With the Solheim Cup being contested in back-to-back years, Lewis, 37, will lead the American team both in Spain and Virginia.
Stacy Lewis has yet to lead Team USA into battle at a Solheim Cup, but she already has the job lined up for a second time. With the Solheim Cup being contested in back-to-back years, Lewis, 37, will lead the American team both in Spain and Virginia, the LPGA has announced.
Already the youngest captain in Solheim Cup history, she’ll be 38 when Team USA tries to take back the Cup from Europe on Sept. 22-24 at Finca Cortesin in Spain. The youngest U.S. captain to date was Patty Sheehan in 2002 at age 45.
The 2024 Solheim Cup will take place Sept. 12-15 at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Gainesville, Virginia. Lewis will be the fifth player to captain Team USA more than once, joining Juli Inkster (2015, 2017, 2019), Judy Rankin (1996, 1998), Patty Sheehan (2002, 2003) and Kathy Whitworth (1990, 1992).
“This is such an amazing honor, to be asked to again captain the U.S. Solheim Cup Team. Receiving the first call was one of the highest points of my career, and I am truly grateful to add this second opportunity,” said Lewis in a release. “I’ve said it many times – representing the United States and wearing our colors are experiences that stand out in any player’s career. To have the chance to lead our country’s best players twice, and especially in 2024 outside our nation’s capital, is a true privilege.”
Stacy Lewis of team USA holds the Solheim Cup trophy at the closing ceremony of The Solheim Cup at St Leon-Rot Golf Club on September 20, 2015, in St Leon-Rot, Germany. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)
A 13-time winner on the LPGA who ascended to No. 1 and won two majors, Lewis is a big-picture thinker and straightforward communicator. She’ll take advice and she’ll compromise, but there will be no gray area. While her Solheim Cup record is lacking at 5-10-1, she’s open about what she has learned over the years and wants to improve on every aspect of the event that she can.
“I want to figure out what we’re missing,” said Lewis last February. “The pieces that we’re missing to help these girls play better and help make it be a better experience for the fans or whatever it may be.”
To that end, she has already put in place a new stats system to help identify potential pairings. After reading about the stats systems both Ryder Cup teams (and Presidents Cup teams) have relied upon in recent years, Lewis went on a mission to get something similar for her team.
“In the past, we’ve made pairings based on being friends or who gets along,” said Lewis, “there’s really been no rhyme or reason. Juli did the personality test and things like that because we’ve never had stats to put to it.”
Lewis met with the stats groups that work with the U.S. men (Scouts Consulting Group) and Europe (Twenty First Group). She knew she’d have to find a creative way to fund the program outside of the Solheim Cup budget. That’s when KPMG stepped up to help, creating an extension to the already existing KPMG Performance Insights with the continued help of the Twenty First Group.
By the time the 2023 Solheim Cup is staged, there will be two years’ worth of data to analyze.
“It’s going to help project who’s going to make the team and then from that,” said Lewis, “making your picks based on pairings and who will pair well together.”
The data will also be specific to the golf course, looking at details like what kinds of shots will be hit from the tees and how many of the par 5s are reachable.
Lewis plans to keep some of the pod system that three-time captain Juli Inkster put in place but make it more flexible. After being forced to withdraw from the team in 2019 due to injury, Lewis served as an unofficial assistant captain under Inkster. She worked in that role in an official capacity under Pat Hurst in 2021.
“It comes down to making putts,” said Lewis after she was named captain the first time around.
“We didn’t do enough of that at Inverness. That’s what I talked about, being in these last groups and learning how to handle the pressure and the emotions of it. That’s really what the putting comes down to.”
Annika Sorenstam, Juli Inkster, Nancy Lopez and Stacy Lewis address potential for disruption to LPGA.
While it might have shocked many to hear LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan say she’d talk to LIV Golf, Annika Sorenstam thought it was the right call. As did Juli Inkster.
These LPGA legends understand one crucial point: If Greg Norman and LIV Golf aim to create a rival tour that’s anything like what they’ve done in the men’s game, it would wreck the LPGA, the longest continuous-running professional women’s sports organization in the United States.
“I think if Norman does do this,” said Inkster, “it’s going to totally ruin the LPGA, because I think most of the girls would go, just because the money is a game-changer.”
