Inkster Does It All Again, Except Dance

Juli Inkster turned in a repeat performance in every way but one Sunday in the LPGA Championship at Wilmington, Del.

She was too tired to dance.

When Inkster tapped in for par on her 20th hole to end an exhausting afternoon and win the LPGA Championship for the second year in a row, she whipped her putter over her head, wrapped up her 6-year-old daughter in her arms and whispered, “I’m getting too old for this.”

One day after she turned 40, Inkster became the first player in 16 years to successfully defend her title at the LPGA Championship. Patty Sheehan won the event in 1983-84.

After shooting a four-over 75, the highest closing round by an LPGA champion in at least 25 years, Inkster used a strong shot on the second playoff hole--lagging from the collar of the 10th green within two feet--to set up the putt that beat Stefania Croce of Italy. Croce, 30, had finished early with a 69, then watched as Inkster hit into a bunker and missed a six-foot putt on 18 to create a playoff.

Wendy Ward, who shared the 54-hole lead with Inkster, called a one-stroke penalty on herself when her ball moved as she addressed a par putt on the 13th hole. She wound up one stroke out of the playoff.

“I don’t feel like I lost the tournament because of that one shot,” said Ward, who bogeyed the 18th for a 76 that put her at two-under 282. “I made a number of poor swings that I would say cost me the tournament.”

For Inkster, the victory--worth $210,000--was her sixth in a major and 24th on the LPGA Tour.

A year ago, Inkster won the LPGA Championship on a softer, more forgiving DuPont Country Club course with an eagle-birdie-birdie finish. That victory allowed her to join Pat Bradley as the only women to complete the modern Grand Slam, and she let loose with jig on the 18th green.

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Notah Begay scored a one-stroke victory in the St. Jude Classic at Memphis, Tenn., for his third PGA Tour victory.

It was Begay’s first win since October at the Michelob Championship in Williamsburg, Va. Begay had also spent seven days in jail in March for a drunken driving conviction. “After going through my personal ordeal earlier in the year, you never know if you’re ever going to return back to form,” said Begay, who finished at 13-under 271.

Bob May, who led after the second and third rounds, lost the lead on the back nine after back-to-back bogeys and finished with a 71, which left him tied for second with Chris DiMarco, who closed with a 69.

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Up Next

Next week’s schedule for golf’s major tours:

* PGA: Thursday-Sunday, Canon Greater Hartford Open, TPC at River Highlands, Cromwell, Conn.

* SENIORS: Thursday-Sunday, U.S. Senior Open, Des Moines (Iowa) Golf & C.C.

* LPGA: Friday-Sunday, ShopRite Classic, Marriott Seaview Resort Bay Course, Atlantic City, N.J.