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Webb Feat Dominating the field in a Tiger-like fashion, Karrie Webb won her third major at the women's U.S. OpenBy Michael Bamberger Issue date: July 31, 2000
Their similarities are uncanny. Webb is 25 and lives in Florida. Woods is 24 and lives in Florida. Both won Rookie of the Year awards in 1996 and Player of the Year awards in 1999. Both have swings that are wide and powerful, rooted in classical moves but utterly modern. Both have a remarkable capacity for work and a healthy ability to get away from the game. Both know how to peak. It's their ultimate weapon. Woods has won each of the four men's professional major championships. Webb has won three of the four for women. On Sunday, she won the 55th U.S. Women's Open by five shots -- that's still considered a lot in any tournament Tiger's not entered in, by the way -- over Meg Mallon and Cristie Kerr, who turned pro at 18 and is starting to come into her own at age 22. The ability to win golf tournaments when you most want to and when you most need to does not fall under that vague and mushy sports-speak category called "mental toughness." It involves something far more ancient and meaty and noble: resolve. The week began inauspiciously for Webb. Her inaugural tee shot in Thursday morning's first round was a pull-hook that finished in the rough, 10 yards in back of a spindly tree just wide enough to block her route to the green. In public, Webb speaks in the monotone of a shy person who does not want her emotional life invaded. On the golf course, she cannot hide. As she stood over her ball, her tight lips and burning cheeks and hard practice swings gave you a good hint at the words running through her head: What's this damn tree doing in my way? She had to play an approach shot to the right of the green, and from there she pitched on and two-putted for a bogey. Not the start she had in mind. But after the round, she revealed why she is a golfing genius and why she does not need the services of a sports psychologist. "You have to remember that you have 71 holes to go," she said. "If you lose your patience on the first hole, you might as well go back to the clubhouse and get a flight home." That spindly tree -- someday it will assume its rightful place as a first-hole irritant and buffer between the hole and the adjacent upscale housing development -- was a reminder that Merit is not one of the old USGA standbys, that it is not an Oakmont or a Broadmoor or a Cherry Hills. It is a sound and fair golf course, expertly conditioned, with firm fairways, fast greens and rough that last week was penal without being unplayable. For all four days the tournament enjoyed the most beautiful weather you can imagine, better even than the weather in St. Andrews! What Merit lacked was charm, history, eccentricity, excitement. Dr. Trey Holland, president of the USGA, was at the Old Course for the first two rounds of the British Open, flew from Glasgow to Chicago on Saturday and on Sunday was walking with the last pairing, Webb and Mallon. He wore a white button-down USGA shirt and a navy-blue Royal & Ancient vest over it. He said only nice things about the Merit Club -- he was being both honest and diplomatic -- but acknowledged that his organization has struggled to get the great American clubs with storied courses to take the women's U.S. Open in the middle of summer. "It would be exciting," he said, "but it's hard to work out." Few people thought the timing of the women's 2000 Open, opposite a British Open at St. Andrews, was ideal. It happened because the Open needed some separation from the Advil Western Open, a PGA Tour stop played in early July in Lemont, Ill. Once that decision was made, a few TV executives came up with the theory that coinciding with the men's tournament would be a good thing for the women's tour, that American TV viewers -- the greatest couch potatoes in the world -- would watch the British Open in the morning, break for lunch, then watch the women in the afternoon. Interesting theory, but the numbers didn't support it. The overnight ratings indicated that the women got no bounce from the British Open. You couldn't really engage Webb in a conversation about the venue or the timing of the event or even Tiger. She had other things on her mind, like winning. She opened with a 69, three under par and one behind Mallon, and was still a stroke behind her after both women shot par in the second round. On Saturday, Webb closed the deal, or so it seemed. She shot a businesslike 68, four under par, without doing anything spectacular. Mallon, much beloved and befreckled, could manage only a 73, and she trailed Webb by four. Nobody else was really in the picture. Around the clubhouse and in the parking lot, Webb's competitors talked about Webb in a way that brought to mind Tiger's competitors talking about Tiger. Mallon, winner of the 1991 U.S. Open, focused on Webb's ability to "smell blood and go in for the kill," although the numbers don't totally bear her out. Before last week, Webb