As the best in the women’s game gather at historic Muirfield for the first time this week, they’ll compete for a purse of $6.8 million. This season, the LPGA will play for a total of $97 million, roughly one-fifth the amount of money as the PGA Tour. Last week, LIV Golf announced its players will compete for $405 million in 2023 across 14 events.
With a schedule made entirely of limited-field, no-cut tournaments, even a fraction of that would be enough to lure plenty of big-name LPGA players to a LIV women’s league. Not to mention the prospect of signing bonuses.
“I hope we survive it,” said former No. 1 Stacy Lewis. “I’m scared for this tour. I’m scared to lose all the opportunities that we’ve created.”
Greg Norman, CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf, looks on from the first tee during the final round of the LIV Golf tournament at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club. (Soobum Im/USA TODAY Sports)
Sorenstam believes it’s the job of the commissioner to listen to potential opportunities, and that includes LIV. Because the LPGA is part of a 50-50 joint business venture with the Ladies European Tour, there already exists a partnership with the Saudi-backed Aramco Series, which feature prize money that’s three to four times a typical event on that tour, totaling $6 million.
Sorenstam, a 10-time major winner who won 72 times on the LPGA, looks at the rival league that has formed in the men’s game and sees the need for a more LPGA-fitted version.
“If it’s the money that they have on the LIV, you know they’re going to crush the LPGA,” said Sorenstam. “Hopefully they have the intention of growing the game and working together with the LPGA.
“To crush the LPGA doesn’t do anybody good, history-wise, future-wise, sustainability-wise. There’s so much negativity around this. I think that we need to somehow find a way to get a positive image with all this, if you know what I mean.”
It’s not a stretch to imagine the LPGA being forced to make a decision between going into business with the Saudis in a big way – or complete destruction.
While there have been calls to conduct talks with LIV officials, it’s not clear exactly what the talking points might be – there are many ways this all could shake out. An independent rival tour that poached dozens of top players would cripple the LPGA. Instead, a series of Saudi-backed official LPGA events is one possible way the two could work together, much like the Aramco Team Series on the LET. It’s impossible to know what LIV wants, of course, without having a conversation.
What seems most unlikely, however, is that top players will band together to stiff-arm the Saudis on principle.
“I think you have a handful that feel the same way as me,” said Lewis. “I think you have a majority that would ask, ‘What’s the number?’
“Should we talk to them? Absolutely. Ultimately, I think we have to find a way to co-exist.”
Critics of LIV often point to the wide-ranging human rights abuses Saudi Arabia has been accused of, including politically motivated killings, torture, forced disappearances and inhumane treatment of prisoners. Members of the royal family and Saudi government were accused of involvement in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist.
How can a women’s organization reconcile doing business with a regime that has such a horrendous record of human rights abuses, especially toward women?
“I think that’s maybe one of the reasons we should partner,” said Sorenstam, “to be able to make a difference.”
Marcoux Samaan told Golfweek last week that she has not yet had a conversation with LIV, and that it’s too early to speculate on potential outcomes or options.
“We’ve been breaking down barriers for a long time,” Marcoux Samaan said. “I think we always fall back on our values and our goals before making any decision.”
Phachara Khongwatmai putts on the 18th green during the opening round of the LIV Golf Invitational at The Centurion Club near London in June. (Chris Trotman/LIV Golf/Getty Images)
A voluntary state of the tour meeting was held last month at the Dow Great Bay Lakes Invitational to discuss the potential threat of LIV, among other things, and only a couple dozen players attended.
Nancy Lopez has always worried about the LPGA. As a rookie in 1978, she was convinced the LPGA would close the pay gap. She’s still baffled by the fact that such a large chasm continues to exist between the tours and is even more confused by what could be on the horizon.
“I’m such a loyal person,” said Lopez when asked what she might have done in her prime if faced the with possibility of piles of cash.
“I would be hard to say ‘No, I wouldn’t want the money,’ but God it would be really hard to leave the LPGA. It would just eat me up.”
Lopez thought she would retire from the LPGA after she had her first daughter, Ashley, but the competitive fire was still there, and she needed the money.
“The money I made was good,” said Lopez, “but it wasn’t going to keep me until I got to 93 and needed to pay somebody to take care of me someday.”
