At 43, Inkster Still A Threat
By Alex Miceli
North Plains, Ore. -- Forty-three-year-old Juli Inkster is the defending
U.S. Women’s Open champion for the second time in five years, but she
could easily be considered an overshadowed contender with the focus
on 14 teenagers in the field this week.
Inkster is on the back-side of a Hall of Fame career, still playing
at the same high level that any teen would envy. Inkster is trying to
complete her own version of a three-peat at Pumpkin Ridge this week,
thus becoming the oldest winner.
Inkster has won seven major titles, which includes a du Maurier Classic,
two Kraft Nabisco Championships, two McDonald’s LPGA Championships and
two Women’s Opens over her 20-year career.
On the USGA level, like Tiger Woods, Inkster won three U.S. Amateur’s
in a row, including her first in 1980 at Prairie Dunes Country Club
where she would return 22 years later to capture her second U.S. Women’s
Open.
"It ranks right up there," said Inkster of her win
last year. "Not just the golf round, the whole story of winning
my first U.S. Amateur there and coming back 22 years later and not only
winning the tournament, but still playing golf."
Chasing Annika Sorenstram in the final round, Inkster won last year’s
Women’s Open with a final-round 66, equaling the best finish by a champion.
Unlike her dominating first win at Old Waverly in Mississippi in 1999,
Inkster had to really work for her second Open victory.
But there was a time when the Open was elusive to Inkster. She had
not won a major championship since the Nabisco in 1989, and her closest
opportunity to win an Open came in 1992 at Oakmont , when she lost an
18-hole playoff to Patty Sheehan. Inkster was devastated.
By 1999, Inkster was 39 and with only three players over 40 capturing
the Open, she knew her window was closing fast.
"You don't want to define your career as winning the Open
or not winning the Open, because I think there are a lot of good players
that have never won the Open," said Inkster. "But in
my mind growing up as a junior golfer, winning the Open was the ultimate
for me. And to not have won an Open, I’d be very disappointed."
Inkster eliminated any chance of disappointment at Old Waverly. She
would win by five strokes over LPGA veteran Sheri Turner.
In the process, Inkster became only the second woman in LPGA history
to capture the modern day career Grand Slam. After the win "everything
else I do is gravy," she said.
Since that first Open win, Inkster has won eight more times, including
three more major titles.
With confidence and experience on her side, Inkster is approaching
her second defense like she has approached most every championship she
has played in -- with a understanding of the task at hand and the ability
to perform if given the opportunity.
"I've got a good feel for where my game is right now,"
said Inkster, who has won once this year. "The thing with a championship
like this, you just have to play smart. The thing that I try to
do is just try to get there so Sunday I have a chance to win it."
Alex Miceli is a free-lance writer from the Golf Press Association.
