By Ryan Herrington
FAIRFIELD, Conn. — You look at the score, and the margin of victory, and you say to yourself, “How?” Yes, we’re talking about a golfer who won 72 LPGA titles and 10 major championships, a World Golf Hall of Famer who can go by her first name alone, who was a dominant force in her heyday. But that heyday ended almost 13 years ago.

Before Sunday at Brooklawn Country Club, Annika Sorenstam’s last professional victory came Nov. 2, 2008, at the Suzhou Taihu Ladies Open on the Ladies European Tour. The Swede was just 38 years old. She’s 50 now, a mother of two who decided starting a family and running a foundation were more important than re-writing the rest of the LPGA record book when she stepped away from competitive golf.

Apparently, though, old habits do die hard. Making her debut in the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, Sorenstam went wire-to-wire in a runaway victory in the third overall edition of the championship, a performance that had everybody shaking their heads, including Sorenstam.

“It’s really hard to describe,” said the now four-time USGA champion, adding to her three U.S. Open titles, after tearfully speaking to the crowd surrounding the 18th green. “Everything felt so good, and then obviously you have to go out there and finish it up. And today I really felt like I played very, very well. To come in here on Sunday knowing what I had to do and I did it, obviously, I’m very happy.”

The final tally: 67-69-72-68—276, 12 under par, eight shots lower than runner-up Liselotte Neumann.

The journey back to the winner’s circle began last October when Sorenstam celebrated her 50th birthday. That’s when she sat with her husband Mike McGee, 12-year-old daughter Ava and 11-year-old son Will and asked a simple question: What would you think about mama playing again? “If they said, no, this wasn’t happening,” Annika noted.

But they said yes, Will, in particular, was enamoured with getting the chance to follow his mother walking inside the ropes. In recent years, he’d caught the golf bug, and the two of them would practice out near their Orlando home at Lake Nona, something that increased in regularity as the Senior Women’s Open date got closer. “I’ve always seen these highlights of her doing really doo,” Will said as he watched during the final round. “But now I wanted to see that in person.”

Sorenstam joked before the championship that she could get on the bike again “but you don’t just enter the Tour de France.” So she knocked off the competitive rust a bit in 2021, playing in four organized events. Still, how much does one start on the LPGA Tour in January (T-60 finish), one more on the LET in July (MC) and a pair of hit-and-giggles with a bunch of retired jocks really prepare you?

Apparently enough.

“I never thought I could win it, if I am honest, because I thought she would be solid enough to carry it through, and obviously she did,” said Laura Davies, who finished solo third, nine back after shooting a closing 71.

Neumann trailed by just two shots at the start of the final round and cut into the deficit when she made an eagle on the par-5 first hole. But Sorenstam made birdie to keep the lead and, in hindsight, Neumann’s 3 might have been the worst thing anyone could have done, the jab from her mentor and friend ensuring that Sorenstam wouldn’t let her mind wander.

From there, Sorenstam continued to methodically work her way around the course, never putting herself in anything resembling a tricky spot. Back-to-back birdies on the par-5 seventh and eighth holes, along with stumbles from Neumann—who had only played once herself in the last 18 months (Southern California Open) due to the pandemic—let Sorenstam stretch the lead to no closer than five shots and walk the back nine stress-free.

“I couldn’t give her a fight,” Neumann said. “I felt like it was over after seven or eight.”

The crazy thing: It wasn’t like Brooklawn played easy. Only five players broke par for 72 holes. And yet Sorenstam seemed oblivious to the fact that A.W. Tillinghast’s meandering fairways and undulating greens brewed bogeys and doubles by the barrel.

Darren Carroll
Annika Sorenstam’s swing was reminiscent of her days as the dominant player in women’s golf.

For the week, Sorenstam made 18 birdies, leading that category but only by two over Neumann, Davies and Michele Redman. She made just six bogeys, however, keeping her misses to a minimum.

And then there was the usual Annika accuracy. She hit 60.71 percent of her fairways (ranking T-26) and 86.11 percent of her greens in regulation (first). And while shorter than she was two decades ago (aren’t we all), she was second in driving distance (238.1 yards) behind Davies’ 258.6.

