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Inkster ready for 'marathon'

LPGA Hall of Famer keeps the leaders in sight at the season's second major.

By BOB HARIG

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 1, 2001

SOUTHERN PINES, N.C. -- In a Hall of Fame career that has seen her win every major championship, Juli Inkster never has celebrated victory after the first round. But she has known the feeling of defeat so early in the tournament.

That is why she played cautiously on Thursday at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club during the first day of the U.S. Women's Open, hoping to navigate her way around the difficult 6,256-yard course with a game she described as lacking championship form.

And it also is why she figures it was a goal worth achieving.

"Four rounds is a lot of golf. It's a marathon," said Inkster, 40, a six-time major-championship winner. "The first-round lead doesn't mean anything. Fifty-four more holes on this course is a lot of golf.

No slight to co-leaders Cindy Figg-Currier or A.J. Eathorne. But they have one LPGA Tour title between them. Inkster has 26.

This simply was a day to keep them in sight, play the course. That's how defending champion Karrie Webb approached it. Same for pretournament favorite Annika Sorenstam. They managed to keep themselves in the tournament on a day when just nine players broke par 70.

Figg-Currier, an 18-year tour veteran with one victory, shot 3-under-par 67. Eathorne, a former Canadian Amateur champion, got a share of the lead despite hitting just nine greens in regulation.

Inskter, who won the U.S. Women's Open two years ago, shared the lead until a three-putt bogey at the 17th. Not that she was complaining.

"I just didn't feel that comfortable," said Inkster, who took the last two weeks off for family obligations after winning the Electrolux USA Championship. "I just didn't want to throw a high number in there. I played very smart, played with a lot of patience, because I wasn't really driving the ball well."

Inkster was tied at 68 with Jill McGill and South Korea's Mi Hyun Kim, a three-time tour winner who has twice lost in playoffs this year.

The only other players under par were 1998 Open champion Se Ri Pak, amateur Stephanie Keever, Cristie Kerr and Dina Ammaccapane. They were at 69.

Sorenstam and Webb matched par, three shots back. And Sorenstam was mightly glad to be there.

The winner of five tournaments this year and the last Open played at Pine Needles in 1996, Sorenstam, 30, had some rough moments, including a shank on the 14th hole that led to double bogey. But she fought back.

"I wanted to keep going," Sorenstam said. "I feel like I'm hitting it just right."

Webb gave herself several birdie opportunities, only to see putts skim the cup..

"I felt just as nervous on the first tee as I did five years ago (in her first U.S. Open)," Webb said. "But I think I've learned to deal with those nerves and make that a positive thing instead of a negative."

Figg-Currier, 41, never has quite figured out this tournament. She has missed the cut eight times in 11 appearances, with her best finish a tie for 26th. But she birdied three of her last five holes.

Eathorne took advantage of the first tee time of the day, birdied the first hole, added another at the 12th and the 17th. She made no bogeys.

"I definitely have to kiss the putter. There was a lot of scrambling around," said Eathorne, 24, in her fourth year on tour. "I don't think I ever expected my name to be up there. But I'm very pleased and very happy that it's there. And I'll do everything I can to keep it there."

So will Inkster, even without her best stuff.

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