Drama at the Open, the U.S. Women’s Open

by Jeff Skinner

Last Sunday at Pinehurst there was plenty of complaining about the lack of drama as Martin Kaymer ran away with the U.S. Open title. Today will be quite different.

The U.S. Women’s Open is primed to give us plenty of drama. Big names, no names, old names, young names…we have them all at the top of the leaderboard.

Michelle Wie and Amy Yang are tied for the lead at two under par and the only two players under par. But nine players are within five strokes of the lead and today’s final round could be one for the ages.

Wie started the third round with a three stroke lead but surrendered it after her two over 72, her worst round of the championship. So Korea’s Amy Yang charged into a tie with Wie after a very impressive 68.

But the low round of the day, actually the low round of the championship, came from an unlikely source: 53 year old Juli Inkster. Playing in her 35th and last U.S. Open, Inkster shot a sizzling 66 which got her to +2 only four off the lead. 

Eighteen year old amateur, Minjee Lee is looking to make history in a big way.  She would be the youngest player ever to win a major and the first amateur to win the U.S. Open since 1967.

Stephanie Meadow, from Northern Ireland by way of the University of Alabama is also at +2 and is doing so in her professional debut. What a way to start a career.

Na Yeon Choi has been here before. The 2012 U.S. Open winner at Blackwolf Run is also at +2 and another considerable threat.

Wie is as popular a player as there is in women’s golf. She is in the midst of a resurgence and is playing the best golf her career. She is playing with a new confidence and a win here would crystallize a career that has been in the making for ten years even though she’s only 24.

Yang has a great record in major championships with nine top tens since 2009 and would continue her country’s grip on the championship. Five of the last six winners have come from South Korea.

The feel good story of the week, since Lucy Li is gone, has to be Juli Inkster. She’ll turn 54 on Tuesday, is playing kids more than half her age and will captain many of these women at the 2015 Solheim Cup.

Inkster has said this is her last Open and she could be going out in style. The ’99 & ’02 U.S. Open Champion has already crafted a Hall of Fame career with 40 professional wins and seven major titles.

Could Wie finally break through? Could Yang continue the South Korean dominance? Can Meadow start her career with the biggest win ever? Will Lee become the youngest winner?  Does Inkster set the world on its ear and become the oldest major winner in history?

Leave it to the women to bring all the drama to Pinehurst.