Even when the outcome was no longer in doubt, Sorenstam was still grinding. When she burned the edge of the cup with birdies tries on the 11th and 12th holes, she winced in disappointment, as if she really expected every putt to drop.

Sure, Sorenstam was playing to win, but she was also playing more relaxed. Having Mike on the bag provided a calming influence. And with Ava and Will along for the walk—Annika giving Will a big hug during a wait on the 12th tee—there was a different vibe.

“There’s no doubt I’m in a different time in my life,” Sorenstam said. “I’m very happy with my family, and that’s what means the most. I have a distance now from golf. Every shot doesn’t mean as much as it used to, even though I care, but I know by the end of the day I’ve got them, I’ve got the support and I’m living my life. I’m not going to let shots bother me as much.”

“I’m glad she decided to come out to play,” Neumann said. “She motivated us all.”

There lies the rub: There was no need for Sorenstam to play again. Her legacy was just fine. Her last shot in a USGA championship was a holed-out eagle from 199 yards. It was a mic drop moment.

Darren Carroll
Annika shares the U.S. Senior Women’s Open trophy with her family: husband/caddie Mike McGee, son Will, and daughter Ava.

Now the future might have more championships ahead. Her Brooklawn win earns her an exemption into next year’s U.S. Women’s Open, which is being held at Pine Needles in Southern Pines, N.C. It’s a place Sorenstam knows a little something about, having won the second of her three U.S. Opens there in 1996 (by six shots!)

Sorenstam, who on Monday heads to Tokyo to watch the Olympic women’s tournament in her job as president of the International Golf Federation, played it coy when asked if she’d be in North Carolina next June. “You know, I’m not really sure,” she said. “Obviously I just want to enjoy this moment. Again, it’s been lots of months to prepare, lots of tournaments to play in to get ready for this. I’m still at a time in my life where my family comes first, and obviously my partners and some of the projects I have. I love to work on different things. To play in these big events just takes a lot of effort, so I want to continue to focus on my foundation, and we’ll see.”

If the family says yes again, Sorenstam no doubt will be fully committed. That’s just the way she is in everything she does.

And if they say no? “You know what, it’s not that important to me anymore,” Sorenstam said. “I’ve done that, and if they can’t be part of it and it’s not something we agree on, then certainly [I] won’t be playing.”

When the last question was asked and answered, Sorenstam met once more with Mike, Ava and Will, another embrace. “Don’t forget your trophy,” Will said. “Oh, I wouldn’t forget it,” Annika replied.

With that, Sorenstam had already put her mama hat back on. And it felt quite comfortable.

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By Kent Paisley
Solheim Cup captains Catriona Matthew and Pat Hurst are paired together at this week’s U.S. Senior Women’s Open for the first two rounds. They won’t be lacking for topics to discuss as the European and American team pictures sharpen into focus. Only three events — the ISPS Handa World Invitational, the Trust Scottish Open and the AIG Women’s British Open — remain before the Solheim qualifying period concludes on August 22, with the match at Inverness Club set for Labor Day weekend.

Hurst will have nine of her 12 players solidified after the final major of the 2021 season. Seven of them come from the U.S. Solheim Cup points list, the remaining two off the Rolex Rankings. It’s a change made by the U.S. Solheim Cup Committee in March, dropping from an original 10 automatic qualifiers to hand Hurst an additional captain’s pick.

World No. 1 Nelly Korda (579.5) and Danielle Kang (495.5) are perched far above the rest of their compatriots in U.S. qualifying. In third is Ally Ewing (290), who trails Kang by more than 200 points. Austin Ernst (263.5), Lexi Thompson (260.5) and Jessica Korda (256.5) are next, and all look to be set to wear red, white and blue come September. Megan Khang (238.5) is in a more precarious position at the seventh and final spot. Points are earned by top-20 finishes in ranking events and are doubled at the majors. Winning the Women’s British Open will earn a player 60 points.

