Whoopee for the Proettes

When Golfer Kathrynne Ann Whitworth took over as president of the Ladies Professional Golf Association last year, the women's tour was faltering. Since the 1968 season, the number of tournaments had dropped from 32 to 21, the total prize money from $536,000 to $475,000. The problem was not performance; if anything, the ladies were playing better than ever. Trouble was, the women lacked the publicity heaped on the men golfers--and they also suffered from what one L.P.G.A. official calls a lingering "Tugboat Annie image." In her call for a facelift, Kathy Whitworth explained that "we don't want the girls to become stereotypes. We want them to dress well, to develop personalities. If they make a good shot and want to show some emotion by yelling 'Whoopee!' let them do it."

Whoopee it was as 76 "proettes" teed up for the Eve L.P.G.A. championship in Sutton, Mass., last week. The tour's new image makers went all out. "See Diane Patterson," blurbed the promoters, "a former flying-trapeze artist turned golfer." See Sandra Palmer, "a Texan who is only 5 ft. 1 1/2 in. tall but can belt the ball a mile." See Donna Caponi, "a young lady who plays a mean game of golf during the day and cuts an equally mean watusi at night." And see Pam Barnett, "a North Carolinian who throws her wig instead of breaking golf clubs when she gets angry."

Pansies for Tee Markers. The record four-day crowd of 37,598 at the Pleasant Valley Country Club did see some sights never seen on the men's tour: golfers in shocking-pink culottes and checkered hot pants, bouquets of pansies serving as tee markers, club covers knitted in the shape of Teddy bears. As for golf, President Whitworth was the biggest swinger of all. Three-putting only three greens in 72 holes, she won her second L.P.G.A. championship by a commanding four-stroke margin. The $7,950 payoff boosted her 1971 winnings to $26,825, tops on the tour so far.

Kathy's victory, her third in a row and the 59th of her career, suggests a paradox: the more she dominates her sport, the more difficulty she may have in promoting it. At 31 she has already won more money--$326,035 in 13 seasons--than any player in the history of the L.P.G.A. That sounds impressive only until her winnings are compared with what the men make. Last season, when Kathy led the L.P.G.A. money winners for the fifth time, no fewer than 75 men pros earned more than her $30,235 total. And while no proette has ever topped $50,000 for a season, Jack Nicklaus for one has picked up that much in a single tournament. Even so, Kathy is opposed to joining forces with the men's tour. "We had a mixed-foursome tournament a few years ago," she says, "and the men decided they didn't want us." Now she says that the L.P.G.A. doesn't need to romance the men golfers --the pros, that is. A tall, angular Texan who averages 235 yds. off the tee and putts like a pool shark, Kathy contends that "the amateur male golfer can learn by watching the girls swing because his game compares with ours."

Bigger Things to Come. More and more sponsors tend to agree. This season Kathy and the L.P.G.A.'s hustling new director, E.M. ("Bud") Erickson, a former front-office man for the Atlanta Falcons, arranged for Eve cigarettes to boost last week's purse from $30,000 to $53,000 in return for renaming the tournament the Eve L.P.G.A. championship. While the men's tour has the airline and automobile sponsors, this season the L.P.G.A. welcomed backing from a mail-order house (the $60,000 Sears Women's World Classic), a mattress manufacturer (the $50,000 Sealy L.P.G.A. Classic) and a motorcycle company (the $38,000 Suzuki Golf Internationale). As a result, the girls are competing for a record $600,000 this year, with promises of bigger things to come.

Though she is "very much in favor of increasing our purses," Kathy worries that the tour "will become more of a business instead of a sport." For the moment at least, it is one long grind. Since few of the girls can afford to fly (last year only 28 of the 73 proettes earned more than $5,000), they log an average of 40,000 miles on the highways each season, sharing driving expenses. In the evenings, they gather like sorority sisters in motel rooms to play hearts, watch TV, play their guitars, cut a mean watusi or two and then go early to bed. "Sometimes," sighs

Kathy, "I think the hardest part is packing and unpacking the car." And other times, she adds, "I think it would be great to be married and have a family. But the fellow would have to be strong. I've become very independent." Under her leadership, so has women's golf.

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