Wisconsin Golfer - January/February 2012

Jackie Pung came close to winning the Women’s Open in 1953, where she lost an 18-hole playoff to Betsy Rawls, but this one really hurt. Pung, a native of Hawaii, was disqualified after the championship in one of golf’s most infamous scoring errors.

Pung looked to be the champion at Winged Foot GC when she walked off the 18th green, but about 40 minutes later she was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. Pung had shot a 3-under-par 72 in the final round, and that’s the score for which she signed. But her score on the par- 5 fourth hole was recorded – by marker and playing partner Betty Jameson – as a 5 when she had actually made bogey 6.

Pung’s mistake allowed Betsy Rawls, who shot 299 for the week, to claim the third of her four U.S. Women’s Open titles. Pung’s score was 298, until she was disqualified.

“This time I thought I'd won. But I didn’t,” Pung said later in a Sports Illustrated story. “Golf is played by rules, and I broke a rule. I've learned a lesson. And I have two broad shoulders ...”

RULES SNAFU 1957
“THE BABE’S” FINEST HOUR 1954

Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias was one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century, regardless of gender, and the 1954 Open may have been her finest moment.

Already a two-time winner of the cham-
pionship (1948, ’50) and a founding mem-
ber of the LPGA, Zaharias won the 1954
Open several months after undergoing
colon surgery. She waged a public battle
with cancer after being diagnosed with the
disease in 1953.

NO. 4 FOR WRIGHT 1964

Mickey Wright joined Betsy Rawls as the only four-time winners of the Women’s Open with her win at San Diego CC in 1964. In doing so, Wright completed a miraculous run in the event, with four titles in a seven-year window (1958-64).

Wright won No. 4 with a round of 70 in the 18-hole playoff over Ruth Jensen, who shot 72.

The win was the 12th major championship of Wright’s fabulous career. Her 13th, and last, came two years later when Wright won the 1966 Women’s Western Open – then an LPGA major – at Rainbow Springs CC in Mukwonago.

2011

So Yeon Ryu is the defending champion.

Waukesha native Lauri Merten joined a short list of Wisconsinites who have won a USGA championship with her come-from-behind victory in 1993 at Crooked Stick GC in Indiana. Merten, whose family moved to Arizona when she was a child, won three LPGA titles before retiring from competitive golf.

The biggest of those came at the ‘93 Open, where she shot a final round 68 that allowed her to catch and pass third-round leader Helen Alfredsson for the win. Merten still shares the record with five other players for the largest final-round comeback (five strokes) by a Women’s Open champion.

Merten, 33 at the time, completed her 4-

MERTEN’S MIRACLE 1993

under-par 68 with a 3-foot birdie putt on the 18th green that sent her to the clubhouse as the leader at 4 under par. Then she had to wait and watch for the next hour to see if anyone could match her. No one did. Alfredsson and Donna Andrews settled for runner-up honors at 3 under.

“I just hit some shots that I’ll probably never hit again,” Merten said of her precision play in the final round.

THREE-HOLE PLAYOFF 2011

Twenty-one-year-old So Yeon Ryu won the first three-hole aggregate playoff in Women’s Open history at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, Colo., beating fellow Korean Hee Kyung Seo by three strokes.

This championship also seemed to bring full circle the influence of Korean players on the LPGA Tour, begun by Pak in 1998 at Blackwolf Run. South Koreans – including Birdie Kim in 2005, Inbee Park in ‘08 and Eun-Hee Ji in ’09 – have won four of the last seven Women’s Opens.

Among the players who ran out on the 18th green to douse Ryu with champagne was her hero Pak. Afterward, Ryu admitted she began taking golf seriously following Pak’s win in 1998. That event, she said, was a key moment in her switch from playing the violin to pursuing golf.