It would be easy to say we’re at the midpoint of the 151 st annual British Open Golf Championship at the Hoylake Golf Course at Royal Liverpool, but by the time you start to read this on Saturday morning, the golfers who made the cut will be well into their third rounds due to the time difference in England. Although the past two days have taught us that Royal Liverpool is a very quirky golf course, that hasn’t impacted past leader boards. The last time the Open Championship was contested at Hoylake, Rory McIlroy was the champion. Prior to that, it was Tiger Woods during his heyday. Other past Liverpool Open champions include Hall of Famers Roberto de Vincenzo, Peter Thomson, Walter Hagen, and amateur great Bobby Jones.
By the time the Open concludes on Sunday, we can expect the eventual champion to be a golfer of note.
Quirky? In-course out of bounds stakes could impact the Open on the back nine. The 18th hole could be a safe par five with two lay-up shots, or an aggressive effort to go for the green in two by driving over the in course out of bounds stakes. You could have a putt for an eagle three or misjudge the wind and struggle to make a double bogey seven. The dynamics of the last four holes could very well determine the Open Championship with a four or five stroke swing.
The Women’s U.S. Open at the iconic Pebble Beach Golf Links that concluded two weeks ago was anything but quirky as the course rewarded the professional golfer who combined quality ball striking with a superior short game. The Women’s Open champion was Allisen Corpuz, a Hawaiian born 20-something who contends that she greatly benefitted from her collegiate days at USC. Regardless of what Allisen did to get to this moment, her four days on the notoriously small Pebble Beach greens was due to super strong iron play. She hit more greens in regulation that her fellow competitors on the leader board and she was second overall when it came to hitting the greens from 150 to 175 yards out. Welcome to the Women’s U.S. Open…Corpuz was cool, calm, and collected during the final two days at Pebble. It was all about fairways and greens and her lead was pretty secure on Sunday afternoon when she found herself four strokes up with just three holes to go. Corpuz ended up beating out Charley Hull of England by three strokes. Yet Allisen’s bio is one that would have led you to believe that winning a women’s major for your first LPGA victory was a bit of a stretch. Thing is, Allisen Corpuz is not alone.
When Corpuz tapped in her final putt on the 18 th green, she became the 20 th winner of an LPGA major championship over the course of the last 21 grand slam tournaments. I don’t know but maybe we’re talking about true tour balance. Perhaps there are a great number of women competing on the world-wide LPGA Tour who are capable of winning a big time grand slam event. True the LPGA Tour has its share of known stars such as Lydia Ko, Nelly Korda, Jennifer Kupcho, Brooke Henderson, and Lexi Thompson, but their career resumes don’t exactly measure up to some of the LPGA stars of the past.
It’s not fair to compare eras when one considers changes in money, equipment, travel, college golf, and the status of women in society. Nonetheless the top three winners of grand slam tournaments are from the earliest days of the LPGA Tour. Patty Berg won 18 majors, Mickey Wright took home 13 grand slam victories, and Louise Suggs had 11. The last member of this gifted trio to win a major was Wright way back in 1966. Babe Didrickson Zaharias won 10 majors during a career that was cut short by her untimely passing in 1956. If you ended up winning six majors during the duration of your days on the LPGA Tour, then you just so happen to find yourself ranked among the game’s top 10.
Among those golfers with six or more majors, only a few are familiar to golf fans of the modern era. Annika Sorenstam won 10 majors during a 12 year period from 1995 through 2006. Annika is now past her 50th birthday and is largely a ceremonial golfer. She did play at Pebble Beach but missed the cut. Juli Inkster, originally from Santa Cruz, won a total of seven majors. Her final one was in 2002. Australian Karrie Webb also won seven majors although her last trip to grand slam victory lane was in 2006. South Korean Inbee Park is the most successful woman to accumulate majors in the 21 st century. She too has seven.
In Gee Chun has won three major titles over the past eight years. Anna Nordqvist of Sweden also has three majors on her golfing resume, but they are 12 years apart. She most recently won the 2021 Women’s British Open. After that it’s a bevy of two time major champions including New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, Brooke Henderson of Canada, Australian Minjee Lee, American Stacey Lewis, and Korean S.H. Park.
On the men’s side of the equation, Tiger Woods has 15 majors and Phil Mickelson has six. Both are well into the back nine of their careers. Yet if we simply look at the career accomplishments of today’s stars, Brooks Koepka, this year’s PGA champion, has five major wins. Irishman Rory McIlroy has won four majors although the last one was nine years ago. Jordan Spieth has three major titles. McIlroy is one Masters’ win away and Spieth is a PGA Championship victory short of the career grand slam. John Rahm, Collin Morikawa, and Justin Thomas have picked up two majors apiece in the last five years. Then again, after that there
isn’t anyone else on the men’s PGA Tour sitting on a pile of major championship hardware.
Several weeks ago we discussed how hard it is to win a major title. Whether you’re on the PGA Tour or the LPGA Tour, three or more grand slam titles makes for a top notch career. Yet I think the perceived balance on the LPGA Tour is somewhat hurtful. Common fans of the game who only watch the Masters or the U.S. Open know a little bit of something about Brooks or Rory or Jordan. However outside of Lydia or Nelly, I’m definitely not sure the common fan knows all that much about women’s professional golf. Maybe it’s only a matter of time before Brooke or Lexi or Saso or Georgia hoist a majors’ trophy for the fourth or fifth time, but right
now it could simply be a matter or balance or depth. Regardless of the interpretation, American Allisen Corpuz is the 2023 Women’s U.S. Open champion, winning at Pebble Beach.