While the PGA Tour has the best retirement plan in sports, the LPGA’s pension guarantees that most will need a second career.
As so many PGA Tour players talk about going to LIV to create generational wealth, consider what it would mean to an LPGA player to play five more years and then retire to start a family without having to worry about money.
For some, continuing to chase major titles and Hall of Fame points pales in comparison to children and financial security.
Jessica Korda, Alexandra O’Laughlin, Karolin Lampert and Lina Boqvist, winners of the Aramco Team Series (Photo submitted by the Aramco Team Series)
Saudi activist Omaima Al Najjar said there’s no denying the fact that conditions have improved for women in recent years, though she maintains that the right to drive and the right to travel are basic fundamental rights and not a sign of substantial progress.
“It’s important to remind the women who are participating in this tour,” said Al Najjar, “that the Saudi women activists who made those changes happen are still on trial, being prosecuted, banned from activism and banned from traveling.”
Al Najjar, now a surgical doctor living in Ireland, was a prominent blogger who took part in the right to drive campaign in Saudi and fled when she felt the risks were too great. It’s still too dangerous for her to return now.
Al Najjar is head of campaigns for ALQST for Human Rights, documenting conditions in prisons and advocating for the release of activists.
Al Najjar wants players to speak out not only about the activists, but the conditions of many migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. Women come from developing countries to work in the kingdom as maids and often have their passports confiscated as they are made to work seven days a week with no set schedule, “which is a sort of slavery,” Al Najjar said.
Meanwhile, Saudi-born women are fleeing the country, she continued, despite recent reforms because there are no safe houses in the kingdom for victims of domestic violence.
“There’s an issue of killing women in Saudi,” said Al Najjar, “and a lot of husbands kill their wives or a lot of fathers kill their daughters and the Saudi authorities do not do much about it.”
These are the issues Al Najjar hopes that LPGA players who compete in Saudi Arabia will speak out against, even it means financial loss.
“It’s important that they make such a statement,” she said, “and stand with Saudi women.”
Georgia Hall poses with the trophy after winning the 2022 Aramco Saudi Ladies International at the Royal Greens Golf & Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia. (Ladies European Tour)
Few have chronicled the LPGA as diligently and passionately as Ron Sirak, the 2015 recipient of the PGA Lifetime Award in Journalism. For those who question how LIV Golf is any different than the LET’s Aramco Series or players sporting the logos of Golf Saudi on their hats and shirts, Sirak said it’s important to recognize the difference between sponsoring a tournament and owning a tour. Much like there’s a difference in sponsoring a player and owning a player.
“I think that’s a difficult situation for the LPGA to figure out what their relationship would be with the people who want to bankroll them,” said Sirak. “Would they be being supported by the tour and the LPGA still be an autonomous entity? Or would they be owned by the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia?”
Given the Saudis’ seemingly endless supply of money and little regard for market value – this seems to be more about power and image – the LPGA is in no position to throw money at a potential threat, and therefore has little leverage.
LPGA veteran Ryann O’Toole believes the PGA Tour made a mistake in not engaging with LIV Golf. If what Norman says is true, and LIV plans to build a women’s league, O’Toole would like to see the LPGA work with them so that players don’t have to choose.
“I think that it would be a great opportunity to utilize, like, the possibility that there could be some major financial opportunities,” said O’Toole, “and that we come together as two organizations, versus having two separate organizations.”
Whatever happens, it’s important that Marcoux Samaan maintains a model that’s sustainable, even if the Saudis decide to suddenly pull out of the golf business. One that, even if the LPGA took a financial hit, it would still survive.
Imagine if the Saudis – a country that’s widely reported to have a gender pay gap of 49 percent – became the first to pay elite male and female professional golfers equally. Or even came close.
“Financially, it is life-changing money,” said Maria Fassi, whose agency, GSE, has a number of LIV clients including Bryson DeChambeau, Sergio Garcia, Louis Oosthuizen, Paul Casey, Jason Kokrak, Branden Grace, Abraham Ancer and Carlos Ortiz.
“Whatever they come and offer me, $10 million, $20 million, 15, 7, whatever it is, it is money 99 percent of the girls out here aren’t seeing.”
