Angela Stanford decided she wanted to putt after lunch. She headed back to get her supplies. Headphones, ball markers, golf balls. Once she arrived on the putting green, she realized she didn’t have a putter.
“I’m like, I think it’s time,” she said from the shores of Oahu. “It’s a senior moment. It’s time to exit to the Senior Tour.”
This week’s Lotte Championship might be the last time Stanford tees it up in an LPGA event as a full-time professional. The 46-year-old decided earlier this year the 2024 season would be her last. She’d hoped to have good friend Kristy McPherson caddie for her at The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican next week, but she’s currently not in the field.
The field for the penultimate event is filled off the CME points list and Stanford currently ranks 147th on that list. To have a mathematical chance, she’ll need to finish 12th or better at Hoakalei Country Club.
It doesn’t feel all that long ago Stanford hoisted a trophy in Hawaii. A 31-year-old Stanford defeated a young Michelle Wie West in the phenom’s first tournament as an LPGA member at the 2009 SBS Open. It was Stanford’s third victory in seven starts, making her the hottest player on tour.
Riding to the airport later that night in a Chrysler Sebring convertible – top down – with McPherson, Stanford tried to convey over the phone what it felt like to be on such a tear.
“She hasn’t won a card game all week,” McPherson joked in the background. “She ain’t that good.”
It’s been quite the ride for this small-town Texan who wore blue on Sundays in honor of her blue-collar roots. That it might all come to an end this week feels somewhat fitting given her late mother Nan’s love of the island. It’s sad, of course, that Hawaii isn’t an easy place for friends to get to celebrate an LPGA career that dates to the 2001 season.
With so many players stepping away from the tour in 2024 – 11 so far – at relatively young ages, the almost 47-year-old Stanford put together a career that might never again be matched.
Stanford won seven times on the LPGA, including her first major title at the 2018 Evian Championship in France at age 40. Her most recent victory in 2020 came on Texas soil in front of her parents at the Volunteers of America Classic.
It’s safe to say no one will likely ever again have a major championship resume quite like Stanford’s, who played in an LPGA record 98 consecutive majors before the streak ended with this year’s U.S. Women’s Open. Only Jack Nicklaus has made more consecutive major starts with 146.
The 2024 Evian marked her final major championship appearance in her final season on the LPGA. She has made 103 major championship starts, 102 as a professional, showing a remarkable level of sustained excellence.
She’ll miss the competition. She’ll miss hearing her name on the first tee. She’ll miss the people and the sanctuary of a locker room.
“The locker room is one of my favorite places,” she said. “I think it’s a place for players to go to just be themselves. They don’t have to worry about who is in there except players.
“I’m going to miss that.”
Of course, senior golf, though limited, has its perks. A victory at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open would put her back in the field at a U.S. Women’s Open. She’s also the most likely choice to be the next U.S. Solheim Cup captain. A second career in golf television might be around the corner.
There’s still much to look forward to, should this be her last start of 2024.
More than anything, she’s grateful.
“For me, it was important to show people how thankful I’ve been,” she said of the long goodbye, “and even this week, like just how grateful I’ve been for this career. … I needed to kind of get it out there and just let people know how much it’s meant to me. I wasn’t highly recruited. I wasn’t highly touted. I was kind of always overlooked and kind of always the underdog.
“But that didn’t mean that it didn’t matter … all this has mattered to me.”