Brittany Altomare (205 points) is sitting in eighth place in the points list, trailing Khang by 33.5 points. The 2019 Solheim veteran is the last player with more than 200 points, as assistant U.S. Solheim captain Angela Stanford (179.5) is in ninth place and Stacy Lewis is in 10th (173). Given how the points shake out, any player farther down the list—including Solheim veterans Lizette Salas (14th/145) and Angel Yin (15th/143.5)—would have to win at least two of the last three events, including the Women’s British Open to have any shot of sneaking off with the seventh and final spot from the points list.

As for the two players who make the U.S. team from the Rolex Rankings, Salas (24th) and Jennifer Kupcho (27th) currently hold those positions as of Monday’s updated rankings after the Amundi Evian Championship. Yealimi Noh (31st) is closest to catching Kupcho and serves as a reminder of how much potential volatility remains with a major left in the qualifying period. Noh soared 31 spots up the rankings following her third-place finish at Evian. Altomare (46th) is the next closest in the rankings, followed by Lewis (53rd).

After those nine spots are finalized, Hurst will have three captain’s picks to make. It’s currently an experience-laden roster, with Kupcho the only rookie. That’s a different dynamic than the 2019 American team, which had six rookies and narrowly lost to the Europeans, 14.5-13.5, at Gleneagles. It gives Hurst flexibility in terms of tapping another veteran (Yin, Marina Alex) or giving a first-timer (Noh, Amy Olson, Lauren Stephenson) an opportunity.

Matthew will know six players on her European team after the qualifying period concludes, two from a LET points list and four from the Rolex Rankings. She then has six captain’s picks, an increase from the original plan of four, an adjustment made in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic impacting playing schedules in 2020 and 2021.

Emily Kristine Pedersen (119.88) and Sanna Nuutinen (81.75) hold the top two positions of the LET ranking. As with the Americans, three events remain to earn LET Solheim points. Almost anyone with LET status in the field at the Women’s British Open at Carnoustie could surge into one of these two positions; a victory there is worth 80 LET Solheim points. LPGA players Nanna Koerstz Madsen (68.25) and Georgia Hall (56) are in fourth and sixth in LET Solheim points, respectively.

Richard Heathcote/R&A
Sophia Popov, by way of her lead in the Rolex Rankings, and Emily Kristine Pedersen, by way of her current lead in the LET points list, should be representatives for the European side at Inverness.

As for the four potential European players coming from the Rolex Rankings, Sophia Popov (26th), Carlota Ciganda (35th), Charley Hull (38th), and Mel Reid (40th) currently hold those positions. The closest chasers are Hall (43rd), Leona Maguire (50th), and Matilda Castren (52nd). Hall moved up 10 spots in the Rolex Rankings after a T-6 at the Evian.

Of the six current projected players on Team Europe, Matthew has two rookies in Nuutinen and Popov, which might influence her captain’s picks. Celine Boutier, Anne van Dam and Bronte Law were the three rookies Matthew had in 2019. Castren, a 26-year-old from Finland, recently earned LET status and with an LPGA win earlier this season is somebody Matthew is strongly considering should she not earn an automatic spot.

In her blog post to the LET’s website on July 23, Matthew shared her happiness with the quality of her potential players’ recent form.

“The players are certainly making it all tricky!” Matthew wrote. “It is great that we have so many players peaking and putting in those top performances.”

While not the instant prize in these last few events, the points races and roster jostling are set up for an exciting finish at the last major in golf this year.

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By Kent Paisley
Thirteen years since retiring from the LPGA Tour, Annika Sorenstam is still one of the most recognizable names in the game of golf. The decision to spend time with her family and chase other pursuits in the sport hasn’t prohibited the 72-time LPGA winner from maintaining her upper echelon status from outside the ropes. The World Golf Hall of Famer launched the ANNIKA Foundation in 2007, operates businesses in multiple facets of the game, from clothing to course design, and became the first female president of the International Golf Federation at the start of 2021.