And to many, where the money comes from, ultimately might not matter.
The documentary focuses on what built Sorenstam the champion, but also on how she was received by her peers.
There’s a moment early on in the new “Becoming ANNIKA” documentary when a young girl approaches the legend at a clinic and asks if she has any advice for competing against boys.
Sorenstam bent down to eye level and said, “Yes, you know you can beat them, right? You know that. Beat them. Be tough.”
Perhaps one day that youngster will grow to fully appreciate the beauty of that exchange. The new film, produced by NBC Sports in conjunction with the USGA, premieres on May 10 at 9 p.m. ET on Golf Channel.
Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank narrates and World Golf Hall of Famers Laura Davies, Juli Inkster and Nancy Lopez offer insight along with two-time major winner Dottie Pepper, former caddie Terry McNamara, USGA CEO Mike Whan and longtime journalist Ron Sirak, who covered Sorenstam’s LPGA career more thoroughly than anyone.
And, of course, Sorenstam’s family: doting husband Mike McGee, her parents Tom and Gunilla, children Will and Ava, and sister Charlotta all help tell the story of the 10-time major winner.
Mike McGee and Annika Sorenstam as seen during the Becoming Annika Premier at Sunrise Theater in the Southern Pines, N.C. on Tuesday, April 26, 2022. (Copyright USGA/Jason E. Miczek)
“Watching a movie about yourself, it’s a bit surreal,” said Sorenstam, who viewed the film for the time alongside her husband at the Sunrise Theater in Southern Pines, North Carolina, last month during media day for the U.S. Women’s Open.
“It’s interesting to hear other people’s perspectives. Of course, I’ve spoken with my caddie many times and with my kids all the time, but for them to speak when I’m not there, the film just captures it all beautifully.”
Emmy Award-winning director Adrienne Gallagher began production of the film at the 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Open, won by Sorenstam. In January, the crew went to Sweden for 10 days to film where Sorenstam got started in the game and better understand the culture that shaped her.
The documentary focuses on what built Sorenstam the champion, of course, but also on how she was received by her peers.
“When you are winning a lot,” said Lopez, “it’s a shame that the players don’t think that’s really a good thing. I think women are tough on other women sometimes.”
Sorenstam acknowledged that she knew there was a lot of chatter in the locker room, a lot of whispers behind her back. Charlotta chalked it up to jealousy.
“This is kind of a harsh thing to say, but you don’t become taller by chopping someone else’s head off,” Sorenstam said in the film. “I honestly told myself I’m not here to make the most friends, I’m here to make the most out of my career.”
Adrienne Gallagher, Staci Green as seen during the Becoming Annika Premier at Sunrise Theater in the Southern Pines, N.C. on Tuesday, April 26, 2022. (Copyright USGA/Jason E. Miczek)
Gallagher worked with an all-female production crew for the film and believes it made a difference in the way Sorenstam opened up about her divorce to David Esch.
“Dreams can be expensive,” said Gallagher. “The idea that she was achieving so much in her professional life and yet there was some profound emptiness.”
One of the most impactful sections of the film centers around Sorenstam’s son Will, who was born premature at 27 weeks. Will’s enthusiasm for his mom and the game is a big reason why the 51-year-old decided to compete in this year’s U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles.
“Becoming ANNIKA” will also be shown on NBC on Sunday, June 5, ahead of final round coverage of the U.S. Women’s Open.
There are 11 U.S. Women’s Open champions in the 120-player field this week.
FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Laura Davies withdrew from last week’s Amundi Evian Championship because she didn’t want to add more potential risk to her participation in the 3rd U.S. Senior Women’s Open. Even she’s still a bit surprised by the move.
“If you’d have told me that 10 years ago,” said Davies, “I’d say don’t be ridiculous. But that’s how important this one is to me and all the other players.”
Annika Sorenstam’s first title on the LPGA came at the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open. The 50-year-old Sorenstam, a three-time USWO champion, called it a privilege to be at Brooklawn Country Club making her U.S. Senior Women’s Open debut.
“I think it’s important to support the USGA because they’re the ones that put up this tournament,” said Sorenstam. “If we don’t support it, they will go away, so I think it’s my way to say thank you to the USGA. The USGA has (played) a big part in my life, a big part in my heart.”
