Stanford In Familiar Territory

Southern Pines, N.C. - Angela Stanford has never won a U.S. Women’s Open, but she might have the most spectacular near miss in the history of the event.

We take you back to Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club outside Portland, Ore. The year is 2003, the putt is 20 feet for birdie on the 72^nd hole of the Women’s Open, and Stanford’s championship life depends on it.

Bang! Good as gold.

She makes it, provoking sustained chaos from the galleries and joining a playoff with Hilary Lunke and Kelly Robbins. Highlight reel stuff.

The next day, Stanford trails the leading Lunke by four shots with 10 holes to play. But when she chips in on No. 14, the roars return and she pulls even with Lunke as they enter the stretch run. Then, she lights one more firecracker on the 18^th green.

Angela Stanford, on the seventh hole Friday, has hit 75 percent of her greens in regulation through two rounds. (John Mummert/USGA)

Trailing by one, Stanford faces a 30-foot prayer for a potential score-tying birdie. She makes it and the Portland galleries detonate once more.

But in golf, clutch shots and heroic moments don’t always have rich rewards. In golf, a magnificent shot by one competitor sometimes begets another by a rival. The marshals barely calm the crowds after Stanford’s remarkable playoff roll before Lunke drops a 15-foot birdie putt on top of her. Ballgame.

The finish was as exciting as a finishes get in a major championship, among the best the USGA has seen since it began conducting the Women’s Open in 1953. They are moments Stanford certainly has never forgotten.

"Oh yeah, I think about it all the time," said the 29-year old native of Ft. Worth, Tex. "I mean, you know, seeing Hilary here when we play the U.S. Open again and, I mean, you always think about it.

"It was something very special and a lot of fun to be a part of. And I do crave it. I do want to get back there."

With one slight script change, that is. "Not necessarily a playoff," she added, "but I do want to get back to contending."

As weather wreaked havoc with the field at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club on Friday, Stanford was back. She was one of the few, the proud, the lucky to complete both first and second rounds, and she moved into contention on an otherwise anonymous leaderboard.

Stanford completed an opening-round 72 with four holes first thing on Friday morning, and she managed to get her second-round 71 in the books before the proceedings were delayed and eventually suspended due to dangerous weather.

The second-round leader in the clubhouse is In-Bee Park with a score of par 142. Stanford is just one shot in arrears.

"I think anytime you have to play more than 18 holes on a U.S. Open course, you’re in for a long day," Stanford said. "So, I think I started to unravel a little bit. It felt pretty steady the whole time, up until the last five or six holes."

Starting on No. 10 in round two, Stanford made two birdies during a bogey-less start of 13 holes. But she missed the green at the par-3 No. 5 and made her first bogey of the card. Later, she missed the fairway at No. 9 and wound up closing shop with a bogey to settle for a par round.

Her trip around the lawns included a rare birdie at No. 17, which is playing as the toughest nut in the championship. Stanford drained a 20-foot putt to secure the red number – sound familiar?

"I had like a 7-iron going in (to the green)," Stanford said. "We were just trying to get to the middle of that green. And the good and the bad about U.S. Opens are that the greens are really fast.

"The good part is that you’re probably going to make some 20-footers because the greens are so pure and they’re so good. So it was one of those occasions that I just put a good roll on it and had a pretty good idea of what it was going to do."

Stanford has had a few of those occasions. She tied for 10^th at the Women’s Open last year, tied for fourth at the 2004 McDonald’s LPGA Championship, got her first win at the 2003 ShopRite LPGA Classic and, of course, that same summer, created the magic at Pumpkin Ridge.

"A lot of great players have a lot of second places in U.S. Opens," said Stanford, who hit eight of 14 greens during her second round at Pine Needles. "Of course, you want to win, but I know everything happens for a reason and Hilary was supposed to win.

"I gave it everything I had up until the last putt and, I mean … I joke about it with people. I didn’t even know that I lost for like four or five months because it felt like I had won. So it was a great experience"

As one glances at the leaderboard of this weather-disjointed Open, experience is a commodity in short supply. Maybe it is the advantage Stanford can use to make something "happen for a reason" in her favor.

"I think (experience) helps quite a bit," Stanford said. "It helped me on my first hole this week. I think I had eight feet for par on my very first hole and I thought, ‘You know, I’ve been here, I’ve done this.’ You have to grind, you have to. You just have to give it your best shot.

"So, I know it’s going to be a long weekend. I know what to expect and I know par is going to be very good. I’m going to be as patient as I can be and just grind. That’s what it is."

Stanford has some wonderful U.S. Women’s Open memories in her scrapbook. Perhaps the best memories are yet to come.