When Trish Johnson finally grabbed her first USGA championship at the 2023 U.S. Senior Women’s Open, it was a gaudy addition to an already impressive résumé. Quietly, and with relatively little fanfare, befitting her low-key style, the 58-year old native of Bristol, England, has performed at the game’s highest level for nearly 40 years. Still, it took her some time to fully comprehend what she accomplished last year at Waverley Country Club in Portland, Ore.
She is, indeed, a woman of many contradictions. When Patricia Mary Johnson uncoils a golf swing from her 5-foot-10 frame it is with both fluid grace and impressive power, a fitting combination for a steely competitor who simultaneously somehow manages to project an aura of sizzling intensity and composed focus. And after all the years, the desire to compete – and win – still burns within Johnson.
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“I love competing,” Johnson said Wednesday at Fox Chapel Country Club where the 6th U.S. Senior Women’s Open starts Thursday. “Honestly, I don't love playing golf -- like if you said to me go and play on a regular day with even family, I'd think, hmm, nine holes, I'll do nine holes. Never do 18. Not interested at all. But I love practicing. I love hitting balls. I love the feel of hitting really good golf shots and getting better. I feel like I almost hit the ball better now sometimes. I enjoy it more, actually. I get more satisfaction, whereas before it was just, well, that's what you're supposed to do.”
Johnson, who took up the game at the age of 9 because her Dad and three brothers all played golf, was bought up on the links of Royal North Devon, the oldest golf club in England. She is a traditionalist in many ways and a modernist in others, always looking for ways to improve her game and grow the women’s game.
“My winning check last year was twice as much as any win I've ever had, and that's going back to -- well, forget the '80s but the '90s on the LPGA [Tour],” Johnson said about the $180,000 first prize she collected in Oregon. “Twenty years later you're winning double what you won then, and it's a lot of money. But it’s not just the money. I want to enjoy this week. I want to not put too much pressure on myself because I'm playing well. Since this tournament last year, I have played two rounds of golf in Florida and three rounds of the [Senior] LPGAChampionship in a cart, and that is it. But that doesn't mean I don't think I can win, because I do.”
Johnson has been a winner for a long time. In 1985, she won the English Women’s Amateur Championship, the English Women’s Stroke-Play Championship and repeated as England Under-23 Champion. In 1986, she represented Great Britain & Ireland in the Curtis Cup Match, where she went 4-0-0 in a resounding 13-5 win over the USA at Prairie Dunes C.C. in Hutchinson, Kan. She turned professional in 1987 and was a member of the European Solheim Cup Team eight times while compiling three victories on the LPGA Tour and 19 more on the Ladies European Tour, the third-most all-time.
She also is one of the most-successful players in professional senior women’s golf, winning six tournaments on the Legends Tour, including the Senior LPGA Championship in 2017 and 2021. Before winning the 2023 U.S. Senior Women’s Open, Johnson tied for second in 2019 and finished third a year earlier.
“I don't think I'm as -- I wasn't arrogant, but I had a temper,” Johnson said about the evolution of her game. “In the early days, I used to get really frustrated because we didn't have the technology back then that they do now. But I think in the last sort of 10 years, certainly since I've been working with Martin Park, I know exactly why I hit a bad shot, and I also have a little bit more -- my body sometimes doesn't want to move right. I want to get my lower body out of the way. Sometimes it just says, not interested. You just have to accept that.”
Her victory last year a Waverley Country Club was the pinnacle of her career, a height that took her time to fully appreciate.
“When we finished, [I had] a 7:30 [p.m.] flight, and I said to Shannon [Rouillard, USGA Senior Director, Championships], ‘I don’t want to miss that flight.’ She just said, ‘You do realize, don't you, that this is possibly the most important moment in your entire career,’ and I said, ‘yeah, yeah, thinking, not really.’ She was right. It doesn't matter that it's a senior major to people. They just see it's a U.S. Open, and it was enormous, and it was lovely. I have to say, she was bang on.”
While the opportunities to compete have grown fewer as Johnson’s career progressed past the LPGA Tour and LET, her desire to play her best continues at a very high level, and her belief that she can still win against the best women golfers over the age of 50 remains unshakeable. That’s the belief that made Johnson a champion in 1985, in 2023 and, she hopes, again this year.
Ron Sirak is a Massachusetts-based freelance writer whose work has appeared previously on USGA websites.