Winning, of course, factors in, too. Juli Inkster has twice finished runner-up at this event – first to Davies in 2018 and Helen Alfredsson in 2019 – and would like to “move up a notch.”
Inkster is one of 13 players in the field who competed at Brooklawn in the 1979 USWO.
“My mom reminded me last week that I actually did play here before,” said Inkster, “which I didn’t know. But she brought out the old photo albums, and yeah, there I was.
“So I was a 19-year-old kid then, playing as an amateur. And, of course, I don’t remember anything about it. But I think I should have because it reminds me a lot of the course I grew up on, Pasatiempo, with the undulating greens and the undulating fairways and stuff like that.”
Carol S. Thompson with Juli Inkster and Pat Hurst as they walk off of the 7th tee during a practice round at the 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Conn. on Tuesday, July 27, 2021. (Darren Carroll/USGA)
After a nearly 13-year layoff from the tour, Sorenstam teed it up last February in her first LPGA event at her home course of Lake Nona and made the cut. She also has played in a couple of celebrity events against the men. She’s enjoying the par-72 6,011 layout at Brooklawn.
“(The men) hit it 100 yards past me, and I’m hitting longer irons in,” said Sorenstam, “and here I come, and I feel comfortable. I’m hitting shorter irons in and I can be a little more precise and I can fire at the flag. My approach shots are not releasing 20 yards over the green. Here actually I had two shots that were spinning back. I can’t remember the last times I had shots spinning back.
“I think this course fits me very well. I love it.”
Davies said distance control will be key at Brooklawn, which was always a strength of Sorenstam’s game.
“Pin high is your friend,” said Davies. “Short and long is definitely not your friend. You can even miss it pin high and still have some easy chips, especially if you miss it to the low side of the green. But that’s what the practice rounds are all about. Very important this week to get to know the course … the greens are what they are, but we now have to deal with some serious problems around them if you get a bit scrappy with your distance control.”
There are 11 U.S. Women’s Open champions in the 120-player field including two-time winner JoAnne Carner, who at 82 is the oldest player in the field. There are eight World Golf Hall of Famers and 33 amateurs. A total of 58 players made it to Brooklawn through qualifying and 41 are here for the first time.
What feels like a reunion week at Brooklawn also doubles as a bona fide championship. It’s an intriguing mix of happy-to-be-here and playing-to-win.
“I was playing a TV match in Norway with Suzann (Pettersen) and Lorena (Ochoa) and I believe it was Se Ri (Pak),” said Sorenstam, “and Suzann came up to me and she said, ‘You know, your swing hasn’t changed. I said, thanks. And she goes, ‘but you don’t hit it anywhere.’ That’s Suzann for you. I’d like to see what her swing looks like now when she has two kids.
“But no, kidding aside, the swing looks the same. My game is not really the same, but I feel as good as I can be at this age and what I do in my life. … I’m still a fighter, still a competitor, and we’ll see what happens.”
The 31-time LPGA winner made her 2021 LPGA debut at the Kia Classic last month where she missed the cut.
Juli Inkster lives about 45 minutes from San Francisco’s Olympic Club and has played the course roughly 50 times. When entries close for U.S. Women’s Open qualifying on April 14, at least one LPGA Hall of Famer will be in the mix.
“I’m probably an idiot for trying,” said 60-year-old Inkster, “but I think I would be disappointed in myself if I didn’t because it’s so close to home.”
Inkster, who lives in Los Altos, California, signed up for the 36-hole qualifier on April 26 at Half Moon Bay Golf Links. She’ll be tournament-ready after competing in next week’s Hugel-Air Premia LA Open on the eve of the qualifier. The 31-time LPGA winner made her 2021 LPGA debut at the Kia Classic last month where she missed the cut.
The 76th U.S. Women’s Open will be held June 3-6 at Olympic Club’s Lake Course, which has previously hosted five U.S. Opens (1955, 1966, 1987, 1998 and 2012) three U.S. Amateurs (1958, 1981,2007), the 2004 U.S. Junior Amateur and the inaugural U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship in 2015. This marks the first USWO held at the club.
“It’s a tough golf course,” said Inkster, who first played it in college. “It’s all you can handle. It really makes Lake Merced look easy, which is hard to do.”
