Speaker 1: This episode of Frida Egg Stories is brought to you
Speaker 1: by the US Women's Open for the first time in
Speaker 1: its history. The US Women's Open will be held at
Speaker 1: the Iconic Olympic Club in San Francisco. Tune in June
Speaker 1: third through the sixth to watch history unfold and find
Speaker 1: out who we'll get to call themselves the greatest in
Speaker 1: the game. You can find scores and all sorts of
Speaker 1: fun content on US Women's Open dot com.
Speaker 2: The fried Egg requires a different technique. What you need
Speaker 2: to do is actually square the face so they'll dig
Speaker 2: down underneath that bad lie and propel that ball right
Speaker 2: out onto the green.
Speaker 3: Here's the thing.
Speaker 4: Playing out of a buried lion of bunker is completely
Speaker 4: different than playing out of a nice clean lion of
Speaker 4: green side bunker.
Speaker 5: You need to be aggressive on any show weather it's
Speaker 5: sitting cleanly for its Friday Egg.
Speaker 6: Well, we've all faith that the dreaded Frida Egg not
Speaker 6: to be feared, though it's actually a pretty easy shot
Speaker 6: to hit.
Speaker 1: Where at half Moon Bay Golf Links it is about
Speaker 1: seven thirty in the morning. Half Moon Bay is a
Speaker 1: little town on the coast of California between San Francisco
Speaker 1: and Santa Cruz. It's known as the home of this
Speaker 1: terrifying surf spot called Mavericks, where earlier this year a
Speaker 1: guy named Peter Mel caught maybe the greatest big wave
Speaker 1: of all time, just this massive, perfectly formed tube that
Speaker 1: Mel rode in the most daring way possible. And what
Speaker 1: made it even more incredible is that Peter Mel is
Speaker 1: fifty one years old, way past his supposed prime, but
Speaker 1: for about twenty seconds on that monster near half Moon Bay,
Speaker 1: he was ageless. Golf is obviously a less dangerous sport,
Speaker 1: but like surfing, it can feel like a battle against nature,
Speaker 1: whether that's Earth in the elements or your own unreliable
Speaker 1: aging body. It's late April and the reason I'm att
Speaker 1: half Moon Bay Golf Links is for a qualifying tournament.
Speaker 1: Seventy three players have registered and the top three after
Speaker 1: thirty six holes will get to play in the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one US Women's Open at Olympic Club in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: Halfombay doesn't have a driving range, so everyone's doing what
Speaker 1: they can with a little practice area, putting green, couple
Speaker 1: of chipping greens. It's very much a mixed crowd. You've
Speaker 1: got some juniors, some college players, got a few tour pros.
Speaker 1: But suddenly a very familiar face appears. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: just curious what you were hoping from the day. Were
Speaker 1: what you were thinking about just in that moment, right
Speaker 1: before you started your first round of the day.
Speaker 5: Just stairways and greens. Try to as many stairways and
Speaker 5: greens as I could.
Speaker 1: That's Julie Inkster, California native Hall of Famer, seven times
Speaker 1: major champion. The last of her two US Women's Open
Speaker 1: titles came nineteen years ago at Prairie Dunes. And here
Speaker 1: she is at half Moon Bay, trying to qualify at
Speaker 1: the age of sixty and here playing partners. They're a
Speaker 1: little younger. One is sixteen years old and the other
Speaker 1: is fifteen. I'm Garrett Morrison, and this is Friday Stories
Speaker 1: on today's episode. A story of generations coming together at
Speaker 1: a US Women's Open qualifier, but also a story of
Speaker 1: USGA qualifying as an institution and an idea what it
Speaker 1: means to the players and to American golf. So the
Speaker 1: qualifying process, whether it's for the Open Championship or the
Speaker 1: US Open, it's one of those things that bubbles up
Speaker 1: into the golf fans consciousness. Maybe a couple of times
Speaker 1: a year, you know, when somebody famous gets through, or
Speaker 1: somebody really young or really old. But championship qualifiers are
Speaker 1: sneakily some of the most dramatic tournaments in all of golf.
Speaker 1: The stakes are very high and very clear. Place in
Speaker 1: the top three or the top five or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: and you'll suddenly be in the field for one of
Speaker 1: the biggest tournaments in the world. So going to this
Speaker 1: US Women's Open qualifier at half Moon Bay was about
Speaker 1: seeing that kind of drama, seeing how Julie Inkster fared,
Speaker 1: how her teenage playing partners dealt with it all. But
Speaker 1: it was also about finding out why the qualifier is
Speaker 1: important in the world of golf, what its meaning is,
Speaker 1: what its value is. So first I talk to the
Speaker 1: person who kind of oversees the whole system, Grett. How's
Speaker 1: it gone, John? It's been a mad dash of a day,
Speaker 1: that's John Bodenhammer.
Speaker 4: I have the privilege of serving as Senior Managing Director
Speaker 4: of Championships for the USJA.
Speaker 1: And John has his own history as a qualifying hopeful.