Yet the competitor in Sorenstam never waned, which makes her debut at this week’s U.S. Senior Women’s Open, for which she became eligible upon turning 50 last October, both a foreseeable turn of events and an intriguing one at the same time. When the three-time U.S. Women’s Open champ tees it up Thursday at Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Conn., it will be her 18th career USGA championship, but the first since holing out a walk-off eagle from 199 yards on the 72nd hole of the 2008 U.S. Women’s Open at Interlachen.

“Honestly, I didn’t think I’d get another chance to play in a USGA event,” Sorenstam said. “This one wasn’t even around when I retired [the Senior Women’s Open was only added to the USGA calendar in 2018]. So it’s very exciting.”

The two biggest questions facing Sorenstam are also foreseeable and intriguing: How will she fare against her former peers and will this be a one-time appearance of something she’ll work into her schedule for years to come?

“I want to commit to the USGA, who has been so good to me throughout the years,” Sorenstam said of the latter. “[The 1995 Women’s Open] was my first win on the LPGA, so I wanted to be part and support this event. Then we’ll see. It’s like anything. Where do you want to spend your time, what’s important? We’ll see how it goes, how I feel at the end of the year.”

How she feels may well have a lot to do with how she finishes this week. She’s played in a handful of tournaments in 2021 to try and knock off the competitive rust. With memories of her dominant play in the 1990s and 2000s, it’s not hard to envision her name on the leader board this week. But that’s also asking a lot from a player who is far different from her former self.

“I’m trying not to put any expectations on myself,” Sorenstam said last month, acknowledging she’s lost a little length and accuracy over the years. “I just want to let things play out and enjoy the experience.”

In contemplating her future, Sorenstam is weighing the time the commitment to playing takes versus the benefit to the presence playing gives her in the sport. Her priority remains with her family and being a mom to her kids Ava, 11, and Will, 10. Unlike her LPGA career when golf was the only thing on her mind, Sorenstam has been able to squeeze roughly two hours of practice a day over the last few months ahead of this week’s championship. She’s only seen her swing coach once in preparation.

“I can get back on the bike,” Sorenstam said. “But you don’t just enter the Tour de France.”

Sorenstam has played in four events in 2021 in preparation for her U.S. Senior Women’s Open debut. Warren Little

Sorenstam’s stature as an all-time great in the game is secure. But by competing again, even in a limited capacity, she believes her connection with current players and teens who she serves as a mentor to is recharged.

“It makes me a little more relevant when it comes to my foundation and working with these young girls,” Sorenstam said. “Now I can talk about what it is inside the ropes, and not I used to do this, and used to do this. Now I’m doing it, right? It’s a little bit more.”

Sorenstam played in four tournaments this year to prepare for the Senior Women’s Open. She teed it up in the celebrity portion of the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in January, then made her first official LPGA start in 13 years at the Gainbridge LPGA in February, where she impressively made the cut before finishing 74th. In June, she competed in the Scandinavian Mixed on the Ladies European Tour, which she also hosted with Henrik Stenson (she missed the cut), and finished fourth earlier this month at the American Century Classic. Her decision to play as much as she did to prepare for another USGA championship came from the words her father, Tom, taught her growing up. “My dad told me a long time ago there is no short cuts to success,” Sorenstam said. “You really got to put in the work. Sunny days, rainy days, days you’re tired, you got to do that.”

The tournaments, meanwhile, provided plenty of evidence of the value of her presence as an active player. Sorenstam was grouped alongside Nelly Korda at the Diamond Resorts in the second round. The 22-year-old alum of the ANNIKA Foundation walked off the course in awe of Sorenstam’s play.

“It was really cool, honestly,” Korda said. “She still has it. She has her touch around the greens. It was honestly surreal.”

At the Gainbridge LPGA at Lake Nona Golf Club, where Sorenstam lives in Orlando, the tour grouped her with fellow swedes Madelene Sagstrom and Anna Nordqvist. Sorenstam’s aura amongst current players remained as bright as ever, with Nordqvist hiding no excitement about playing alongside the 10-time major champion.

“I admire her so much,” Nordqvist said, “And just to see her in person playing, I know she hasn’t been practising too much, but you can tell the level she’s been at. This is going to be definitely one of the more memorable rounds in my career.”