Only two players have won the U.S. Women’s Open after advancing through qualifying: Hilary Lunke (2003) and Birdie Kim (2005).
Juli Inkster after winning the 1999 U.S. Women’s Open.
Inkster, the 1999 and 2002 USWO champion, had to go through qualifying once before for the championship after the birth of one of her two children.
“I don’t remember what year it was,” she said. “I was low qualifier. It’s not easy.”
Inkster last competed in a U.S. Women’s Open in 2014 at Pinehurst, where she tied for 15th. She received special exemptions into the championship in both 1983 and 2013.
Betsy King, another two-time USWO champion, advanced out of a qualifying site in Arizona in 2011 at age 55. Laura Davies did the same in 2014 in New Jersey at age 50. Both Catriona Matthew and Lorie Kane played their way in at age 48.
“I just decided, you know, what the heck,” said Inkster. “If I make it, I make it; if I don’t, I don’t.”
New mom Michelle Wie West has been named an assistant captain for the 2021 U.S. Solheim Cup team.
Michelle Wie West didn’t sit around waiting for a call. When she heard that Pat Hurst was going to be the 2021 Solheim Cup captain, Wie West texted her “Pod Mom” saying that she’d love to be an assistant captain.
Hurst didn’t give the nod right away, but Wie West got her wish.
“All the players love her,” said Hurst. “They respect her, and that’s what I need.”
It doesn’t seem all that long ago that Wie West was a mystery to most. When she competed on her first Solheim Cup team in 2009, it marked the first time players got to know the former phenom away from an entourage. They discovered that the “kid” could hang. And her passion shone through in a rousing 3-0-1 Cup debut.
Juli Inkster was so impressed that she predicted a Wie West victory on the LPGA before the year was out. Wie West proved her correct in November at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational.
Morgan Pressel (left) and Michelle Wie share a laugh during a team photo shoot prior to the 2013 Solheim Cup at Colorado Golf Club.
“I won my first LPGA tournament after I played in the Solheim,” said Wie West on a media conference call, “and I don’t know if I hadn’t had that experience if that was going to happen that year.”
Wie West, 30, gave birth to daughter Makenna on June 19 and has posted several pictures with her on the range in recent weeks. The five-time LPGA winner confirmed that she still wants to continue playing on the LPGA, even in 2020 if possible, but her return mostly comes down to safety.
“It just depends really on the state of the world more than the state of my game at this point, unfortunately,” she said.
A silver lining to the pandemic break is that husband Jonnie West, an executive with the Golden State Warriors, will be mostly be her side through the end of the year.
“One positive thing that happened, there was a scenario where if (the Warriors) went to Orlando in the bubble and I was home by myself,” said Wie West, “I was quarantined, my parents couldn’t come, I could have been a single mother for a couple months all by myself, and that was a scary thought.”
Her parents, Bo and B.J., are in town now and Wie West took full advantage, recently playing 18 holes for the first time in a long time.
“I had to pump after nine holes,” she said, laughing.
Practice time on the range looks a bit different too these days. Wie West said she hits two balls and then goes over to check on McKenna before returning to hit two more.
The dream of hoisting hoisting a trophy on the 18th along with Makenna fuels Wie West to keep competing. She wants what Tiger Woods enjoyed at Augusta National last year.
That being said, she’s now more impressed than ever by what LPGA moms who have come before her have accomplished, notably Suzann Pettersen at last year’s Solheim Cup in Scotland and Catriona Matthew winning the Women’s British Open 11 weeks after giving birth to her second daughter. Wie West marveled at the idea, noting that she’s barely hitting driver 220 yards now.
For two Solheim Cups, Wie West was in Hurst’s player pod and greatly benefited from her nurturing approach. Wie West hopes that she can help other players feel comfortable too, given that she’s likely experienced every emotion there is in her five Solheim Cup appearances.
Wie West joins Angela Stanford as an assistant on Hurst’s squad. The 2021 Solheim Cup will be contested Sept. 4-6 at Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. Next week the LPGA restarts its season at Inverness at the new Drive On Championship where prominent Americans Nelly Korda, Danielle Kang, Lexi Thompson, Jessica Korda and Stanford are among those in the field. Hurst won’t be onsite for the competition, however, as it’s closed to spectators.