Speaker 7: As a young boy growing up, it was always my
Speaker 7: dream to play in the USO.
Speaker 4: After picking the range and cleaning the carts the club
Speaker 4: I grew up at, I would always play the first
Speaker 4: three holes home, you know, whether it was a thirty
Speaker 4: footer or fifteen footer or a three footer that putt
Speaker 4: as the sun.
Speaker 7: Was going down. It was always for one thing for
Speaker 7: me was to win the US Open.
Speaker 4: And I think for about ten or twelve years, I
Speaker 4: always tried to qualify for the USO local sectional. I
Speaker 4: got sexual qualifying in those days it's now final qualifying twice,
Speaker 4: and I got within one stroke of a playoff in
Speaker 4: nineteen eighty two to play at Pebble Beach and a
Speaker 4: teammate of mine, Dick Zochel, and a gentleman, a good
Speaker 4: player in the Pacific Northwest in the Seattle aera at
Speaker 4: that time, Elwen Fanning qualified and I missed that playoff
Speaker 4: by one stroke. But it always was an inspiration to
Speaker 4: me to play in the US Open qualifying because the
Speaker 4: Open always meant the most to me.
Speaker 1: So for John US Open qualifying, US Women's Open qualifying
Speaker 1: is about that childhood dream.
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter what your background is, what your address
Speaker 4: was growing up, what type of clubs in your bag,
Speaker 4: the type of clothes on your back, or the shape
Speaker 4: of your swing, or the color of your skin, or
Speaker 4: or your religious background or not.
Speaker 7: It just really matters. If you can get your.
Speaker 4: Ball in the hole in the fewest number of strokes
Speaker 4: in qualifying, you earn your right to play.
Speaker 7: And I think it really embodies the values.
Speaker 4: Of our country, the meritocracy that that represents the democracy,
Speaker 4: the openness, the inclusivity.
Speaker 7: And we're very proud to represent all of those values.
Speaker 1: So the qualifier is doing a lot of work for
Speaker 1: the USGA, because golf at the elite level, at the
Speaker 1: major championship level, is an exclusive club in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways, very hard to break into even if you're
Speaker 1: really good. But the Qualifier is supposed to be different.
Speaker 1: It's supposed to be a truly level playing field, a
Speaker 1: kind of symbolic version of the American dream. It is
Speaker 1: precisely what's supposed to be open about the US Open,
Speaker 1: and there's plenty of history to support that idea. You
Speaker 1: have Jack Fleck advancing through qualifying in nineteen fifty five
Speaker 1: and beating Ben Hogan in a playoff at Olympic Club,
Speaker 1: and you have Lee Trevino, who basically used the US
Speaker 1: Open qualifying system as a launching pad for his career.
Speaker 4: He's among the most inspirational stories of you know, really
Speaker 4: earning your way into the US Open.
Speaker 1: Trevino was a club pro from El Paso when he
Speaker 1: qualified in nineteen sixty six. He made the cut, qualified
Speaker 1: again in sixty seven, placed fifth, earned his exemption for
Speaker 1: the sixty eight US Open, which he won at Oak Hill.
Speaker 8: There as your United stikes when the Champion.
Speaker 1: And similar things have happened at the US Women's Open,
Speaker 1: where sectional qualifying has been around since nineteen seventy six.
Speaker 1: Think of two thousand and five. A qualifier named Bertie
Speaker 1: Kim holds out from a bunker to win at Cherry Hills.
Speaker 5: History might be kid.
Speaker 1: And tied for second behind her are two amateur qualifiers,
Speaker 1: Brittany Lang and Morgan Pressel, both of whom go on
Speaker 1: to become major champions themselves. But beyond the obvious spectacular results,
Speaker 1: there are many more stories of players who simply qualify,
Speaker 1: get solid finishes, and use it as a jumping off point.
Speaker 1: That's in b Park at the two thousand and seven
Speaker 1: US Women's Open, where she finished fourth. It's Lexi Thompson
Speaker 1: in twenty ten and Brooke Henderson in twenty fourteen. These
Speaker 1: were career establishing moments enabled by the institution of the qualifier.
Speaker 1: So last year, when the USDA canceled qualifying in the
Speaker 1: face of the COVID nineteen pandemic, there was a noticeable
Speaker 1: void in the golf world.
Speaker 7: Boy, we missed. We missed it terribly.
Speaker 4: We as the USJA had to develop from scratch a process.
Speaker 7: That identified a field. But let me tell you, Garret,
Speaker 7: it was heartbreaking to make that decision.
Speaker 4: Qualifying is part of our DNA. It's part of what
Speaker 4: makes our championships so special, the ability to follow your dream.
Speaker 1: And now USDA qualifying is back. It's one of those
Speaker 1: small glimmers of hope that twenty twenty one has brought.
Speaker 1: And that's really what drew me out to Half Moon
Speaker 1: Bay on April twenty sixth. It had been a hard year.
Speaker 1: I just wanted to see some dreams come true.
