Jul 5, 2002 5 min read

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) – If there’s history to be made at this U.S. Women’s Open, it won’t come from Karrie Webb. Bidding to become the first woman to win three straight Opens, Webb was blown away by hot afternoon winds and wound up with her worst round in seven years on the LPGA Tour, a 9-over 79 that left her hopeful only of playing on the weekend.

“I’m pretty shocked,” Webb said. “I felt like I hadn’t been on the course.”

Juli Inkster played like she owned it.

Inkster, who won her first of three straight U.S. Women Amateur titles at Prairie Dunes in 1980, birdied four of the first six holes and finished with a 3-under 67 to share the lead with fellow American Laura Diaz and Shani Waugh of Australia.

Inkster, 42, is trying to become the oldest champion of the Women’s Open. Fay Crocker was 40 years, 11 months when she won in 1955.

“It’s always important to have a good first round just to get yourself in the ball game,” Inkster said. “A lot of times, I try so hard that I’m always trying to dig myself out of a hole. Now, I feel like I’m off and running.”

Annika Sorenstam, playing in the same group as Inkster, felt like she was running in place. Three straight bogeys on the back nine dropped her back to even-par 70 – not a bad day, but the Swede was expecting more because of the benign conditions in the morning.

By late afternoon, the sun began to bake the greens and a blustery wind made scoring even more difficult.

Only six players finished the first round under par. Kim Saiki had a bogey-free 68, while Lorie Kane of Canada and Catriona Matthew of Scotland were at 69.

Se Ri Pak, who won the LPGA Championship on a difficult course last month, bogeyed three of her first seven holes and closed with two straight bogeys in a round of 74. She was paired with Webb, and both headed straight to the range.

Webb had an 8-over 79 in the LPGA Championship five years ago. Her previous worst score in a U.S. Open was a 7-over 78 at Blackwolf Run in 1998.

The crushing hole for the 27-year-old Aussie was the par-3 4th, where she hit into a bunker, blasted over the green and into waist-high weeds, had to drop back into the bunker after declaring it unplayable, and walked off with triple bogey.

Inkster didn’t drive the ball particularly well, but a perfect pace on her putts allowed her to seize control early and stay there on a hot and humid day.

“Hopefully, we didn’t see the tamest day,” Inkster said.

That might be asking for too much. She tees off in the afternoon on Friday, and could find an entirely different course.

That’s what made the first round so important, and why Sorenstam was so disappointed, even though she was just three strokes out of the lead.

It was the 17th consecutive round in which the 31-year-old Swede failed to break 70 in the Women’s Open, dating to the final round of her second straight victory in 1996.

A 70 was a solid score, only Sorenstam had reason to expect much more. She tied Inkster for the lead at 3-under after making a 6-foot birdie on the par-3 10th, but then used the putter 18 times over the final eight holes.

If she wasn’t knocking her putts 8 feet by, she was coming up 4 feet short.

“My pace of putts … I kind of lost feel there for a little bit and it cost me a few shots,” Sorenstam said. “I’m still right there. I can’t complain. It’s probably the best start I’ve had in a while, so I can smile about that.”

Diaz played in the group behind, and also had reason to smile. This is only her third Women’s Open, and she has never made it to the weekend.

She hit a 4-iron into 5 feet on 13 to get to 1-under, then had to work too hard for a birdie on the next hole – her wedge hit the base of the pin and bounced back 25 feet, but Diaz holed the putt.

Diaz hit 9-iron into 3 feet on the 500-yard 17th for another birdie that gave the United States another leader on Independence Day. Diaz played the part, wearing a red, white and blue ribbon in her hair and painting her fingernails blue with stars.

Inkster and Waugh were each at 4-under until making bogey on the last hole. Inkster’s ball was in a small depression in the first cut of rough on No. 18, and her sand wedge came out a little thick and landed short of the green.

Waugh birdied four of the first seven holes on her back nine, but she three-putted from about 60 feet on No. 9 to drop out of the lead.

“I come here not expecting a whole lot, and I think that helps me,” said Waugh, who has yet to win an LPGA Tour event. “Any time you shoot under par in a U.S. Open, I think you should be a little surprised.”

The biggest surprise was the weather, which has been different every day.

With so little wind, Sorenstam turned to her caddie at one point and said, “Are we still in Kansas?” And no, she wasn’t wearing her red shoes that caused such a stir when she won the first major of the year at the Nabisco Championship.

Inkster felt like she was playing a different course than the one she played earlier in the week in rain and high winds.

“All of a sudden you get out there and the wind isn’t blowing much,” she said. “You’re thinking, ‘Do I have the right club?’ But I felt like there were some birdies out there. You’ve just got to get the ball in the right place.”

By the end of the day, no one knew that better than Webb.