Sorenstam noticed the benefit to her presence, too. “I’m more alive with them,” she said, “I’m more active, I’m more relevant, rather than saying this is how I used to do. That was 13 years ago. Now I can say I’m in the mix.”

One of the most important parts of the Gainbridge LPGA was the impact it had on her family. Her play only helped fuel her son Will’s passion for the game. Each night, he would strategize with her how she should play each hole. Throughout Sorenstam’s preparation for her return to USGA play, Will has been his mom’s practice partner, with Sorenstam’s husband, Mike McGee, dropping him off after school.

“He challenges me,” Sorenstam said. “I help him along with his journey. The memories we have, it’s so, so much fun. I feel like I’m being a mom at the same time I’m working on my game, it’s really a good thing. We have so much fun.”

Annika Sorenstam practices her chipping with her son, Will, and husband, Mike, looking on prior to the final round of the Gainbridge LPGA in January. Julio Aguilar

Will takes Sorenstam on in putting and chipping competitions, and recently had his mom caddie for him in mid-July on the Tahoe Truckee Junior Tour. Sorenstam’s presence in golf is one of her greatest tools to teach her kids how to succeed, with words for them echoing her father’s advice to her.

“I want them to know what it takes to be good at something, right?” Sorenstam explained. “You don’t look up and just end up where we are. It takes a lot of commitment and sacrifices to achieve what you want to achieve.”

The biggest reason Sorenstam walked away from competitive golf might end up being her greatest reason to stay.

The post A unique motivation is fueling Annika Sorenstam’s first USGA start in 13 years appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Keely Levins
This is not a dream. Annika Sorenstam is in the field at the LPGA Tour’s next event: the LPGA Gainbridge, Feb. 25-28 in Orlando. She is a 72-time winner on the LPGA Tour, 10 of those majors, the only woman to shoot 59 on tour, and an eight-time player of the year—you get the idea: The GOAT is back.

Sorenstam, 50, played in the tour’s first event of 2021, the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, but competed in the celebrity division. The celebrities played a modified stableford format, and she finished ninth. At the time, Sorenstam said she was looking at playing some events on the Legends Tour (the women’s senior tour), though she was adamant that this wasn’t the first step towards an LPGA comeback. She also hoped to make her U.S. Senior Women’s Open debut in 2021, but the championship’s dates were moved to July 29-Aug. 1, putting it opposite of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Should the Games go on as planned, Sorensteam has to be in Japan because she’s president of the International Golf Federation.

She’s baaack! ?

72x Tour winner Annika Sörenstam is committed to play in the upcoming @GainbridgeLPGA. pic.twitter.com/1nfI9VdIc9

— LPGA (@LPGA) February 9, 2021

Sorenstam is in the field at the Gainbridge LPGA, and there are no caveats, no celebrity field this time. She’ll be playing against the best in the world at Lake Nona, her home course. The last time she played, and won, on tour was in 2008. At the end of that season, she retired.

“Schedule permitting, a goal for me this year is to compete in the U.S. Senior Women’s Open. And if I’m going to play my best later this summer, I really need to get some competitive reps under my belt,” Sorenstam said. “With the Gainbridge coming to my home club of Lake Nona, it just makes sense; our home literally looks at the 16th tee and it would be weird watching the girls playing without me being out there, too. I’m grateful there are spots in the field reserved for Hall of Famers and really excited that my kids and our friends at Lake Nona will be able to watch me compete in an LPGA event.”

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By Joel Beall
Golf fans are mostly grateful at Monday’s joint announcement from the game’s governing bodies, in which they offer hope that three of the four men’s majors and the Ryder Cup can still be played in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, as the sport does its best to salvage as many events as possible, more high-profile tournaments have become causalities of the schedule crunch.

At the forefront of these cancellations is the Open Championship. Four days after Golf Digest reported that the Open was not expected to be played this season, R&A chief executive Martin Slumbers officially announced the world’s oldest tournament had been called off for 2020.