Natalie Srinivasan spent two days with Juli Inkster in California as part of a retreat that went along with winning the award in her name.
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.
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.”
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.
“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.”
LPGA star Angela Stanford was named assistant captain for the 2021 Solheim Cup by captain Pat Hurst.
Angela Stanford was hitting balls in her new at-home hitting bay when Pat Hurst called on April 21. Stanford went back and looked up the date recently because keeping a secret for that long isn’t easy to do.
At last, she can tell the world that she’ll be by Hurst’s side in the role of assistant captain at next year’s Solheim Cup.
“I told (Hurst) it was kind of between tears and total excitement,” Stanford told a group of reporters, “and it was so hard because when you’re in quarantine, I was bouncing off the walls the rest of the night and there was nobody there to enjoy that with me.”
Assistant captains play a more visible role in the pod system, which three-time captain Juli Inkster put in place for the 2015 campaign and Hurst will continue. Each assistant is assigned a pod of players based on personality, and back then, Stanford was actually in Hurst’s pod. Stanford played a vital role in Team USA’s memorable comeback that year, earning the winning point against Suzann Pettersen in Germany.
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“That morning when I walked out on the putting green,” said Stanford, “I remember looking at my caddie and saying, ‘Hey, this is my turn. This is it. Let’s go.’ It felt so good from start to finish, one of the best rounds I’ve ever played in my life … it’s a memory that’s hard to put into words. I kind of get chills just thinking about it.”
A member of six Solheim Cup teams, the 42-year-old Stanford has six career LPGA victories, including the 2018 Evian Championship. Hurst and Stanford paired together in the 2007 Solheim Cup, defeating Iben Tinning and Bettina Hauert, 4 and 2, in foursomes. Stanford said Hurst took her under her wing early on in her LPGA career.
“Angela and I are pretty similar in a lot of ways,” said Hurst. “We both have a passion for the game. We love the red, white and blue, playing for our country. Angela, even playing for TCU, she’s just the biggest supporter of them, and she’s that way with representing the United States. That’s the way I am and that’s the way she is. … She’s level – she’s determined. I wouldn’t say level-headed; let me rephrase that.
“She wants to win. That’s … I see that in me.”
When asked about being a playing assistant at the Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, next September, Stanford said she’s at peace with whatever happens.
“I’m still a professional golfer and I’m still going tee it up and try to win golf tournaments,” she said, “and whatever that means in 2021, that’s what that means.”
Betsy King and her Golf Fore Africa charity are gathering together some of the most generous hearts in golf to promote #GivingTuesdayNow.
Typically, GivingTuesday takes place immediately after Thanksgiving. But with so many facing desperate need in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s a new campaign launching on May 5 called #GivingTuesdayNow.
Betsy King and her Golf Fore Africa charity are gathering together some of the most generous hearts in golf to promote the day. On Friday, May 1, King will be joined by Lorena Ochoa, Juli Inkster, Angela Stanford, Katherine Kirk, Amy Olson, Azahara Munzo and Kendall Dye for a live one-hour Q&A video chat at 2 p.m. ET. The Zoom call will be open to the public.
The 64-year-old King, a 34-time winner on the LPGA, is in the midst of a five-year pledge to raise $10 million to bring clean water to 200,000 people throughout Zambia. She personally pledged $1.3 million to help accomplish the goal. Golf Fore Africa is well over the halfway mark to that $10 million goal, but donations have dried up completely in the wake of COVID-19.
Kendall Dye
“The need is more dire than ever,” said Golf Fore Africa board member and LPGA player Kendall Dye. “We’re still talking about hand washing and hygiene, and we thought we’d be flying cars by now.”
All of the participants on Friday’s call have personally raised money to fund at least one well in Africa. Several have their own charity initiative as well.
We are so excited to host this virtual event to learn what life has been like for the pros during this time of quarantine! Listen in as they discuss a variety of topics including the generous golf community. Click on the link in bio to set your reminder to join us on Friday! pic.twitter.com/0Rqdn5xPUE
King’s main fundraising event in Phoenix was canceled last month along with one that was set for late June. She has postponed the event in Houston around the U.S. Women’s Open to Dec. 14, one day after the championship is now set to conclude.