Speaker 5: I'm Julie, I'm Harper, Harper, Nice to meet you. Hey, Matt,
Speaker 5: nice to meet you. I want to meet you.
Speaker 1: It's a little after eight o'clock and there's a group
Speaker 1: around the first t You've got some officials from the
Speaker 1: Northern California Golf Association, which is running the qualifier. You've
Speaker 1: got players and caddies, friends and family, and for the
Speaker 1: group that's about to tee off a few media.
Speaker 9: I'll take the Harper argue.
Speaker 10: I mean, at first, I just thought they were going
Speaker 10: to call out everybody's names, just kind of like how
Speaker 10: they always do.
Speaker 1: That's Harper Clements, sixteen years old, and she's paired with
Speaker 1: Julie Inkster.
Speaker 10: And when they announced her, they called out all her
Speaker 10: titles that she's won, and that was a little shocking.
Speaker 10: You look around at all the people and you're going, oh,
Speaker 10: I'm playing with the player that has actually won this
Speaker 10: tournament before, the winner of the nineteen ninety nine in
Speaker 10: two thousand and two US Women's Open, Julie Inkster.
Speaker 1: But this actually wasn't the first time Harper had met Julie.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 10: So I used to every year go to the a
Speaker 10: Anda Inspiration Tournament, or we used to be the Dinah
Speaker 10: Shore because my family had a house down there, and
Speaker 10: I would go and watch the players and I would
Speaker 10: a lot of times wait for them to come off
Speaker 10: at the eighteenth pole, hoping to get a signed ball
Speaker 10: or something. And when I went there, she took off
Speaker 10: the glove that she had come out of scoring wearing
Speaker 10: and she signed it and she handed it to me.
Speaker 10: I was about ten, I think at the time, and
Speaker 10: that was really cool. It was something that I didn't
Speaker 10: expect that she was going to give it to me.
Speaker 10: I was just thinking I was going to be like
Speaker 10: one of the other kids and just get a signature
Speaker 10: on a flag.
Speaker 8: So that was really cool, really special.
Speaker 1: And at half Boon Bay in Harper's red golf bag,
Speaker 1: is that signed glove from Julie Inkster. She kept it
Speaker 1: all these years and she's playing to show it to Julie,
Speaker 1: but first they have to play from.
Speaker 8: San Jose, California.
Speaker 1: Please welcome Kara Romero.
Speaker 8: On the tea box. I was actually really nervous.
Speaker 1: That's Kiara Romero, fifteen years old and the third member
Speaker 1: of Inkster's group.
Speaker 8: When I was hitting, there were like ten people watching
Speaker 8: filming and everybody was there, and I think that's like
Speaker 8: the most people that were watching me on the first
Speaker 8: tea So it was a little overwhelming and stuff.
Speaker 6: She told me after it was the most nervous she's
Speaker 6: ever been in her life.
Speaker 1: That's Rick, Kiara's dad. I asked him to join us
Speaker 1: for the interview.
Speaker 6: She went immediately after Julie's, so I was like, and
Speaker 6: now on the tea box.
Speaker 7: After Julie Easter just hit her t shots.
Speaker 6: I think at fifteen, I'd be pretty darn nervous too.
Speaker 1: I keep having to remind myself that Kiara is fifteen
Speaker 1: because she carries herself like an LPGA pro, you know,
Speaker 1: study demeanor, sharp Nike outfit, strict pre shot routine, and
Speaker 1: she's a heck of a player.
Speaker 8: I think last year, my whole year was really good
Speaker 8: for my local tournaments. I was Player of the Year
Speaker 8: for JT and C.
Speaker 1: What does that stand for?
Speaker 8: Junior Tour of Northern California. Gotcha?
Speaker 6: She was like one of the youngest actually win player
Speaker 6: of the year.
Speaker 1: Golf is at the center of Kiara's life. She's been
Speaker 1: going to online school since eighth grade pre pandemic, basically
Speaker 1: in order to accommodate her travel and practice schedule.
Speaker 8: I usually wake up at like seven, workout for an hour,
Speaker 8: and then eat breakfast and do score work for as
Speaker 8: as much as I can, and then we go to
Speaker 8: the golf course around twelve, practice for two to three hours,
Speaker 8: and then play eighteen holes and then come home and
Speaker 8: just finish the rest of my schoolwork.
Speaker 1: So Kiera is no ordinary junior. She's a contender in
Speaker 1: this qualifier. If she has two good rounds, she could
Speaker 1: get one of those three spots at the US Women's Open, San.
Speaker 3: Francisco, California.
Speaker 9: Please welcome Harper.
Speaker 5: Clement.
Speaker 1: Harper has a different mindset going in.
Speaker 10: So my goal was to break eighty five both times,
Speaker 10: because one it's like the hardest golf for us I've
Speaker 10: ever played in a tournament.
Speaker 1: Now, make no mistake, Harper can play hard course as well.
