When you’re playing with Juli Inkster, you get cookie service on the 14th hole at Pasatiempo, an Alister MacKenzie-designed gem in Santa Cruz, California, where Inkster grew up.
Pasatiempo was the first course on which Inkster hosted Natalie Srinivasan, winner of the inaugural Juli Inkster Senior Award presented by WorkDay this past week. For the occasion, Inkster’s mom brought out the baked goods.
Srinivasan, a recent Furman graduate who also won the ANNIKA Award and the WGCA National Player of the Year this spring, spent two days with Inkster in Northern California as part of a mentorship retreat that went along with winning the award. Since May, Inkster has helped guide Srinivasan through several elements of being a professional, among them writing letters to sponsors.
“I’ve been talking to her a lot,” Srinivasan said. “After I won the award, between that time and the time I went on the trip, I’ve texted her very frequently, almost every day.”
But being with Inkster in person presented new opportunities. In California, Inkster hosted dinner at her house one night. On the golf course, Srinivasan was able to ask questions about specific shots – if Inkster hit it out of position, how did she plan to get it back in play? How did she approach the shot? Where do you want to be on this hole or that one?
“We were on the second hole at Pasatiempo,” Srinivasan remembered, “she hit it in the bunker. It was kind of a long, awkward bunker shot. I asked how she would hit it and she went through how she thought of it in her head.”
Related: Natalie Srinivasan brings Furman to the forefront as ANNIKA Award winner
Both women invited friends along to the retreat. Inkster brought Pat Hurst, a good friend to whom she recently passed over the reins to the Solheim Cup captaincy. Srinivasan chose former Furman teammate Taylor Totland, a 2017 graduate now playing professionally on the Symetra Tour.
“We’re really good friends and she was a senior my freshman year so she kind of taught me how to do things at Furman. She really did a lot for me,” Srinivasan said of Totland.
Cypress Point presented a more-than-worthy follow-up to the round at Pasatiempo. The four walked, with only a forecaddie joining the group, shared stories and spent the day taking photos. Srinivasan said the best part was playing No. 16, where she hit the green with driver.
“Pictures don’t do it justice,” she said.
“We just kind of talked the whole day and shared stories and experiences,” Srinivasan said of the time spent with Inkster and Hurst on the golf course. “It was cool just to see their perspective and the things they’ve been through together and just kind of hear stories from the other side, on that LPGA Hall of Famer side, I guess is the best way to put it.”
Srinivasan quietly opened doors for herself with a steady, committed performance over the past four years at Furman. She brought new recognition to a program that has developed some of the best in women’s golf – from Dottie Pepper to Betsy King to Beth Daniel.
Srinivasan earned Symetra Tour status through Q-School in 2019 and will tee it up at the next event in Battle Creek, Michigan, on July 24-26. The Inkster Senior Award also comes with an exemption into the Cambia Portland Classic, an LPGA event that has been rescheduled for Sept. 17-20 in light of the pandemic.
“If the tournament is played,” Srinivasan said, “I’ll be there.”
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