Alison Whitaker was having lunch on her birthday in China at a Ladies European Tour event when someone from the television crew asked if she’d be interested in filling in during the coverage later that day.
The affable Aussie said sure, she’d love to. The crew member went on to explain that ideally, they’d like to have a European voice. Whitaker said no worries, she’d be around for another 40 minutes in player dining if they couldn’t find a better option. Either way, no hard feelings.
“Lucky for me, they didn’t find anyone,” Whitaker said with a laugh. By the end of the day, she’d been offered a contract for the following season.
That was a decade ago, and now Whitaker, the former Duke player with the razor-sharp mind and infectious personality, is busy crisscrossing the globe making history in the commentary box.
LPGA Hall of Fame player and television trailblazer Judy Rankin calls Whitaker the most versatile person in broadcasting. She can walk the fairways as an on-course reporter and serve as both an analyst and lead host – sometimes in the same week.
Whitaker, 38, will be in the booth at this week’s Blue Bay LPGA event in China but does most of her work in the men’s game on the DP World Tour and is mostly off-camera, making her a sneaky low-profile TV personality.
“She’s tremendous,” said Rankin, adding that “here, she’s definitely under the radar except for the true golf junkies who watch a lot of the European Tour and so on.”
Whitaker made it to Durham, North Carolina, via a 2005 American summer tour that culminated in a semifinal appearance at the U.S. Women’s Amateur, where she beat future LPGA players Ryann O’Toole, Maria Uribe and Amanda Blumenherst before falling to finalist Maru Martinez.
Alison Whitaker played for Duke from 2006 to 2010. (courtesy Duke athletics)
When Whitaker arrived at Duke, the mood of the team lightened, recalled Blumenherst. She’d be the one printing out the lyrics to the “Little Mermaid” to bring in the team van. When Blumenherst played her last competitive round at the Evian Championship 11 years ago, Whitaker was there on the last hole to give her a hug.
Blumenherst was actually working for the Golf Channel on set when she first heard Whitaker’s voice on a broadcast. She watched as someone hit a thin shot out of a bunker that caught the top edge, prompting Whitaker to say, “Oh, those lips don’t lie.”
Right from the start, Blumenherst said, it seemed Whitaker…
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