Whitworth & Powell to Be Honored at Founders Cup


Kathy Whitworth and PGA/LPGA professional Renee Powell, whose respective careers earned them trailblazing status in golf, will be honored by the Ladies Professional Golf Association during the 2014 Founders Cup, March 20-23, at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort and Spa in Phoenix.

In celebrating the LPGA's past, the Founders Cup will honor Whitworth and Powell, who have helped the association become one of the premier women's sports organizations. Powell was the 2003 PGA First Lady of Golf, and Whitworth was the 2006 award recipient.

Whitworth, 74, holds the record for the most LPGA career victories with 88 and was inducted into both the LPGA and World Golf halls of fame in 1975. A resident of Flower Mound, Texas, Whitworth turned professional in 1958 and was the first player in LPGA history to cross the $1 million mark in career earnings in 1981.

Whitworth also has the record for most consecutive seasons with at least one victory, a streak of 17 straight seasons that began in 1962. Along the way, Whitworth served three terms as LPGA Executive Board president, where she helped shape the policy and campaigned for the growth of the LPGA Tour.

Powell, 67, is the PGA head professional at Clearview Golf Club in East Canton, Ohio, and the second African-American woman to play on the LPGA Tour. She was a rookie in 1967 and competed for 14 seasons, from 1967-1980. While Powell never won an LPGA Tour event, she helped change the face of golf, both on and off the course, promoting the need for diversity in the various professional golf associations as well as women in sports around the world.

Powell is the daughter of the late William Powell, the 2008 PGA Distinguished Service Award recipient and the only African-American to build, own and operate a golf course in the United States. In 2011, Powell launched Clearview HOPE (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere), which evolved into a year-round golf rehabilitation program for women veterans. The program has more than 60 members.

The Founders Cup helps support women's golf via the LPGA-USGA Girls Golf program. In its three years on the LPGA schedule, the Founders Cup has generated $1.5 million for LPGA-USGA Girls Golf. That money - and the exposure for Girls Golf generated by the global television and media coverage of the Founders Cup - has been a catalyst for rapid growth in the number of girls taking up the game. In 2010, prior to the launch of the Phoenix-based tournament, roughly 5,000 girls came through the Girls Golf program annually. In 2013, more than 30,000 are expected to participate in the program.