Inkster claims major at age 42

BY Bruce Young | LPGA Tour | 2002 US Women's Open | Wrap | 08 Jul 2002

Julie Inkster is one of those people that you would like to have in your corner in any sort of a battle. She is one tough lady but in many ways she needs to be as she fights a lonely battle against the domination by foreign players in majors on the USLPGA Tour. Of the last fifteen majors on that tour (since 1999), US players have won six to the foreigners nine but Inkster has won four of the six by the Americans. At age 42 she has won four of her now seven majors in her late thirties and early forties.

With just fifteen minutes to go on the range prior to her final round Inkster found the secret to her ordinary ball striking for most of the week and the improvement in that department was simply amazing. The secret was that she had been too constrained with her swing and she decided to widen her arc. Her driving improved to the point that she was setting up birdie opportunities on a regular basis. When combined with her extraordinary putting form all week she applied the pressure with a front nine of three under 32 to grab the lead from Annika Sorenstam and never let it go as she gained further birdies on the back nine to extend her lead to three before a bogey on the sixteenth.

With someone else perhaps there may have been the chance to hold hope for Sorenstam but you had the feeling that Inkster was not going to let this one go for anything. Inkster’s win and the resulting largest cheque of her career ($US535,000) takes her beyond $US1,000,000 for the season and into second place on the money list. She still trails Sorenstam by some $US800,000 but I am sure that is of little relevance to her today.

The golf course proved to be an outstanding test of golf although day four saw it a lot more forgiving than in previous rounds. Thirteen under par rounds were recorded compared with a combined seventeen for the other three rounds. The overhead conditions were more benign but so was, it would seem, the course set up.

Shani Waugh the 31-year-old West Australian was simply brilliant especially when you consider that in five previous seasons on the USLPGA Tour she has managed only five top tens in 113 starts with her best being 3rdin 2000. Her previous best in a major was 17th at the US Open in 2000 so these were giddy heights to say the least. That she was able to hold on in the manner she did playing with Sorenstam on Saturday, and Inkster today, speaks volumes for her constitution and this will provide a huge boost of self-belief. Her third placing and the subsequent $US200,000 will give her a new status on the tour. It followed a top ten finish last week so she seems to have turned the corner.

Spain’s Raquel Carriedo flew the European Ladies Tour flag with much credit after a very slow start to the week. Her last round 66 was equal best of the week with Inkster and she consolidated her growing status in the world of ladies golf with her fourth place.

Se Ri Pak came from the clouds to grab fifth and so the one noticeably missing from the name players on the leaderboard was Karrie Webb. Just what happened to Karrie is anyone’s guess; I think even she is dumbfounded by what happened. To have come off a win two weeks earlier, have won this event the last two years only to open with a 79 did not seem possible for one of her class but it was the sort of golf course especially early in the week that if you became defensive it would chew you up and spit you out.

Karrie’s opening tee shot on Thursday set the trend somewhat. She had just been introduced as being from Boynton Beach in Florida, rather than Australia, which clearly annoyed her and her tee shot an 8 iron covered the flag only to go through the green and she three putted from there for a bogey and really never recovered. It was almost like she was out of sorts with a lot of things through that round. The incident on the first tee should never have bothered her but it did. Her swing, which seemed to be getting back to her best, deserted her this week. Her second round 73 was a lot better but not enough to make the cut and she sat out the weekend at a US Open for the first time in seven starts. In fact that was the first cut she had missed on tour in three years and in something like 152 starts on tour she has missed only five cuts. She will be back however and very quickly.

New Zealander Lynette Brooky’s effort was very much worthy of mention. She had done well to gain a place in the field by travelling to the US to qualify then produced rounds of 73, 73 to make the cut comfortably. She was working herself into the tournament on Saturday afternoon when a costly double bogey at the last dropped her back to five over but still in the hunt.

She started well again on Sunday playing the front nine in one under to be at four over for the event and inside the top six or so. A back nine of 39 saw her slip back to finish 12th but a quite outstanding performance at what would have been her first US Open. She had more birdies than anyone in the field other than Inkster and, with her eagle on Thursday, actually had the most holes under par. She seems to have found a completely new level with her game. The $US54,000 won’t hurt either.
Rachel Teske was also 12th her best finish at the Open. Michelle Ellis 22nd, her best finish in this event and she has now made the cut three times in three starts. Wendy Doolan was 37th.

The tournament was a great success and gave this fine golf course the exposure that it deserves. We saw the departure of the great Nancy Lopez from the US Open scene. One of the game’s great players and a winner of forty-eight tour events she never did win the Open. That will likely bug her for the rest of her life, but she has been a later day version of Arnold Palmer in many ways, because of what she has done for the profile of the USLPGA Tour. She is a class act in every way and displayed that with the way she and her fans handled her exit.

The endearing memory of the 2002 US Open will however be that Julie Inkster put together perhaps the greatest round in the history of the US Open to beat arguably its strongest field.