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It’s tough asking anyone to fill Juli Inkster’s signature Converse shoes. The LPGA legend could’ve captained at the Solheim Cup forever with few complaints.
But if anyone knows how to be a team player, it’s Inkster. And when her great friend, Pat Hurst, was given the nod to be Team USA’s captain in 2021 at Inverness, Inkster made it known that she’d be stepping aside. Hurst served as Inkster’s assistant captain on three different occasions, but Inkster won’t be returning the favor.
“It needs to be about Pat,” Inkster said.
Even now, it’s difficult to talk about 50-year-old Hurst as a captain without talking about Inkster. Hurst actually went to school at San Jose State on the Juli Inkster Scholarship. The pair became fast friends after teaming up to represent the U.S. at the World Cup in the mid-2000s.
They played countless practice rounds together on the LPGA. Inkster calls Hurst, who won six times on the LPGA, the “skins queen.”
“We love sports,” said Inkster of their bond. “We love family. We love a cocktail.”
The two moms from Northern California travel well together. No one worries about who’s picking up the check. Inkster knows that whatever she says to Pat won’t leave Pat.
Such friendships are invaluable in any walk off life, but especially in the high-stakes, nomadic life of a tour player.
It’s difficult to believe that anyone has come into the role of captain more prepared than Hurst. She played on five U.S. Solheim Cup teams, compiling a 10-7-3 record. And during the course of her three stints with Inkster, she’s had a front-row seat to three of the biggest, most compelling Cups in women’s golf history. Not to mention transitioning in a new generation of players.
“It was a journey together,” said Inkster. “I really didn’t make a decision unless I talked to Pat about it.”
Perhaps the burden of following Inkster was lessened a bit by the sting of defeat in Scotland. The first three-time captain in the history of the Solheim Cup didn’t sweep.
But even then, Hurst learned something. She watched Inkster handle a five-alarm fire controversy in Germany, where the Americans orchestrated the greatest comeback in Solheim Cup history. At Gleneagles, she watched Inkster teach a team full of rookies how to gracefully handle a heart-breaking loss.
“Basically she said, ‘Look, the sun is going to come up tomorrow,’ ” said Hurst.
Many of the core values Inkster held as captain will carry on with Hurst. Chief among them is an emphasis on fun.
“She wants them to enjoy what the Solheim experience should be,” Inkster said.
Hurst will be more organized than Inkster. She’ll be on top of the little things. She won’t dance on the first tee. And if there’s a pond somewhere at Inverness, don’t expect her to swim.
She famously waded into the lake at Mission Hills after winning the 1998 Nabisco Dinah Shore Invitational because she can’t swim. To be fair though, Hurst did leap in last year at the ANA Junior Inspiration after her playing partner, Cindy Kou, won the event.
Hurst plans to carry on the pod system that Inkster adopted from Paul Azinger’s 2008 Ryder Cup stint. Because Hurst has a full-time job as assistant coach at her college alma mater, she’ll have to get out on the road these next two years to scout the talent.
Brittany Lincicome was at Morgan Pressel’s charity event earlier in the week and said players were over the moon when they heard that Hurst was selected captain.
“We all freaked out,” she said.
While in some ways the Inkster era is over, it’s almost certain that the Hall of Famer will be out there as a helper, driving around a golf cart and delivering anything that might be needed – a banana, intel, a hug.
They’ll be in constant contact, per usual. Only this time, Hurst will step into the spotlight.
“This is your journey,” Inkster told her friend. “This is your time. Make it your own.”
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