By Stuart Hall
Bethlehem, Pa. — Some 70 miles south of here 234 years ago, America’s founding fathers declared the nation’s independence in Philadelphia. On Friday, Cristie Kerr led a charging Yankee brigade in an attempt to separate itself from the field at the 64th U.S. Women’s Open.
Kerr, the 2007 champion, shot her second successive sub-par round (70) and holds the 36-hole lead at 3-under-par 139. Paula Creamer posted the second lowest round (68) on a day when only six players broke par. Creamer is just a stroke off the pace. Georgia native Jean Reynolds, the Duramed Future Tour’s leading money winner, is third at 1-under 141 after an even-par 71.
The trio stands alone in red figures at Saucon Valley Country Club’s Old Course.
“I got the question earlier in the week, ‘Why aren't more American golfers playing well?’ and I think we're kind of answering that question,” said Kerr, 31, who will be paired with the 22-year-old Creamer in Saturday’s final pairing.
“It's important for women's golf, and especially girls junior golf here in America to have us up there. That's how I learned I wanted to be a professional golfer, by watching the U.S. Open and watching the LPGA on TV and seeing those stars up there, so it's important.”
Shoring up America’s 36-hole presence in the top 10 are 14-year-old amateur Alexis Thompson, the reigning U.S. Girls’ Junior champion, and Brittany Lincicome, 23, winner of the Kraft Nabisco Championship earlier this season. The two Floridians – Thompson is from Coral Springs and Lincicome from Seminole – are tied for eighth at 2-over 144 after Friday rounds of 73 and 72, respectively.
“I feel better than I did at plus-five or whatever I had it to,” said Lincicome, who made Friday’s turn at five over for the championship, but registered three birdies on the par-35 second nine in which the field scoring average was 37.363. “Obviously, anything can happen. One hole or one bad tee shot you can make a pretty big number out there. But you’re never out of it. You’re not going to shoot 65 out here.”
The red, white and blue presence on the leaderboard is significant if only because recent years have been lean. Each of the past two years, only a trio of Americans has finished among the top 10. In 2007, seven Americans finished inside the top 10 (including champion Kerr), while five finished in 2004 and 2005.
More promising from the past decade is that half of the Women’s Open champions have been from the U.S. — Kerr, Juli Inkster (1999, 2002), Hilary Lunke (2003) and Meg Mallon (2004).
But at the other three majors, non-Americans have led the way. Anna Nordqvist (Sweden), Yani Tseng (Chinese Taipei), Suzann Pettersen (Norway), Se Ri Pak (Korea), Annika Sorenstam (Sweden) and Karrie Webb (Australia) have claimed the last nine McDonald’s LPGA Championships, with Inkster the last American to win in 2000.
At the Women’s British Open, only Sherri Steinhauer (three wins) has broken up the foreign dominance since 1998, while the Kraft Nabisco Championship has produced two American winners (Lincicome in 2009 and Morgan Pressel in 2007) since Dottie Pepper claimed the title in 1999.
Kerr, ranked No. 5 behind Creamer in the Rolex Women’s World Golf Rankings and just one of three Americans in the ranking’s top 10, will need to draw upon her experience of two years ago at Pine Needles Lodge and Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C.
“I’ve been there, I know I can handle it,” she said. “I know what I need to do and what not to do on every single shot … like where I can miss a shot and where I can’t.
“But the main thing is to be consistent. Don’t get too high or low mentally, hit fairways, hit greens, try to keep shots below the holes and get a good pace on your putts. You really don’t need to anything special.”
While Kerr and Lincicome have that precious perspective of winning a major, the others in the quintet do not. They also do not appear to be fazed by the magnitude of the moment. While the 24-year-old Reynolds is playing in her second successive Women’s Open, she has no LPGA Tour experience. But the two-time winner on the 2009 Futures Tour is embracing having her name plastered high on the various leaderboards dotting the 6,740-yard layout.
“They're huge and they're everywhere,” she said. “It seemed like every time I was getting up to a green, there was a scoreboard right there, so I'd glance over and kind of see what was going on, and I had fun with it.”
An eight-time winner on the LPGA Tour, Creamer is still seeking that elusive first major in her fifth professional season. She received second-hand wisdom earlier in the week when she bumped into 49-year-old Rosie Jones at a local restaurant. Creamer asked Jones, who made her 26th Women’s Open appearance this week, what it takes to win a major. Jones said that Hollis Stacy told her the key was all about two-putts. Stacy won three Women’s Open titles.
Creamer took that to heart on Friday. She only needed 25 putts.
Now she will look to close the deal on the weekend, something she failed to do a year ago at Interlachen Country Club when she posted a final-round 78 to share sixth.
And if anything else, provide a little more red, white and blue to the championship.
“It seems like at our majors lately, there have been more and more Americans in the top bunch,” said Creamer, “which is good to see, especially in the U.S. [Women’s] Open.”
Stuart Hall is a freelance writer whose stories have previously appeared on uswomensopen.com.