“I can assure everyone that we have explored every option for playing the Open this year, but it is not going to be possible,” Slumbers said.

Slumbers later remarked it would have been “unreasonable” to “rely on the support of the emergency services, local authorities and a range of other organizations” given the demands of the COVID-19 outbreak. Conversely, part of the reason the championship is being cancelled—rather than postponed as is the case for the other three men’s majors—is because of insurance, a source told Golf Digest last week. Similar to Wimbledon, the R&A has a policy that shields against a global pandemic.

It marks the first time the Open will not have been played since 1945, when it was cancelled because of World War II. Slumbers said Royal St. George’s will now be the venue for the 2021 Open Championship and the Old Course at St. Andrews will host in 2022 rather than 2021. The Women’s British Open remains on the LPGA schedule, slotted for Aug. 20, while the R&A and USGA had already postponed this year’s Curtis Cup until 2021.

Next is the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. Although the Masters will be held in November, the club has decided it would have to wait until 2021 to follow up the event’s 2019 debut. “Ultimately, the many scheduling challenges with NCAA tournaments, the World Amateur Team Championships, the LPGA Q-Series and other events when women’s amateur golf resumes led to this decision,” Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley said in a statement.

Ridley did clarify that each player who accepted an invitation for the 2020 championship will be welcomed to compete in the 2021 Augusta National Women’s Amateur, provided they remain an amateur. That might mean increasing the field in 2021 beyond the 72 players expected to play this year.

Likewise, the USGA has scrubbed two of its majors, the U.S. Senior Open and U.S. Senior Women’s Open, for 2020. The 41st U.S. Senior Open had been scheduled for June 25-28 at Newport (R.I.) Country Club and now will be played at Omaha (Neb.) Country Club from July 8-11, 2021. The 3rd U.S. Senior Women’s Open, had been scheduled to take place July 9-12 at Brooklawn Country Club in Fairfield, Conn.

“Canceling this year’s Senior Open championships was a very difficult decision to make,” said USGA CEO Mike Davis. “Not only are they important pillars of our championship schedule, but we also value our relationships with both Newport Country Club and Brooklawn Country Club and were looking forward to staging incredible events there this summer. Given the ongoing health and safety issues related to COVID-19 and the significant consolidation of schedules into the back half of 2020, including the postponement of the U.S. Women’s Open and U.S. Open, we felt it necessary to make these unfortunate adjustments to our 2020 championship plans.”

The USGA’s first two scheduled championships for 2020, the U.S. Amateur Four-Ball and U.S. Women’s Amateur Fourball, were cancelled on March 17. The USGA stated it will continue to rely on CDC and WHO recommendations in determining schedule considerations for its remaining eight 2020 amateur championships. The U.S. Open at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, N.Y. has been postponed until Sept. 17; the U.S. Women’s Open, originally scheduled for June 4-7 at Champions Golf Club in Houston, will now be played Dec. 10-13.

The PGA of America announced last week that its Senior PGA Championship, scheduled for May 21-24 at Harbor Shores Resort in Benton Harbor, Mich., has been cancelled. “While we are incredibly disappointed, we all understand that protecting public health is the highest priority,” PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh said. For the moment, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is scheduled to go on as planned for June 25-28 at Aronimink in Newton Square, Pa.

The PGA Tour could see additional cancellations to its calendar, but as of now, the Tour has only announced it’s moving its regular-season finale, the Wyndham Championship, and all three FedEx Cup Playoff events one week later, starting the week of Aug. 10 and concluding with a Monday, Sept. 7 finish for the Tour Championship. The Tour is also working to reschedule tournaments into the weeks formerly occupied by the U.S. Open, British Open and men’s Olympic golf competition in June and July.

As for the European Tour, the Old World circuit released little information in the joint statement. The Scandinavian Mixed scheduled to begin June 11 and the D+D Real Czech Masters slotted for Aug. 20 have already been cancelled, but the European Tour only added more details about its schedule would be coming “of due course.”

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By John Strege
The inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open was a success by virtually every metric, notably the outcome coming down to the two players likely to have the best chance to win.