Speaker 1: She's literally a junior merit member at Olympic Club. But
Speaker 1: she also goes to a high school that doesn't have
Speaker 1: a girls golf team, and she could have played on
Speaker 1: the boys team this year, but she decided to do
Speaker 1: field hockey instead.
Speaker 10: I'm goalie and I just did it to make friends
Speaker 10: and to kind of play another sport in high school.
Speaker 1: So Harper's really in Half Moon Bay for the experience
Speaker 1: to play as well as she can, but she has
Speaker 1: no real expectation of advancing against highly ranked juniors, LPGA
Speaker 1: pros and Julie Inkster. Now, as for Julie, she's here
Speaker 1: for one very specific reason.
Speaker 5: Well, the only reason why I did it was because
Speaker 5: it was an Olympic Club. I've grown up, you know,
Speaker 5: in the Bay Area and my whole life, and Olympic
Speaker 5: Club has always been a great venue for open for.
Speaker 1: The men, for the men, But this is the first
Speaker 1: time Olympic Club has hosted the US Women's Open, And
Speaker 1: Julie see's real significance in that.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, definitely, it's It's huge. I mean, whenever you
Speaker 5: could play iconic venues, I think it really ups the
Speaker 5: status of the competition and women's golf. You know, everybody
Speaker 5: knows the holes and how it's played, and the fog
Speaker 5: and the history. It just helps tells the story. But
Speaker 5: I didn't want to ask for an intention because I
Speaker 5: just didn't feel like I deserved it, you know, I
Speaker 5: wanted I wanted to qualify.
Speaker 10: On my own.
Speaker 5: Yes, have a good day, Lady, prey good.
Speaker 1: So the Inkster group sets off, and Kiara, who says
Speaker 1: she normally doesn't get nervous, is a little shaky in
Speaker 1: Julie's presence.
Speaker 8: I guess it affected my game for a little bit,
Speaker 8: for the first few holes putting. I guess it affected
Speaker 8: the most. And I three putt in the first hole.
Speaker 1: Kiara drops another shot on the second hole, but she
Speaker 1: isn't the only one who's struggling on the greens.
Speaker 5: My putting was horrible. You know, when you haven't played
Speaker 5: in anything, no tournament draining, it's hard to get the
Speaker 5: competitive juicus.
Speaker 1: Julie Bogie's the second and suddenly Harper Clements is beating
Speaker 1: Julie Inkster with pars.
Speaker 10: I thought she was going to blow me out of
Speaker 10: the water, if I'm being honest, I was going to
Speaker 10: be flour back after four holes.
Speaker 1: But by the end of the front nine, Harper falls
Speaker 1: back to Julie and Kiara, and everyone's battling a bit
Speaker 1: because frankly, the course is tough.
Speaker 10: Half Inmbay's really windy. Those greens, a lot of them
Speaker 10: can be really narrow, especially on some of the longer holes,
Speaker 10: So if you're not hitting an eight on into the greens,
Speaker 10: you can't hold the green. You just don't have the shot.
Speaker 5: And the green corner exactly smooth. They have a full
Speaker 5: location corner, exactly easy.
Speaker 8: I think my game was okay, but my putting was
Speaker 8: really struggling.
Speaker 6: She's typically a really outstanding hutter and I think she
Speaker 6: was just the speed was off a little bit, and
Speaker 6: the greens were difficult.
Speaker 8: They were really fast, like three peters. I would be
Speaker 8: hitting way too hard. I lipped out so many.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it seemed like the pins were in some
Speaker 1: interesting spots too.
Speaker 8: Yeah, behind bunkers, like in the corners and stuff. It
Speaker 8: was hard to get too.
Speaker 10: I mean, they don't want you to be able to
Speaker 10: get a bunch of birdies. I mean, the goal of
Speaker 10: the US Open is to shoot even They want the
Speaker 10: leader to shoot even so, they don't want the pins
Speaker 10: to be accessible, they want them to be hard.
Speaker 1: At the end of the morning round, Harper has actually
Speaker 1: achieved her goal of breaking eighty five. She shoots eighty two.
Speaker 1: Julie and Kiara not as happy with the rounds. They're
Speaker 1: tied for seventeenth after shooting seventy seven six over. The
Speaker 1: leader is at one under, but only seven players have
Speaker 1: broken seventy four in the morning, So going into the
Speaker 1: afternoon round, Julian and Kiara, well they're not exactly in it.
Speaker 1: They're definitely not out of it all right. So this
Speaker 1: special episode of Friday Stories is brought to you by
Speaker 1: the US Women's Open athletes from all over the world
Speaker 1: vide for their spots at Olympic Club, and this week
Speaker 1: we'll see one hundred and fifty six players from twenty
Speaker 1: six different countries compete to prove themselves on golf's greatest stage.
Speaker 1: So TV schedule Thursday and Friday, we've got primetime action
Speaker 1: from Olympic Club on Golf Channel and on the weekend,
Speaker 1: NBC will be covering it in the afternoon, with Golf
Speaker 1: Channel taking over in the evening on Saturday. Throughout the
Speaker 1: week there will be featured groups and other streaming coverage
Speaker 1: on Peacock and for results, in additional coverage and all
Speaker 1: sorts of other cool stuff, go to Uswomen'sopen dot com.
