Yamamoto Holds on to Lead Despite Delays at 6th U.S. Senior Women’s Open

Among the things in plenty of supply at the 6th U.S. Senior Women’s Open – along with talent – is experience. These women have seen it all, and that knowledge was helpful on Saturday when dangerous weather at Fox Chapel Golf Club halted third round play for three hours. When play resumed, Kaori Yamamoto ran into some choppy water but ended 54 holes at 7-under-par 206, five strokes ahead of a ton of experience.

Yamamoto, who has played the Japan LPGA and Japan Legends Tour combined for three decades, relied on her experience to hold off a pair of World Golf Hall of Fame members: Annika Sorenstam, a four-time USGA champion, and Juli Inkster who has five USGA trophies at home, plus Leta Lindley, who has been runner-up in the last two U.S. Senior Women’s Opens and Mikino Kubo. They are all five back at 211.

“Yes, I did struggle, but I didn't change my game plan,” Yamamoto said. “I knew it was going to be a hard round after the delay, so I kept my game plan. I missed many opportunities, but I kept telling myself, they will come, they will come, and I was hanging in there, and I'm glad that I got a birdie on the last hole.”

Yamamoto played three holes of the third round even par and was eight under for the championship when the horn sounded at 12:53 p.m., stopping the action. When play resumed at 3:53 p.m., Yamamoto had some hiccups. She didn’t miss a green in the third round until the 105-yard par-3 sixth hole, making a bogey. After only two bogeys in her first 41 holes, Yamamoto bogeyed three of the next six holes beginning on No. 6. She stemmed the tide with a birdie on No. 12 and ended her round with an exclamation point, making birdie on No. 18.

After opening the third round with 11 consecutive pars, Sorenstam got to three under par with a 5-foot birdie putt on No. 12 but gave that back with a bogey on No. 17. She’s trying to become the first two-time winner of the U.S. Senior Women’s Open.

“I would say overall I'm very, very pleased the way I hit the ball,” Sorenstam said. “I had a lot of looks today, a lot of looks. Just couldn't really get them to drop. I felt pretty decent on the greens, just a little short maybe just because of the rain, and I just didn't adjust properly.”

Inkster, trying to join Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, JoAnne Carner, Carol Semple Thompson and Jill McGill as the only competitors to win three different USGA championships, made two bogeys and two birdies.

“I played very well again today,” Inkster said. “I think I hit 17 greens again. I think I had three three-putts. Hit the ball extremely close and just didn't make anything. Just extremely frustrating. But I've got one more day, and hopefully I can put it together.”

Kubo, who finished the round with three consecutive birdies, got to two under par with a 70 on Saturday, and Lindley continued her steady play with an even-par 71.

Remarkably, the able work of all involved got the championship back on schedule, setting the stage for what should be an exciting Sunday shootout.

Notable

• There were 48 players still on the course when darkness halted play on Friday. Those remaining resumed their second round at 7:08 a.m. on Saturday, and Stefania Croce finished off with a six birdie, single bogey 66, which tied the record for the low round in the championship set by Laura Davies in 2018 and matched by Trish Johnson in 2019. Croce was at 4-under-par 138 along with another Saturday finisher, Christa Johnson, four strokes behind leader Kaori Yamamoto after 36 holes. Lisa Grimes also finished Saturday morning and was at 139.
  
  
• Two pairs of sisters made the cut at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open: Annika and Charlotta Sorenstam along with Danielle and Dina Ammaccapane.
  
  
• Christa Johnson and Leta Lindley, who are both in the mix at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, go back a long way. Johnson won an LPGA Tour major at the 1997 LPGA Championship, now the KPMG Women’s PGA, and she did it by taking a sudden-death playoff from Lindley on the second extra hole. Both are also University of Arizona alums.
  
  
  
• Michele Thompson, whose maiden name was Michanowicz, is a 1983 graduate of Fox Chapel Area High School. She’s one of seven amateurs to make the cut and is at 12-over par 225 after 54 holes. Thompson was the Pennsylvania high school girls’ individual golf champion in 1980 and ‘81 and runner-up in 1982.
  

Quotable

“It's more fun now because in the old days, you have to keep your card, you have to fight, you have to practice,” Stefania Croce said about competing in the U.S. Senior Women’s Open. “We are like kind of enemies, friends but a little bit of enemies. Now we are just friends because we've done that. So now we compete, we're still very competitive, but with a smile.”

“I was home by 9:00, 9:30, had something to eat - you're not really hungry - and just get to bed and get up at 5:00,” Lisa Grimes said about the challenges of the Friday’s weather delay. “Yesterday was tough because I didn't tee off until 5:30 at night. You try to find things to do, and you can only sleep so much. That was tough just waiting, waiting, waiting. I think we're back on schedule now, and it should be a good couple days.”

“They're a little slower, which is to be expected, but I was walking out there and the course is really, really in good shape,” Annika Sorenstam said after Saturday’s weather delay. “Water is coming up a little here and there, but as far as -- it looks so manicured and the greens are soft but still not bumpy at all. So they're holding up. I feel like they're really true.”

“One of my friends who’s also playing this week, she challenged [Annika], and she ended up winning, but they were having fun, hanging out, and just friendly competition,” Mikino Kubo said about staying busy by playing table tennis during the midday rain delay.

Ron Sirak is a Massachusetts-based freelance writer whose work has previously appeared on USGA websites.