Euphoric best describes the general reaction to a championship that came up short only on drama. Laura Davies of England took a five-stroke lead into the final round at Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Ill., and turned it into a victory lap.

Davies, 54, a World Golf Hall of Fame member, posted a bogey-free round of five-under par 68 on Sunday to win by 10 over another Hall of Famer, 58-year-old Juli Inkster. Davies’ 72-hole score was 16-under par 276, while Inkster finished at six-under par 286.

“It’s great, seeing this thing paraded down for the very first time,” she said of the trophy. “And I get my name on it first. You know, this championship will be played for many years, and there will only be one first winner. Obviously, quite a proud moment for me to win that.”

Only two other players finished under par — Trish Johnson of England, who was third at four-under 288, and American Danielle Ammaccapane, at one-under 291.

Both Davies and Inkster have remained active on the LPGA, playing 12 and nine events, respectively, this year. But only Davies has been competitive, having tied for second in the Founders Cup and losing to Inbee Park, No. 1 in the Rolex Rankings. Inkster has missed the cut eight times.

Davies was now won 85 professional tournaments around the world, but this was her first since 2010. Inkster, meanwhile, has four Legends Tour victories, her most recent win coming last year.

“I haven’t won for eight years. The pressure you’re playing under when you’re trying to just do something for yourself, prove to yourself you can still win, this ranks high up there,” she said. “And obviously because it’s a USGA event, it’s hard to compare tournaments, but this is very high on my list of achievements, I can assure you.”

But Davies has retained much of the power she displayed in her prime; she ranks 28th on the LPGA in driving distance, at nearly 262 yards. It enabled her to dominate the five par fives at Chicago Golf Club, 14th in Golf Digest’s latest ranking of America’s 100 Greatest. She played them in 15-under par, including two eagles that offset two bogeys.

The outcome was not in doubt on Sunday. Davies birdied two of her first four holes and Inkster bogeyed two of them. The final blow for Inkster came when she missed the green and short-sided herself at the par-3 13th hole, then muffed her chip, leading to a double-bogey.

Amy Alcott, 62, a past U.S. Women’s Open champion and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, as so many others, were, was effusive in her praise of the championship. “It was very emotional seeing the USGA sign, because I’ve had such a long history, since my teens, playing in USGA championships,” she said after tying for 42nd. “I thought the week just came off beautifully. The USGA did a great job. It was just so classy how everything was done, this inaugural event and how was it presented.”

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With the U.S. Open firmly entrenched in its traditional spot during the week of Father’s Day, USGA officials are attempting to give the remainder of their Open championships a more permanent place on the calendar.

Beginning in 2019, the USGA will aim to hold its four Open events in a seven-week window starting in May and ending in early July.

Rather than begin their “championship” season with the U.S. Open, USGA officials will use the newly created U.S. Senior Women’s Open to kick things off. The tournament makes its formal debut in 2018 at Chicago Golf Club. While that event has already been slated for July, moving forward the aim will be to have it finish on the third Sunday in May.

After an off week corresponding to Memorial Day weekend, the USGA would come back and hold the U.S. Women’s Open, locking it in to conclude on the first Sunday in June. The Women’s Open has previously floated around on the calendar, being held anywhere between June and August. This year’s event at Trump Bedminister is scheduled for July 13-16.

The USGA would take another off week, followed by hosting the men’s Open, in its usual spot, then would hold the U.S. Senior Open either one or two weeks later, depending on how the July 4 holiday falls.

Mike Butz, the USGA senior managing director, Open Championships, said that the addition of the Senior Women’s Open seemed an appropriate time to evaluate the schedule.

“It gave us a chance to say, ‘Let’s take a step back and look at what makes sense moving forward,’ ” Butz said.

Save for the Senior Women’s Open, the schedule will be essentially in place for 2018. The U.S. Women’s Open is set for Shoal Creek May 31-June 3, the U.S. Open will be at Shinnecock Hills two weeks later and the U.S. Senior Open will be at the Broadmoor from June 28-July 1.

Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images

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