Speaker 1: This is the US Women's Open, the greatest in the game.
Speaker 1: So in the half Moon Bay Clubhouse, there's a bar
Speaker 1: grill area with a big TV that they've set up
Speaker 1: to be a leader board. And among the leaders I
Speaker 1: see a name I recognize. If you've heard about Lucy Lee,
Speaker 1: it's probably for a couple of different reasons. The first
Speaker 1: is that in twenty fourteen, when she was just eleven
Speaker 1: years old, she got through a qualifier for the US
Speaker 1: Women's Open at half Moon Bay. And when I say
Speaker 1: she got through it. I mean she won it by
Speaker 1: seven strokes, pretty crazy.
Speaker 3: So in the morning I started off, I was three
Speaker 3: over through like six holes, and I was like pretty
Speaker 3: upset about that.
Speaker 1: Lucy is eighteen now, but she still remembers that day
Speaker 1: very well.
Speaker 3: And then I ended up playing the rest of the
Speaker 3: whole whatever, twenty eight holes in like three under par.
Speaker 1: She was the youngest player ever to qualify for the
Speaker 1: US Women's Open, and when she showed up at Pinehurst
Speaker 1: and pigtails and her American flag themed outfit, Lucy became
Speaker 1: a bit of a media sensation. What was that like
Speaker 1: as an eleven year old? Was it one of those
Speaker 1: things that was kind of intimidating or were you young
Speaker 1: enough so that you were just kind of enjoying yourself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I definitely was pretty young, so I was just
Speaker 3: kind of like, I took it as it came, and
Speaker 3: I probably didn't fully comprehend what was going on.
Speaker 1: For example, she remembers being in the Pinehurst clubhouse after
Speaker 1: one of her rounds.
Speaker 3: I was watching like the NBA playoffs, and they were
Speaker 3: like showing my highlights during the game, and I remember
Speaker 3: being like, oh that, I was like, dude, kept showing
Speaker 3: it like every like ten minutes. I was like, Oh,
Speaker 3: that's so funny, but it's kind of annoying someone to
Speaker 3: watch the game. Yeah, And so like looking back then
Speaker 3: now like like, that's so crazy to me that I
Speaker 3: had been on such a big platform, and I think
Speaker 3: at the time I had, I didn't really fully comprehend it.
Speaker 1: Lucy went on to have an incredible junior career. But
Speaker 1: the other reason you might know about her is that
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago she ran a foul of
Speaker 1: the USGA. Basically, she appeared in an ad for the
Speaker 1: Apple Watch, and while our family says she didn't get paid,
Speaker 1: the USGA found that she had breached a rule of
Speaker 1: amateur status and gave her a one time warning. Some
Speaker 1: people thought that wasn't enough, and Lucy, as well as
Speaker 1: the USGA, took a lot of criticism, which say what
Speaker 1: you want about it. Being self inflicted couldn't have been
Speaker 1: easy for Lucy as a sixteen year old. So that
Speaker 1: was early twenty nineteen. End of that year, Lucy decided
Speaker 1: to turn pro. She was seventeen, and she joined the
Speaker 1: Semetri Tour, which is the feeder tour for the LPGA.
Speaker 1: But one tournament into the twenty twenty season. Everything got
Speaker 1: put on hold because of COVID. It wasn't until August
Speaker 1: that the Cemetri Tour got back underway, and Lucy did
Speaker 1: play well, but because of the shortened season, she didn't
Speaker 1: really have a chance to move up. Was a little
Speaker 1: bit frustrating at that point to be like, you know,
Speaker 1: I really should be on the LPGA Tour at this point.
Speaker 11: Yes, I was definitely disappointed, but I knew going into
Speaker 11: that season that, you know, I probably was going to
Speaker 11: be playing another year in the Cemetri Tour.
Speaker 3: I think there's a lot of perspective in terms of, yeah,
Speaker 3: that sucked for me, but that year sucked so much
Speaker 3: more for everybody else.
Speaker 1: So Lucy's back on the Semetra and she's doing all right.
Speaker 1: She's thirty third on the money list, but she could
Speaker 1: use a break and getting one of the three qualifying
Speaker 1: spots out of Half Moon Bay for the US Women's
Speaker 1: Open than doing well at Olympic Club, that would be
Speaker 1: a break.
Speaker 3: The day before the tournament, I remember feeling pretty nervous
Speaker 3: because I really really wanted to play Olympic Club and
Speaker 3: that's been my goal probably for the last few years.
Speaker 11: I mean, I really enjoyed playing kind of you know,
Speaker 11: northern California, like that kind of golf Olympic club kind
Speaker 11: of golf where it's like, you know, tree lined, and
Speaker 11: I knew that it would be a pretty good opportunity
Speaker 11: if I could get in, and so that's why I
Speaker 11: was really put a little more importance into this open
Speaker 11: than maybe others in the past. And so I felt
Speaker 11: really nervous, and that was actually the most nervous I'd
Speaker 11: probably fell in them really long time.
