Inkster is the rare 40-something who can hang with the young guns

WILLIAMSBURG

To corrupt a current phrase, the LPGA Tour is no country for old wom … um … for ladies of a certain age.

Forty might be the new 30, but that generational re-jiggering doesn’t exactly transfer in bulk to the ranks of female pro golfers.

The first two rounds of the Michelob Ultra Open included just 13 women who have seen their 40th birthday. One, Sherri Turner, has 50 in her rear view. And in general, it’s a rough go with the sticks at that age. The Michelob 13 had missed nearly half of their cuts this season.

Unlike the men’s game, where 10 40-somethings are among the top 50 money winners, it’s lonely out there for the successful woman who’s trod more fairways than she might care to recall.

This year, in fact, just one top-50 winner is 40-plus. But, with all due respect to 47-year-old Juli Inkster, man, what a woman.

“That’s the beauty of golf, age is not really that big of a deal,” Inkster said Friday at Kingsmill, where she is 4-under par through 36 holes. “Half of these girls, I’m in better shape than they are. They’re just younger.”

So let’s talk younger. Return with me 20 years ago last Thursday to Suffolk. That day in 1988, Inkster clinched her ninth title with an eagle at Sleepy Hole Golf Course to win a four-way playoff over Nancy Lopez, Rosie Jones and Betsy King.

Twenty-two victories – eight since she turned 40 – and one Hall of Fame induction later, Inkster is 17th this year in winnings. She’d be sitting even prettier had she won her playoff last week against Paula Creamer in Oklahoma.

A win there and Inkster would have easily become the oldest LPGA champion. Beth Daniel won as a pup of 46 years and eight months. Inkster turns 48 in late June. But the next sign she shows of losing her edge or her interest will be the first.

“I thought I was going to play five years and quit and have kids,” said Inkster, who has two teenage daughters. “But I didn’t even start (playing) till I was 15, so I really didn’t even know what the LPGA was. … But I played good in college, and won three U.S. Amateurs, and I decided that I’d try the pros.

“I always wanted a family, and I just kind of got going and traveled with my family out here. I guess this is just what I do.”

Laura Davies, 44, gets that. She was the last woman not named Sorenstam, Webb or Ochoa to win an LPGA money title, in 1994. Yet Davies, whose best finish this season is ninth, lashed it around Kingsmill well enough to play the weekend.

Alas, Meg Mallon, 45, did not. And she walked off the River Course on Friday lashing herself, so to speak, for missing her first cut in six events.

“That’s why I’m still out here, ’cause I get pissed off like this,” said Mallon, 54th on this year’s money list, with a patient smile. “The traveling, that’s the no-fun part of it. … But being competitive, that’s why I play golf.

“I love competing and I love the opportunity to win golf tournaments. If I stop doing that, then that’s probably the time I’ll stop playing.”

Inkster climbs about as far out onto that same hypothetical limb and no further. Yes, the traveling stinks. And for some reason, her bad shots these days make her feel bad more than her good shots make her feel good, if that makes sense.

But in the long run, it’s obvious Inkster thinks this is still a pretty good gig for a woman of seasoning and savvy. And few runs have been as good and long.

“I have kids, I have my other life, I balance it,” Inkster said. “It’s not 24/7 for me. I’ve always been one to get away from it, and when I start practicing again, I want to make sure I’m hungry.”

Sure enough, all these years later, Inkster continues to live by two words: Bon appetite.

Tom Robinson, (757) 446-2518, tom.robinson@pilotonline.com