Laura Davies planned to make historic farewell at St. Andrews, but has now decided not to play

Davies made the decision not to compete after hitting a tee shot in Utah, of all places.

Laura Davies made the decision not to compete at St. Andrews next month shortly after hitting a tee shot in Utah, of all places. The result of the tee shot wasn’t that bad, but the feeling of dread and uncertainty that preceded the strike was more than she could take.

After that first round at the LPGA Senior Championship at Copper Rock in St. George, Davies rang up her caddie and said that she wouldn’t be playing the AIG Women’s British Open. She’s competed in the past 43 consecutive British Opens and was set to make the Old Course her final LPGA tournament appearance.

It’s the only way a sporting legend like Davies should go out – on historic ground. Instead, golf fans have likely seen the last of Davies teeing it up on the LPGA.

“I just don’t think I’m good enough anymore,” she explained. “It would’ve been lovely, don’t get me wrong. … I wish I could’ve just stood up and said I’ll give it a go, I don’t care how bad I am. But I do care. That’s the trouble.”

Davies, 60, said that she immediately felt lighter after the decision was made and that it’s actually helped her golf on the senior circuit. She’s excited to head to Fox Chapel Golf Club in Pittsburgh next week for the U.S. Senior Women’s Open.

The 150th Open
Dame Laura Davies of England tees off the first hole during the Celebration of Champions Challenge ahead of the 150th Open at St. Andrews Old Course. (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

She’ll still be in St. Andrews in a month’s time to commentate for Sky Sports. The Old Course is her favorite course in the world. Amazingly, her first time there was in 2007 for the first women’s major ever contested at the Home of Golf.

Davies hit her first tee shot off No. 1 on Tuesday that week and promptly hit it left and out of bounds. She only played up the first and down the 18th that day.

“I did a Baker-Finch,” she said at the time.  “I had people heckling me on the first tee as well, so it was a hard shot.”

Her first full round over the Old Course came during Wednesday’s pro-am.

On Thursday, Davies teed off just as eventual champion Lorena Ochoa was putting the finishing touches on a bogey-free 67. The Englishwoman found the fairway when it counted.

Davies played her first British Open as a 16-year-old amateur in 1980, long before the event became a major. She won the event in 1986 and, with the exception of 1983 when the event was not contested, has never missed an appearance. Past champions who are 60 and under are exempt into the championship. St. Andrews would’ve been her final exemption.

In 2020, Davies hit the first tee shot at Royal Troon to mark her 40th appearance but there were no fans in the gallery due to the global pandemic. Georgia Hall sent her a text message that jokingly said, “Don’t hold us up.”

If only everyone on tour carried on as quickly as Davies.

England’s Hall has called her a great friend and an idol.

“I kind of pulled up to the car park and you have your 2018 champion, so I have my space, and I look down and it’s Laura, 1986, and I had a joke with her that I was born 10 years later than that,” Hall once remarked, “and she found that funny.”

2007 Ricoh Women's British Open
England’s Laura Davies at the 2007 Ricoh Women’s British Open at St. Andrews in Scotland. (Kieran Dodds/AFP via Getty Images)

Last year at Walton Heath, Davies withdrew midway through the first round after suffering a wrist injury trying to escape a bramble bush.

That she won’t get a proper sendoff feels inadequate for a woman who who won 20 times on the LPGA and more than 80 times worldwide.

She’s the only player to have never missed an appearance in the event since it became a major in 2001. She was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame at St. Andrews in 2015 and took part in the R&A Celebration of Champions there two years ago for the 150th British Open.

Davies never imagined there would come a time when she didn’t want to play competitive golf. But everyone always told her that she’d know when she’d had enough.

“If someone’s never played top-level sport, it’s hard to explain where you go from a position of pure control and comfort and looking forward to your day’s golf to absolute terror,” she said, “and I’ve reached that point.”

LPGA players reflect on what it meant to meet Queen Elizabeth II

Dame Laura Davies, Karen Stupples and Debbie Massey share recollections of meeting Queen Elizabeth II.

The first time Dame Laura Davies met Queen Elizabeth II was after she won the 1987 U.S. Women’s Open. Davies said she had about one minute to converse with the queen while being appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). The queen congratulated Davies on the major championship victory and asked where she was off to next. Davies happened to be headed from the palace to the airport to compete in the Biarritz Ladies Open in France.

