Two-Time U.S. Women’s Open Champion Webb Set for U.S. Senior Women’s Open Debut

The numbers shout out the greatness of Karrie Webb, who this week makes her debut in the U.S. Senior Women’s Open at San Diego Country Club. After turning professional in 1994, Webb compiled 41 LPGA Tour victories, seven major championships, including the U.S. Women’s Open in consecutive years, and is the only player to win five different professional majors. What makes those accomplishments even more remarkable is who she did it against.

Webb was part of the most dominate foursome in the history of golf, male or female. Over a nine-year period beginning in 1998, Webb, Se Ri Pak, Juli Inkster and Annika Sorenstam – all members of the World Golf Hall of Fame – won 24 of the 36 women’s majors played, including the U.S. Women’s Open in 1998 (Pak), 1999 (Inkster), 2000 (Webb), 2001 (Webb), 2002 (Inkster) and 2006 (Sorenstam).

This week, Webb steps into a new part of her USGA career, in the senior category.

“I’m looking forward to it,” Webb said of the U.S. Senior Women’s Open. “For years people have been saying to me, ‘Can’t wait until you can play in it.’ But who is in a rush to get to 50?” she said with a laugh. “But yeah, it’s going to be great to see the other girls again.”

When Webb won the 2001 U.S. Women’s Open at Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club, in Southern Pines, N.C., a year after winning the title  at the Merit Club, in Libertyville, Ill., she became only the seventh woman to go back-to-back, joining Sorenstam (1995-96), Betsy King (1989-90), Hollis Stacy (1977-78), Susie Maxwell Berning (1972-73), Donna Caponi (1969-70) and Mickey Wright (1958-59).

“I think it is something someone will do again. But I feel like my back-to-back was special because of who I was going up against,” she said, referring to the fact that from 1998 through 2002, only Pak, Inkster and Webb won the U.S. Women’s Open.

Webb burst on the scene suddenly and sensationally, leaving Australia and joining the Ladies European Tour in 1994 at the age of 19. In 1995, she became the youngest winner of theAIG Women’s Open, a non-major at the time but it gave her membership to the LPGA Tour. In 1996 Webb won her first ntournament as an official LPGA Tour member at the HealthSouth Inaugural on the fourth hole of a sudden death playoff.

She won three other tournaments that year and became the first LPGA player to win $1 million in a single season, capturing the Rolex Rookie of the Year Award. Beginning in 1995, when she was not yet an LPGA member, Webb won at least once on the LPGA Tour for 10 consecutive years.

Her final two victories on Tour came in 2014. And in 2017, she capped a remarkable career by announcing that it would be her final full-time season.

In seven years, beginning in 2000, Webb won seven majors.From 1996 through 2017, there were 93 LPGA Tour majors played and Webb competed in 92 of them, missing only the 2004 AIG Women’s Open. Overall, Webb posted 25 top-five finishes in 100 majors starts. She added 36 top-10 finishes and 55 times she was among the top 25, including 10 in the U.S. Women’s Open.

With victories in the U.S. Women’s Open, KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, AIG Women’s Open, Chevron Championship and du Maurier Classic, which was an LPGA major until 2000, Webb has won five different majors – the Super Slam. The Amundi Evian Championship became a major in 2013; in 2014, Webb finished second. When asked if winning a half-dozen different majors would be called the Six-Pack Slam, she laughed and said: “That’s up to you to decide.”

Webb has kept her game sharp by competing in LPGA Tour, Epson Tour and Legends Tour events every year except 2021. But she does admit that competing infrequently makes it challenging to stay sharp since it’s hard to replicate the intensity of professional golf  on the range.

“I played last week in the Legends event [paired with the] the Epson Tour,” she said in early August. “When you are not competing a lot, it is hard to keep your mind focused on competing.”

More and more, Webb’s focus has been off the golf course.

“I’m spending a lot more time back in Australia,” she said. “My No. 1 priority is getting back to golf course design and working with Golf Australia. The only year I didn’t play a tournament was 2021, so I have been doing some outings here and there, doing events for Nippon Shafts in Japan and Australia.”

Her work with Golf Australia has been particularly satisfying, especially in mentoring junior players.

“I love being a part of that,” she said. “I love that the girls know that if they need help, I’m here for them.”

Among those she has mentored is three-time major winner and 2022 U.S. Women’s Open champion Minjee Lee, who also won the 2012 U.S. Girls’ Junior. When her brother Min Woo Lee won the 2016 U.S. Junior Amateur, they became the first brother/sister combo to win those coveted USGA junior championships.

“I’ve known Minjee since she was about 13 or 14,” said Webb. “She won my scholarship in 2013 and 2014. In ’13, she came to [the U.S. Women’s Open at] Sebonack with Su Oh.”

When Minjee Lee won the 2022 U.S. Women’s Open, ironically at Pine Needles, where Webb won in 2001, she was quick to praise Webb’s role in her development.

“She did message me straightaway,” Lee said. “She messages me quite a bit. It's just really nice of her. Over the years, she's been so supportive of my golf and just me as a person, so it's just been really nice to have her in my corner.”

Webb had enormous respect for four-time U.S. Women’s Open champion Mickey Wright, who she got to know when they were both living in Florida. To win at San Diego Country Club, where Wright was a member as a teenager, would be icing on a spectacular cake.

“That would be very special,” she said about the possibility of winning on Wright’s home course. “I was talking to some of the girls who’ve played it and they love it. But really, it all comes down to competing. I think we all have that in our bones. We love to compete.”

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