KETTERING, Ohio – Annika Sorenstam called last year’s victory at Brooklawn Country Club a fairy-tale moment with family by her side. She came to the U.S. Senior Women’s Open 13 years removed from major championship golf and picked up alongside her peers as if she’d never left.
“Nothing has changed,” said 2018 Senior Women’s Open winner Laura Davies. “She did that for 20 years, so why wouldn’t she come back and dust us again?”
Sorenstam remains the clear favorite at NCR Country Club (South Course), a place she fell in love with during media day. Davies said she can name at least 10 players who could win this week, but much of the early-week attention will be centered on 83-year-old JoAnne Carner, a woman who boasts a record eight USGA titles. On three different occasions, Carner has shot her age or better at this championship.
“I think it’s terrific for the game,” said Sorenstam of having Carner in the field. “It just shows the longevity of the game that she has but also the passion.”
Fourteen players in the field of 120 competed in the 1986 U.S. Women’s Open at NCR, including the champion, Jane Geddes. That unforgettable week included a series of events even Hollywood couldn’t script, with an earthquake, locusts, a power outage and a train derailment that caused a phosphorus fire so big the clouds of smoke evacuated thousands of residents.
“I think it was like Saturday night, we were right in the middle of dinner and all of a sudden we’re in the restaurant and the manager was like, ‘Everybody has got to get out,’ so we just literally got up and left,” said Geddes. “It was bizarre. There were people that had to move hotels.”
Carner said those who made the mistake of wearing a yellow or green blouse during the championship would have locusts land on them on all day.
“I remember I think it was Donna Caponi had a little tap-in, maybe a foot,” Carner recalled, “and she walked up there, and as she started to hit it, the locusts were in the cup, and she whacked it almost off the green. It’s different playing with locusts.”
Juli Inkster, who tied for 69th, remembers absolutely nothing about that wacky week in Ohio. A two-time runner-up at this event, Inkster comes into NCR off a recent victory at the LPGA Land O’Lakes Legends Classic.
When asked what it means to come into a USGA major off a win, a 62-year-old Inkster said “not much.”
“It really doesn’t,” said Inkster. “I mean, it’s nice. Believe me, it’s nice to win. But it’s like, what have you done for me lately.”
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