As we celebrate National Women’s History Month, the USGA is highlighting five significant players who captured multiple U.S. Women’s Open titles. This week, it’s Juli Inkster.
Few golfers – male or female – can match the competitive fire of Juli Inkster. Her three consecutive U.S. Women’s Amateur titles (1980-82) – the first to do so since 1934 – required the tenacity to defeat 18 straight match-play opponents.
That success as an amateur carried into the professional ranks. The Northern Californian registered 31 LPGA Tour victories, including seven majors, and became the winningest American in Solheim Cup history with 18.5 points. But her first U.S. Women’s Open title wouldn’t come until 1999, 16 years after she turned professional and seven years after a disappointing 18-hole playoff loss to Patty Sheehan at Oakmont (Pa.) Country Club. At Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Miss., Inkster posted 16-under-par 272 to best Sherri Turner by six strokes.
Related Inkster Videos On U.S. Women's Open History Timeline
1999 U.S. Women's Open Champion Juli Inkster In Her Own Words
Highlights Of Juli Inkster's 1999 U.S. Women's Open Victory
Highlights Of Juli Inkster's 2002 U.S. Women's Open Victory
Three years later at Prairie Dunes Country Club, the same Kansas course where she won the first of her three U.S. Women’s Amateurs, Inkster prevailed in a showdown with the legendary Annika Sorenstam, carding a final-round 66 to win by two. It was the last major title in a World Golf Hall of Fame career.
