A tomato plant doesn’t bear fruit overnight. Human success requires the same kind of time, patience, and nurturing to hone skills and gain confidence.
That all costs money.
Kathy Whitworth is a great example. She was not an overnight success in the golf realm, struggling so badly her rookie season in 1959 that she went home discouraged, doubting she belonged.
Her father and a local businessman in New Mexico had agreed to finance her career for three years. The leash would provide her the time to discover the answer about whether she could make it.
During that third year, she won the first of a record 88 career victories.
The Fort Worth-based Kathy Whitworth Foundation is now doing its part to offer time to grow.
Five young women pursuing professional golf careers will receive $5,000 each through the 2027 KW88 Gift Award, a program that carries forward the support Kathy Whitworth received when disappointing results and financial struggles threatened to end her career.
Applications are due Oct. 26. The award recognizes young women who have demonstrated a commitment to professional golf and need financial assistance.
The application focuses on those things Whitworth herself had to overcome, reaching beyond tournament results, asking candidates to explain how they have handled adversity, who helped them continue, and what success would mean even if they never won on the LPGA Tour.
“Tell us about a time when quitting would have been the easier choice. Why did you continue?” one question asks.
Whitworth faced that decision herself.
After her first year on the LPGA Tour, she was struggling financially and had a scoring average slightly above 80. Unsure whether she could continue, she returned home to Jal, New Mexico, at her parents’ encouragement.
Around the family’s kitchen table, her parents and several local business leaders discussed her future. They believed she needed more time to develop and assembled a modest fund to help her remain on tour for three years.
That assistance gave Whitworth room to improve. She eventually won 88 LPGA Tour titles, a total unmatched by any player on the LPGA or PGA tours.
The KW88 Gift Award seeks to extend that same encouragement to another generation of women navigating the demands of professional golf.
In an application section titled “Character and Champion Mindset,” candidates describe their biggest golf setback, their response, and what they learned. They also explain a time when perseverance mattered more than golf ability and identify someone whose belief helped them through self-doubt.
Other questions ask applicants to distinguish the personal qualities of great players from those of true champions and identify qualities they still need to develop.
The application also asks how candidates have helped others through golf and how they might eventually “pay it forward” to another young player, connecting Whitworth’s experience to the responsibilities that can accompany success.
Finalists will be determined Nov. 16, with interviews scheduled for Nov. 17-Dec. 2. Recipients are scheduled to be notified Dec. 21-22.
The award can be received only once, and previous recipients are ineligible to apply again.
Applicants should prepare their responses before starting the online application, which must be completed in one sitting.
Whitworth, a longtime Trophy Club resident, developed lasting ties to Fort Worth through the Kathy Whitworth Invitational, established in 1999 at Mira Vista Country Club. The junior girls tournament paired high-level competition with support for Tarrant County charities, giving Whitworth a platform to encourage generations of young golfers.
Whitworth died in 2022 at age 83.
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