The Ink Isn't Dry Just Yet

By: Dave Droschak

[Editor's Note: After covering last week's U.S. Open at Pinehurst, Cybergolf's Dave Droschak returns with more stories from Carolina's Sandhills. Here's Dave's second report from the U.S. Women's Open.]

One of the faces of women's professional golf over the last three decades will get some more face time Sunday.

Juli Inkster, who will turn 54 Tuesday and is playing in her record 35th U.S. Women's Open, declared earlier in the week that this championship would be her USGA swan song. But it looks as if the oldest player in the field has some more swimming to do at treacherous Pinehurst No. 2.

Inkster birdied five of her first 12 holes Saturday en route to a 4-under 66 and her lowest score in an Open since winning the championship with a final-round 66 in 2002. Her only blemish on a remarkable round in the searing heat of the North Carolina Sandhills was a bogey on the difficult eighth hole.

Inkster's round was not lost on the crowd surrounding the 18th green as the World Golf Hall of Famer eased into contention from back in the pack. Inkster received a standing ovation as she doffed her hat a half-dozen times, soaking in one more glorious Open moment.

This is a walk Inkster is familiar with, having captured two Open titles and 31 LPGA Tour victories. Yet she has won just once in the last decade as her skills - mostly putting - have eroded with age.

"It's great. It never gets old," Inkster said of the cheering crowds and fans yelling out her name. "I felt the crowd right out of the hopper today."

Inkster is a seven-time major winner, with a career dating to 1978 when she finished tied for 23rd in the Open as an amateur. She is the only rookie to ever win two majors in one season. But with no Champions Tour for professional females over 50, her next swing will likely be taken as a TV commentator.

"I look at the young girls out there and I'm like, wow, I'm so glad I'm not starting out now," Inkster said.

But, thankfully, there is still some clutch golf left in her aging frame. The church bells in the nearby quaint Village of Pinehurst could be heard as Inkster embraced caddie Greg Johnston following her 4-under-par round - the lowest of any player in the tournament.

Inkster, the oldest player to make the Open cut since Joanne "Big Mama" Carner did it at age 65 in 1994, hit 13 of 14 fairways and 17 of 18 greens Saturday. The green she missed was just by a few feet and was able to putt. Now that's some playing at this Donald Ross masterpiece, which has eaten up more than three-quarters of the field.

So, here we have a 53-year-old making some noise heading into Sunday's final test while the first two days an 11-year-old was one of the top stories. What a showcase for women's golf.

"It's the only game that you can go out and play together and compete against each other," Inkster said of the age comparison to herself and little Lucy Li, a California sixth-grader who qualified for this year's Open. "It's a great game."

Inkster was asked if her movement up the leaderboard at a major championship made her think of the 2009 British Open Championship in which Tom Watson, at age 59, lost in a four-hole playoff with Stewart Cink.

"No, I don't," she said. "You can think and you can dream all you want, but the bottom line is you've got to come out and make the shots."

Inkster has missed the cut in six of her previous seven Opens and hasn't finished better than 34th in eight LPGA Tour events so far in 2014. Of her 24 rounds on Tour, her best score has been a 69, so Saturday's 66 was akin to a bolt of lightning.

The round put Inkster at 2-over for the championship and in position for her seventh top-10 finish in a U.S. Women's Open - but first since 2006. "My putting has always been a question mark," she said of her recent early Open exits.

"I putted well and made a lot of three-, four-footers. This game is so weird. You never know. The first day I played great, then I played horrible and today I played great. Hopefully I'm going to break that pattern Sunday.

"I still hit the ball relatively good, it's just that my concentration isn't always there - I hit a few loose ones and missed a couple of short putts. You can't win that way. I'm just not as sharp as I used to be. But I still really, really enjoy playing golf."

Enjoy it enough and teased enough with her sizzling 66 Saturday to reconsider her decision earlier in the week? "You know what, I've played 35 of them," Inkster said of her illustrious career. "Is one more really going to make a difference one way or another? I don't think so. It's a grind; it's a lot of work. I'm good with it."

Inkster will head into her final 18 holes of the 69th U.S. Women's Open - round No. 117 of her career - with the perspective of a veteran who is rock-solid about her decision to hang up her Open spikes. And as the sentimental crowd favorite - no offense to Michelle Wie.

"This is a great golf course, so I'm going to enjoy the walk," she said.

David Droschak has covered golf in the Carolinas for three decades, mostly with The Associated Press, where he worked for 20 years as AP sports editor in North Carolina prior to launching Droschak Communications, a full-service marketing and PR firm based in Apex, N.C.

Dave, 53, has covered numerous major golf tournaments, including the 1999 and 2005 U.S. Opens at Pinehurst Resort, and is a longtime member of the Golf Writers Association of America. Dave will represent Cybergolf to provide coverage of the historic back-to-back 2014 U.S. Men's and Women's Opens at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina's Sandhills.

Dave was honored with the Sports Writer of the Year award in North Carolina in 2005, and is currently editor of Triangle Golf Today (www.trianglegolf.com), a print and online publication regarded as the "No. 1 Source for Golf News in North Carolina." He is also golf editor for Pinehurst Magazine, an award-winning glossy publication.

Dave grew up in Penn Hills, Pa., about five minutes from famed Oakmont Country Club and was introduced to the game of golf as a caddie at Green Oaks Country Club in nearby Verona, Pa. Dave was the co-captain of the 1978 Penn Hills state championship baseball team, was a pitcher for the 1982 Atlantic Coast Conference champion University of North Carolina Tar Heels, and pitched professionally for two years in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. He is a member of the Penn Hills High School Sports Hall of Fame, which also includes NBA coach George Karl and former four-time Pro Bowl offensive lineman Bill Fralic.

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