Speaker 1: In the morning, Lucy posts a decent two over round,
Speaker 1: and in the afternoon she makes the turn at three
Speaker 1: over on the day. At this point, she's starting to
Speaker 1: check live scoring on her phone and she sees that
Speaker 1: there's a handful of players hanging around where she is,
Speaker 1: between even par and a few over. They're the ones
Speaker 1: who are really in the mix for those three qualifying
Speaker 1: and two alternate spots.
Speaker 3: So I knew that it was close there. But I
Speaker 3: also knew that this is a course where like in
Speaker 3: the afternoon, like when it gets windier, the sours can
Speaker 3: pick up, and they had some really tricky pins out there.
Speaker 1: Especially on the back nine, which is what Lucy played
Speaker 1: first in the afternoon. Now she's onto the relatively scorable
Speaker 1: front nine and she makes a birdie putt on the
Speaker 1: third hole, her twelfth. She's two over, but the wind
Speaker 1: is picking up. And on the sixth hole, her fifteenth,
Speaker 1: she has an approach directly downwind, and I flushed.
Speaker 3: It a little bit too much and it just like
Speaker 3: it bounced over the green. There's like a group of
Speaker 3: ten or twenty people behind the green on that hole,
Speaker 3: and they're all like, it was so funny. I remember
Speaker 3: walking over to the green and they're like, you got this.
Speaker 3: She's totally gonna like make part here something.
Speaker 11: And I was like kind of upset about my second shot,
Speaker 11: and so I was like trying to like know, you know,
Speaker 11: folkusn't I knew that that ship back there is really tough.
Speaker 1: She winds up with about a ten footer to stay
Speaker 1: two over. This is her most important put of the day.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a turning point one way or another,
Speaker 1: and she makes it. I'm standing next to one of
Speaker 1: her family members who lets loose with a big fist pump,
Speaker 1: and the crowd behind the green is enjoying it too,
Speaker 1: And then I when I made.
Speaker 3: The plot, they all started cheerings. That felt pretty good. Yeah,
Speaker 3: there weren't that many people there being pretty loud.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but the round's not done. A couple of leaders
Speaker 1: have posted scores, one at one over, another at two over.
Speaker 1: And on the seventh hole, Lucy makes a bogie. On
Speaker 1: the eighth her recovery from a green side bunker looks
Speaker 1: like it's going in, but then it doesn't.
Speaker 8: It was right on the lip, well.
Speaker 1: Like one more turn of the ball and that would
Speaker 1: have went in right yeah, yeah, yeah, oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: And on the ninth hole, her last of the day,
Speaker 1: she has a five foot putt.
Speaker 3: For birdie and so you know, I I didn't.
Speaker 8: I didn't.
Speaker 3: I don't know what happened on the putt. I hit
Speaker 3: an okay stroke, I just it just didn't go in.
Speaker 1: So after the round you finished, you're walking off the green.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if it was your family who was
Speaker 1: there with you. I believe they. I believe they were right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: were you kind of checking in with them, looking at
Speaker 1: the leaderboard and and sort of figuring things out?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was checking the leaderboard the whole time. I
Speaker 3: was pretty heated after I missed that hut because I
Speaker 3: was like, damn it. If I made it, I would
Speaker 3: have felt a lot better because at that point, you know,
Speaker 3: some of the players hadn't finished yet, and so I
Speaker 3: was just checking up on the leaderboard and I just
Speaker 3: sat in my car for like fifty minutes, like just
Speaker 3: I don't know, like just being upset and moping around.
Speaker 5: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Lucy is at three over exactly in third place. There
Speaker 1: are a couple of players close behind her who haven't
Speaker 1: finished yet, and all she can do is wait and
Speaker 1: stew over the missed opportunities. Meanwhile, Julian Inster's group is
Speaker 1: still on the course, and while Julian harper clements have
Speaker 1: fallen back a bit, ki is making a bit of
Speaker 1: a charge.
Speaker 8: I was like starting to get my game back. I
Speaker 8: was hitting approaches closer, and my putting was a lot better.
Speaker 1: Like Lucy, Kiara is playing the easier front nine as
Speaker 1: her back nine, and she gets birdies on three and four.
Speaker 8: After my birdies, I thought like, if I could just
Speaker 8: get a few more, maybe I'd have a chance.
Speaker 1: And stuff, She's at seven over and it's starting to
Speaker 1: look like five or six could be a playoff for
Speaker 1: an alternate spot. Remember, in addition, to the three qualifiers
Speaker 1: out of Half Moon Bay, there will be two alternates,
Speaker 1: and alternates sometimes get.
Speaker 6: In and I've seen her catch fire where she can
Speaker 6: go pretty low in around, so I always had confidence
Speaker 6: that she was going to be somewhere within the vicinity.
Speaker 1: But then bogie's for Kiara on six and seven, and
Speaker 1: on number nine.