“She said, ‘Well, make sure you win,’ ” recalled Davies, “and I actually did go on and win. I said to someone the other day, I wonder if she looked at the results. I know she didn’t. In my mind, it would be nice to think that she got the newspaper out on Monday and looked at the scores.”

In 2000, Davies was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire and in 2014, she was made a Dame in the Queen’s Birthday Honors list. Davies has all three documents – signed by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip – framed and hung on the wall at her home in Ripley, a small village in Surrey.

The atmosphere around town, Davies said, has been subdued since Queen Elizabeth died at age 96. The state funeral service will be held Monday, Sept. 19, 2022, at Westminster Abbey in London.

Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth II meets guests as she attends the Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace on May 29, 2019 in London, England. (Photo: Yui Mok – WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Karen Stupples’ grandfather Frank Paker, a clever electrician from Deal, built a TV in 1953 so the neighborhood could watch Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. Stupples, who was born 20 years later, said no one in her family ever dreamed that one of their own would one day meet the queen.

Much less twice.

“My dad directed traffic at the Port of Dover,” said Stupples. “His relatives were fishermen. My mom pressed blouses. That stuff just doesn’t necessarily happen.”

The first time Stupples met Queen Elizabeth was with the victorious 1996 Curtis Cup team at a Christmas Party at Buckingham Palace. She was there with a couple hundred other guests, wearing a name badge and a wide smile.

“There’s paintings that are 15 feet high,” said Stupples, “massive paintings all in this room and it is very. … I mean, I can’t even properly put it into words how extravagant it felt.”

One of the queen’s aides came by and asked five of them to gather in a small semi-circle before her majesty came over. There was a handshake and a curtsy and pleasant talk about golf before she moved on to the next semi-circle. Several other members of the royal family came by for a similar exchange.

Stupples was invited back to see the queen after she won the 2004 Women’s British Open at Sunningdale.

“As I got older, and I look back on it now,” she said, “I am proud for my family as much as anything. That they can all say that one of theirs has met the queen and been inside the palace.”

American Debbie Massey was 25 years old when she met Queen Elizabeth II in a receiving line of U.S. and Great Britain and Ireland Curtis Cup players in 1976. They wore white gloves, bowed and curtsied. Nancy Lopez, Beth Daniel and Carol Semple Thompson were among Massey’s teammates.

“If she chose to say hello or reach her hand out, you would respond,” said Massey. “Refer to her as ‘your majesty’ the first time and after that you could respond ‘Yes ma’am.’”

1976 Curtis Cup
Members of the 1976 U.S. Curtis Cup team which included, Barbara Barrow, Beth Daniel, Cynthia Hill, Donna Horton White, Nancy Lopez, Deborah Massey, Carol Semple, Nancy Roth Syms and Captain Barbara McIntire, at Royal Lytham and St. Annes Golf Club in St. Annes-On-Sea, Lancashire, England. (Photo: USGA Museum)

Massey, who went on to win three times on the LPGA, recalled that the queen was running late that day. She’d been rehearsing for an upcoming ceremony in which she’d have to ride side-saddle for over four hours. The queen’s horse had become injured during rehearsal and she was waiting to speak to the vet.

“She was petite,” said Massey of her first impression, “and she did have the most sensible shoes I’d ever seen in my life. I wish I had a pair now at my age.”

After the queen went down the line, she went to another area of the room to have some tea. Massey and Thompson decided to go have a chat. Thompson inquired about the queen’s horse. Massey asked if she’d ever gotten nervous watching her daughter ride, telling the queen that her mother couldn’t watch her play golf.

“Carol and I were with her it seemed like quite a while,” said Massey, “just the three of us. Then our team came, the U.S. team, and stood around and she was wonderful. She made you feel at home and welcome.

“At some point, she said, ‘You know, I really think I should go talk to my team.’ She excused herself and walked over to where they were all standing.”

Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth II rides her hourse Burmese, a gift from the Canadian Mounted Police (Photo: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)

Massey, who won a pair of Women’s British Opens before it became a major, said she’s gotten a lot of milage out of that story over the years.

When Queen Elizabeth II died on Sept. 8, Massey was deeply emotional.

“It was a big part of my life,” she said of meeting Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. “We felt so fortunate. As young women, we just absolutely devoured it.”

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