had led 20 events going into the final round and had won 12 of them. A good record, but nothing to make you want to pack your bags early. Still, Webb was praised widely, and you had the feeling the players, without knowing it, were trying to keep pace with the praise Woods was receiving at St. Andrews. "She's the most competitive person out here," said Beth Daniel, one of Webb's close friends. "If you go out to dinner, she'll try to beat you back to the hotel, like it's a race." And then an odd thing happened on Sunday. Webb came out nervous, unsure about her club selections, tentative with her putts. Through six holes, she was one over for the day and Mallon was even, and the margin was three strokes. On the 7th hole, a downhill, cross-breeze par-3 playing at 155 yards, Webb struggled to settle on a club, hemmed and hawed about starting a backswing and finally pulled her tee ball into the water. She made a double bogey. Mallon made a par, and the difference was one shot. Then came the smelling of blood and the making of a kill. Webb played the remaining 11 holes in nine pars and two birdies, and Mallon, tripping on her balky putter, was never again in range. "I had to remember," Webb said later, "that I was still leading." She closed with a birdie, reaching the par-5 18th with two prodigious whacks, and finished with a 73. In victory, she cried. This is known because she actually removed her wraparounds and revealed her eyes, which were filled with life. Her winner's check was for $500,000. (Last year's winner, Juli Inkster, took home $315,000. This year she finished 23rd, closing with an 80.) Webb's name goes on a trophy along with those of Patty Berg, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Betsy Rawls, Mickey Wright, Betsy King and Annika Sorenstam. Webb won last year's du Maurier Classic and this year's Nabisco Championship, and now needs only the McDonald's LPGA Championship to complete a career Grand Slam. Her victory at the Merit Club gives her enough points to qualify automatically for the LPGA Hall of Fame. All she needs is the requisite number of years on tour -- 10. She's halfway there. Getting into the Hall of Fame has been a life's dream for Webb. "Everything from now on is a bonus for me," she said. A. Sorenstam took the prize for low Sorenstam (tied for ninth, nine strokes back of Webb but seven in front of Charlotta, who finished 27th); Mi Hyun Kim, listed at 5'1", took the prize for low Korean (tied for fourth, ahead of the nine other Koreans in the field); Beth Daniel took the prize for low fortysomething-year-old (tied for eighth, at 43); and Naree Wongluekiet took the prize for low amateur and low 14-year-old (40th). Naree's twin sister, Aree, who finished tied for 10th in the Nabisco Championship, wasn't at the Open. She was in La Jolla, Calif., winning the Junior World Championships by 10 shots. You're looking for the next Tigers? They're already making noise. At the awards ceremony, Webb worried that she may have mispronounced the family name -- she probably realizes that it wouldn't be smart to do anything to antagonize those girls. Webb should be safe for a few years, anyway. Inkster, who is 40, has suggested to friends that she'll start cutting back her schedule next year to 15 events, about 10 fewer than she is likely to play this year. Laura Davies, who tied for ninth last week, and Se Ri Pak, who finished 15th, will still have their weeks, but neither has shown herself to be in the class of Webb. Sorenstam is her main competition. She has won five times this year, including once in a playoff over Webb. She won twice in the two weeks coming into the Open but evidently peaked too early and is No. 2 on the money list again. "I gave her a pretty good run, and she's answered back," Sorenstam said on Sunday. "I need to go home and practice a little harder." In victory Webb showed her subtle wit and indomitable competitiveness, too. Late on Sunday afternoon, somebody reminded her that Woods needed six attempts to win the U.S. Open and that Webb had needed only five. She smiled, licked her right index finger and made a notch mark in the air. That's how she does her best public speaking: with actions. In Port St. Lucie, Fla., Mickey Wright did just what the TV executives hoped the rest of the country would do. She watched Tiger in the morning, mesmerized, and Karrie in the afternoon, deeply impressed. Wright won four U.S. Opens, the same number as Betsy Rawls. Nobody has won more. "She could break that record," Wright said. "From everything I've seen, she certainly could." One down, four more to go. Things that used to seem ridiculous no longer do. The old marks in golf are reachable again. It's a brand new day. In the clubhouse Webb's competitors talked about Webb in a way that brought to mind Tiger's competitors talking about Tiger. "Karrie's the most competitive person out here," says Daniel. "If you go to dinner, she'll try to beat you back to the hotel, like it's a race." Issue date: July 31, 2000
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