant. Inkster would feature in the two foursomes matches, she would lose both, before signing off nicely with a half against Dame Laura Davies who would also be making her final appearance at the age of 47.
"I never really expected to make this team and I ended up making it. I just felt like in the honour of the Solheim Cup that it would be not right to not play and my team-mates. So it was a tough decision. I don't think I really helped that much on the course and sometimes I didn't feel like I helped that much off the course. But it is what it is, and I tried to do my best," explained Inkster.
LARGEST SOLHEIM CUP MARGIN OF VICTORY
This is always a risky one to predict but Europe’s 18-10 triumph at Colorado GC in 2013 was a particularly stand-out result. For starters Europe had never won on American soil before and then they surpassed anything that any team had previously managed. In the last three matches, as the Americans’ powers slip a little while the strength in depth of the Europeans improves, the scores have never been more than two points apart. The 2013 matches were an extraordinary affair for the visitors; Lotta Neumann’s side whitewashed the Saturday fourballs to move five points clear and then also dominated the singles, only losing two matches. Furthermore Anna Nordqvist recorded the first hole-in-one in Solheim history, her fellow Swede Caroline Hedwall would win all five of her matches and a 17-year-old Charley Hull would thrash Paula Creamer in the singles.
“I had a gut feeling about my pairings and I stuck with it. And I thought it was important to rest some of the players for the singles, and it really worked out and I'm so happy,” said Neumann.
LOWEST ROUND ON LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR
This is a bit of a fudged stat but we have seen a couple of 58s on the LET, the reason being that Fleming Park had a par of 65 for the Bloor Homes Eastleigh Classic in 1991. The course was a municipal in Hampshire and it proved to be the final staging of the tournament and the course would actually close in 2008. It proved to be a happy hunting ground for the Scots as Jane Connachan shot a 58 in the first round and Dale Reid, who would win by eight shots, closed with the same score. It would prove to be Reid’s 21st and final win on the LET.
MOST LADIES EUROPEAN TOUR WINS
Much like Kathy Whitworth on the LPGA Tour Dame Laura Davies’ dominance of the LET, in terms of victories, will never likely be threatened. Between 1985 and 2010 Davies amassed 45 wins which is more than double of her nearest peer. Given the strength and riches of the LPGA Tour most leading players will only play a handful of LET events per season and any player who makes strides in Europe will soon head to the States. Davies topped the Order of Merit seven times on the LET – in 1985 she actually doubled up as the Rookie of the Year as well as the leading money winner. Bizarrely 2010 would prove to be her most successful season in terms of wins (5) but they would also prove to be her final victories on the LET.
MOST PLAY-OFF LOSSES ON LPGA TOUR
This is an incredible stat – Kathy Whitworth won 88 times on Tour but she also lost in 20 play-offs. There would be eight Ws in extra holes but on 20 occasions, three of them to Sandra Haynie, she would come away a loser after going into additional holes. The American would win six Majors but twice she would lose in a play-off for the then LPGA Championship, both of them over 18 holes. One of her big rivals, Mickey Wright, three times came up against Whitworth in a play-off and, on every occasion, Whitworth would emerge victorious. Whitworth only took up the game at the age of 14.
MOST WINS IN ONE LPGA TOUR SEASON
Mickey Wright won 82 times on the LPGA Tour and 13 of them came in the 1963 season. Two of them came in Majors, the Women’s Western Open (by nine shots) and LPGA Championship, and she even won her own tournament as well as Babe Zaharias’ event. At one point she won four weeks on the trot. There were only 32 tournaments in the 1963 season and Wright picked up $31,269 for her efforts. The following season she would claim victory in 11 tournaments.
HIGHEST FIRST ROUND BY A WINNER
Carol Mann opened up with an 83 in the first round of the Women’s Western Open in 1964 and still won by two. The Major was Mann’s first of 38 victories on the LPGA Tour and, against a par of 75 at Scenic Hills Country Club in Florida, she would recover from her eight-over opening effort to land the first of two Majors. In 1969 the course hosted the US Women’s Open, this time with a par of 73, and it remains the only course in Florida to host a US Open. Played in oppressive heat Donna Caponi won with a winning score of +2.
