The news came out of the blue for the members of San Diego Country Club, and like any big surprise it arrived wwith doses of thrill and apprehension. An attorney representing the estate of LPGA legend Mickey Wright called to say that someone had designated $175,000 to the club to fulfill an extremely unusual request—commission and erect a statue of Wright, who honed her golf game at San Diego CC and then captured the 1964 U.S. Women’s Open on the home grounds.
For the club, it was like getting a map to the treasuire chest your grandfather buried in the back yard.
“Well, we were all kind of dumbfounded,” Julie Goldberg, the chairwoman of the club’s Women’s Golf Association, recalled recently. “We knew it was a significant honor, but then it was, ‘How do we make this happen?’ Because, you know, we’re golfers, not artists.”
MORE: Women’s British Open power rankings
More than three years later, and five years after Wright’s death at the age of 85 in early 2020, a rather arduous but rewarding journey will end with a true piece of art casting the shadow of the World Golf Hall Famer on the grass at SDCC. The club and USGA were set to unveil the Wright statue on Wednesday at a media outing for the 7th U.S. Senior Women’s Open Championship that will be held Aug. 21-24 at SDCC.
Mickey Wright poses in an undated photo. (Photo by PGA of America via Getty Images)
PGA of America
The Wright statue achieves a milestone in that, while there are dozens of sculptures of famous male golfers around the world, there are few of women. In Goldberg’s research, she could only find one in the U.S.—a sculpture of the late Arizona pro golfer Heather Farr that was originally at Arizona State’s Karsten Course and was moved to Papago Golf Course. A sculpture of entertainer and past LPGA tournament host Dinah Shore, with a golf club in her hand, stands by the 18th green on the course named for her at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
The larger-than-life bronze statue of the 5-foot-9 Wright stands just over 7 feet tall and freezes her in a signature high follow-through on a swing that greats such Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson lauded as the best they’d ever seen. On the granite pedestal are her name, Mary Kathryn “Mickey” Wright, her birth and death years (1935-2020), her career LPGA Tour victories (82) and major championships (13).
Those details were the very specific requirements laid out by the benefactor, who also designated SDCC at the statue’s home, even if the club had no clue that was the case.
So, who was the generous donor? It was Peggy Wilson, a former LPGA player who was Wright’s longtime companion at their home in Port St. Lucie, Fla. According to Goldberg, Wright had become Wilson’s guardian when Wilson had to move into a senior care facility, but it was Wilson who outlived Wright and died in 2022.
Wilson clearly knew of Wright’s fondness for San Diego CC. Wright’s father got her started at La Jolla County Club, where Paul Runyan taught. But they later migrated south to Chula Vista, where SDCC moved in 1921. There was another hotshot younger golfer there in the 1950s, a former caddie at the club named Billy Casper. On the range, they two teenagers hit balls and needled each other—future greats who would win a combined 133 tour titles and 16 majors. Both have rooms at SDCC dedicated to them.
Anna Koh-Varilla and Jeff Varilla work on the clay portion of their Mickey Wright sculpture at their studio in Chicago. (Photo courtesey of Jeff Varilla and Anna Koh-Varilla)
“That was fantastic. How lucky can someone be?” Wright said of Casper in a 2015 phone interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune. “We played quite a bit of golf together. He hit that famous power fade—which was really a slice. I just loved Billy. He was the nicest man I’ve known in golf, and I have a lot of good feelings about San Diego Country Club.”
Wright’s connection with the club only grew when, in 1964 at San Diego CC, she got up-and-down, under her father’s watchful eyes, from the sand for par on the 72nd hole to force an 18-hole playoff. Then she beat Ruth Jessen 70 to 72 to capture her fourth and final U.S. Women’s Open.
In 2015, Wright called it her greatest major victory. “Just you mentioning it gives me goosebumps,” she said.
Goldberg was fortunate enough to become “pen pals” in the mid-2010s with Wright after the club asked if the golfer would OK her name being attached to an annual girls’ tournament. Wright loved the idea and corresponded regularly to check on the tournament’s progress and results.
“There were all of these stories written about how elusive she was,” Goldberg said. “You know, for me that wasn’t her. She had a wicked sense of humor, loved a good political meme and engaged with everything.”
The USGA played an enormous role in Wright’s life, and she bequeathed her entire estate to the organization and asked that her ashes be placed beneath the bay window of the Mickey Wright Room at Golf House in Far Hills, N.J.
Meantime, Peggy Wilson’s death set in motion the statue saga, which began with SDCC forming a committee to carry out the project. Among the members was Lynne Byrne, who was knowledgeable about the sculpture artists community. The group soon identified their favorites—the Chicago-based husband-and-wife sculpture team of Anna Koh-Varilla and Jeffrey Varilla. In nearly 30 years of working together, the Varillas had won numerous competitions for top-level public sculpture projects, including those for Martin Luther King Jr., President Gerald Ford, Amelia Earhart and the “Tribute to Freedom” monument at Chicago’s Soldier Field.
The artists had another thing going for them: They were experienced at golf sculptures, having created a Jack Nicklaus piece that is displayed in his hometown of Dublin, Ohio, and another of Raymond Floyd that currently stands in the Augusta (Ga.) Regional Airport.
In the case of those golfers, the Varillas had live models to work with. For Wright, they had to capture the motion and athleticism of her swing with photos and input from other golfers. The specific photo used for the statue came off the wall of the Mickey Wright Room at SDCC.
The complete bronze statue of Mickey Wright stands at San Diego Country Club. (Photo by Julie Goldberg)
With SDCC establishing a target unveiling of the statue at the 2025 U.S. Senior Women’s Open, the artists had a generous two years to do their work. They created an 18-inch model of clay, then a full-sized piece that is “buck naked,” Anna said. Wright’s shirt and Bermuda shorts were fashioned after clothes from her USGA collection, and SDCC had a pair of her shoes. Wright also regularly wore a watch, and even that is duplicated from the club’s collection.
What is not represented from the original picture: the clunky, wide-rimmed glasses of the era that Wright often wore. The artists decided against glasses because they thought Wright’s face was too attractive to be obscured—and they feared someone might steal them. That happens with sculptures: The original wedge that Floyd is using for his pitch shot was cut off and stolen.
For the Wright statue, there was a bit of a golf club issue. A 4-iron was chosen for her club because it was among her favorite to hit. The USGA had a full set of Wright’s Wilson clubs from the era, but it couldn’t loan them out. So, an industrious Goldberg went on eBay and eventually found a Wilson 4-iron that the USGA confirmed as a match. Two bronze 4-irons were made as an insurance policy.
By winter of last year, the Varillas had completed their clay sculpture work in Chicago and sent it on to their foundry, Art Castings of Colorado, in Loveland. There, it was cast in bronze, with the Varillas putting the hollow pieces back together.
The Varillas take great pride in the realism of their work and Goldberg says of the piece, “They nailed it.”
“The detail is incredible,” she said. “The sculpture had to show her swing, which is a fluid and powerful concept, and I think they really captured it because of the dedication they have.”
San Diego CC’s members are thrilled with the result, and the statue will no doubt stir a wave of nostalgia among the professional women who compete in the USGA senior championship next month. The only thing better? If Mickey Wright and Peggy Wilson were here to see if for themselves.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