Speaker 8: The last hole, I four putted, which happened like once
Speaker 8: in my whole life.
Speaker 1: Mus be nice.
Speaker 8: Actually yeah, when I was finished, I was pretty mad
Speaker 8: about that. I don't know how it happened. I mean,
Speaker 8: I just slipped out a three footer and did it again,
Speaker 8: and I was like, Okay, how much you can do
Speaker 8: about it.
Speaker 1: Kiara finishes at eleven over, tied for eleventh place. Two
Speaker 1: players at six over are the alternatives. Kathleen Scavo, a
Speaker 1: pro and a former standout at the University of Oregon,
Speaker 1: is the medallist.
Speaker 8: Today with the plus one.
Speaker 1: Kelly tan and LPGA tour player, is in second two,
Speaker 1: and Lucy Lee in third place. Qualifies for the US
Speaker 1: Women's Open for the third time as a teenager.
Speaker 8: And plus three.
Speaker 1: Yes, once you were certain that you were getting through,
Speaker 1: what went through your head?
Speaker 3: What were the feelings at that point relief probably, and
Speaker 3: then after that I felt really excited, you know, when
Speaker 3: I started thinking forward to getting to play Olympic Cup.
Speaker 3: I was really excited.
Speaker 1: Over by the scorer's table, Julie, Harper and Kiara are
Speaker 1: wrapping things up. Julie shot seventy seven seventy nine. Harper
Speaker 1: struggled in her second round, and obviously Kiara was sad
Speaker 1: about her four putt go off.
Speaker 5: It hard, it just doesn't work out.
Speaker 1: But everyone's kind of keeping it light. Harper approaches Julie
Speaker 1: and she has the glove Julie gave her all those
Speaker 1: years ago at Mission Hills about ten years ago.
Speaker 8: I wanted to play the A and I inspirations, Oh
Speaker 8: no way, that's that's.
Speaker 10: Oh that's great, that's sweet. I had just asked her
Speaker 10: if I could take a picture because I wanted to
Speaker 10: remember the moment obviously, and I wanted to show her
Speaker 10: the glove that I had brought along and kept in
Speaker 10: my bag with.
Speaker 7: Me all day.
Speaker 10: After the round, I sent her a thank you card
Speaker 10: and my glove that I played with that round.
Speaker 7: I signed it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, she was really cute. I signed a glove for
Speaker 5: her a long time ago, and she set me in
Speaker 5: the mail, she sent me a signed glove by her,
Speaker 5: so when she gets to be a big star, so
Speaker 5: I'll have her glove. So I thought that was really cute.
Speaker 8: There you go again. And then after I asked to
Speaker 8: take a picture with her, and then she goes, hey,
Speaker 8: this is a future champion right here, and that.
Speaker 7: Was like, wow, future star right here.
Speaker 5: Yeah, she's a good player. Yeah she's going to be
Speaker 5: good for a while. I mean I didn't even start
Speaker 5: while I was fifteen, so she's got a bright future
Speaker 5: ahead of her, that's for sure.
Speaker 8: I mean, for a champion to say that, a champion
Speaker 8: of the US Open, it's a hall of famer to
Speaker 8: say that to me, Like it inspired me to just
Speaker 8: keep playing and competing and practicing, working hard.
Speaker 5: You know, I just couldn't wait to get home and
Speaker 5: put my feet up and have a cocktail.
Speaker 1: It's a long walk. It's no joke.
Speaker 5: God, it's just forever to play. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Julie says this was her last US Women's Open qualifier,
Speaker 1: so it's worth reflecting for a minute on the amazing
Speaker 1: arc of her career. She starts when she's fifteen, qualifies
Speaker 1: for her first US Women's Open, three years later, wins
Speaker 1: majors at ages twenty three, twenty four, and twenty eight.
Speaker 1: Then she has kids in her golf career kind of
Speaker 1: stalls for a few years, but somehow in her late
Speaker 1: thirties into her forties, she gets even better than she
Speaker 1: was in her twenties.
Speaker 5: It was kind of like, you know, kind of a
Speaker 5: tale of two careers, you know, one before kids, well
Speaker 5: really three, one in in the middle when I had kids,
Speaker 5: and then after kits. So it wasn't always smooth sailing,
Speaker 5: that's for sure. You know, I had a lot of struggles,
Speaker 5: a lot of down years traveling with kids when you're
Speaker 5: young and they don't they didn't have datecare out there,
Speaker 5: and it was just a lot going on. So but
Speaker 5: you know what, I wouldn't changed it for anything. You know,
Speaker 5: my kids love to travel. I mean, they're like my
Speaker 5: best friends. We had a great relationship. I'm squeaking the
Speaker 5: toy because we got a puppy. Okay, if you hear
Speaker 5: some squeaks in the back, it's just the puppy toy.