The COVID-19 virus is only now beginning to impact Africa, and the World Health Organization has warned that the continent will become the next epicenter of the virus.
Amy Olson and Kristy McPherson. (Kendall Dye)
Dye has been traveled to Africa twice and has seen the needs there firsthand. With basic sanitation being at the heart of coronavirus prevention, clean water has never been more vital. Of course, it’s important to raise funds for local and national needs, Dye said, but it’s also important to remember the poorest of the poor.
“Nobody expected this pandemic,” said Dye, “but we can’t forget the least of these.”
Kendall Dye with children in Africa. (Photo provided by Kendall Dye)
Juli Inkster is using downtime forced by the coronavirus pandemic to heal an injury sustained during a workout. Being still hasn’t been easy.
The“Stuck at Home With”series profiles players, caddies and staff in the women’s game who are making the most of an unprecedented break in tour life due to the coronavirus pandemic. New stories will be posted every Tuesday and Thursday.
Juli Inkster likes to jump rope at the end of her workouts. She was running with the rope when she heard the pop. The 59-year-old immediately knew that something had gone terribly wrong.
The diagnosis: meniscus root tear.
The LPGA Hall of Famer had surgery nearly seven weeks ago and can testify that crutches are “not for the weak of heart.”
“You don’t put the crutches under your armpits,” she said of the proper technique. “Six inches below your armpits and you use your shoulders to push you. I’ll be teaching a class on that this summer if anybody wants to get in.”
There’s never a good time to be sidelined with an injury, but at least this unprecedented stretch of being grounded in California puts Inkster in line with everyone else during this national lockdown. On a tough day of stir crazy, neighbors might spot her walking around the block on her crutches just to get out.
“I have to say, the first weeks were tough really between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.,” she said. “I figure at 5 p.m., you can at least have a glass of wine or a cocktail.”
Juli Inkster on her crutches.
The seven-time major winner bought a putting mat with lines on it (no holes) and hopes to start chipping soon. The original goal was to get back for the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, but that event, scheduled for July 9-12 at Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Connecticut, has been canceled.
Inkster wasn’t really a reader before she had kids but found that after she put them to bed, she was always pretty wired. She started reading as a young mom to help her wind down at night. In recovery, she has read four books on her Kindle to date and relies on the recommendations of friends to avoid clunkers. She’s mostly into fiction.
Her spring lineup: “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo,” “The Giver of Stars,” “The Fountains of Silence” and “Red Sparrow.”
On the subject of seven husbands, Inkster has had only one, Brian, and he’s been fantastic as “Mr. Nurse” during this time. Even more than most couples, the coronavirus quarantine has given the Inksters a record amount of time together.
“Let me just say you find out quickly why you married them,” she said.
At her home in Los Altos, Inkster likes to read outside by the fire pit in her comfy chair looking back toward the woods. At her second home in Palm Springs, she gazes toward the mountains in between pages.
Juli Inkster at home, enjoying a forest view.
Inkster knows that compared to many, including youngest daughter Cori, she has it good. Cori and her boyfriend have spent the past year in Ireland. Both of Inkster’s daughters work for SurveyMonkey. Cori is in a one-bedroom apartment on the seventh floor in Dublin working from home. She mostly keeps to a two-kilometer circle.
When golf returns without spectators, at least for now on the PGA Tour, Inkster thinks about all the other people it takes beyond players and caddies to run a tournament. She thinks about how important pro-ams are to the bottom line of an LPGA event.
How many executives will want to fly in for a round of golf?
“They’ve got a lot of question marks,” she said.
Inkster tries not to watch the news too much. Her husband does it for her. She talks on the phone with Solheim players like Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel, Gerina Piller and Angel Yin. Might swap a few texts with the Kordas. Rookie Andrea Lee has reached out a few times.
Inkster trusts LPGA commissioner Mike Whan’s leadership in this uncertain time and feels for players who are struggling with no money coming in.
“I think getting the U.S. Women’s Open in December is awesome,” she said. Thanks to open qualifying, it’s an event that can change anyone’s year.
Sometimes, the Inksters get in the car and drive over to Half Moon Bay, pick up some soup and eat in the parking lot.
In these times, Captain America couldn’t be more relatable.