Speaker 1: And after it all, after the seven majors spread across
Speaker 1: three decades, after the kids and the puppies, Juliingster still
Speaker 1: wants to grind out a thirty six hole qualifier at
Speaker 1: age sixty because she believes that the Olympic Club Open
Speaker 1: is an important moment for women's golf. And she's playing
Speaker 1: alongside two young women who weren't even born the last
Speaker 1: time she won a major, and somehow she gets both
Speaker 1: of them what they're looking for, and they're looking for
Speaker 1: really different things.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 1: Kiara, this is how she answered without hesitation, when I
Speaker 1: asked what she loves about golf the competition.
Speaker 8: I just really love playing against other people, testing my
Speaker 8: ability and winning.
Speaker 1: And so it's not surprising that Kiara saw that competitiveness
Speaker 1: reflected back at her in Julie.
Speaker 8: It was pretty cool to see someone that's been playing
Speaker 8: golf her whole life to just want to still compete.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's it's got to be like, you know,
Speaker 1: the fact that she's sixty and she's still grinding away.
Speaker 8: Like yeah, it's like definitely something I would want to do.
Speaker 1: And then there's Harper who would like to play college golf,
Speaker 1: but ultimately it's not about competition for her.
Speaker 5: I think that.
Speaker 10: Golf has the ability to grow different aspects of your life.
Speaker 10: Outside of it. So not only can you make network
Speaker 10: connections with other people, it teaches you patience. Plus it's
Speaker 10: something I enjoy and it's a nice way to just
Speaker 10: relax and enjoy something.
Speaker 1: And at this point in Julie's life that's basically where
Speaker 1: she is too.
Speaker 5: I've played because I like to, because I want to
Speaker 5: play in these combinations.
Speaker 1: Right, So, after all these years, golf is still fun
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I love it. It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: So to go back to my initial question, why is
Speaker 1: the qualifier important in the world of golf. Part of
Speaker 1: the answer is certainly what John Bodenhammer talks about, the
Speaker 1: idea that anyone can qualify. If you're good enough, you
Speaker 1: get a seat at the table. But looking at the
Speaker 1: results of the Half Moon Bay Qualifier, the players who
Speaker 1: got through are more or less who you'd expect. Three
Speaker 1: professional golfers, including Lucy Lee, who did this when she
Speaker 1: was eleven. No surprise is there. So maybe a way
Speaker 1: to think about it is that the qualifier isn't so
Speaker 1: much about the dream or the Cinderella story like those
Speaker 1: do happen, but usually the spots are going to go
Speaker 1: to pros in their prime. The ones who are neither
Speaker 1: very young nor very old. Most of the time, for
Speaker 1: most of the competitors, the qualifier is just about being
Speaker 1: there in the same tournament as a legend like Julie
Speaker 1: Kst and taking something away from that, something inspirational or
Speaker 1: maybe just some kind of small but important marking point
Speaker 1: in your career. You see, the qualifier is a place
Speaker 1: of both beginnings and endings. It's where potential stars can
Speaker 1: be born and it's where former stars sometimes fade away.
Speaker 5: I think it's important for a lot of these kids to.
Speaker 9: Be able to have the opportunity to try to qualify
Speaker 9: and play against the best and see how they stack up,
Speaker 9: whether you're going to be a pro or not a pro,
Speaker 9: or just the opportunity of playing a great golf course
Speaker 9: is playing against great competition, and.
Speaker 1: Then there's always that chance, right the big maybe, maybe
Speaker 1: something incredible could happen. This episode of Friday Stories produced
Speaker 1: by me Garrett Morrison, with transcript assistants from Meg Atkins.
Speaker 1: Our executive producer is Andy Johnson. Big Thanks to John Bodenhammer,
Speaker 1: Julie Inkster, Lucy Lee Harper and Cindy Clementz and Kiara
Speaker 1: and Rick Romero and thanks as well to the NCGA
Speaker 1: for just letting me walk around the qualifier with a microphone.
Speaker 1: That was nice. So we'd love to know what you
Speaker 1: think of Friday Stories. Feel free to reach out on
Speaker 1: Twitter or Instagram, or maybe leave a rating and review
Speaker 1: on iTunes. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 7: Very good.
Speaker 6: One thing, how many fold one?
Speaker 8: And how old were six?
Speaker 6: So when she was six she got her first hole
Speaker 6: in one and she got one every year for the
Speaker 6: next seven.
Speaker 1: Years, No kidding, Yes, so she's got a like how.
Speaker 8: Many I have nine?
Speaker 6: Nine hole in once?
Speaker 1: How does that happen?
Speaker 7: I've never heard of anything like it.
Speaker 1: Wait, wait, so you got your first hole in one
Speaker 1: when you were six? Yeah, this, and you got another
Speaker 1: one when you're seven.
Speaker 8: Eight, yeah, nine, And then I think had two when
Speaker 8: I was ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen.
Speaker 1: Fourteen, fifteen, and you've kept the streak going your fifteen
Speaker 1: year old year.
Speaker 8: I haven't had one. I haven't had one when I
Speaker 8: was fifteen, but up to fourteen, I've had one every year.
Speaker 1: I'm sure it's coming