This upset was one for the boomers, over what Juli Inkster calls the bombers.
With her “big 5-0” coming June 24, Inkster pushed back the clock once more yesterday. The senior member of the field at the Sybase Match Play Championship at Hamilton Farm in Gladstone, N.J., she came back to pick off the third-ranked player in the world, ailing 29-year-old Suzann Pettersen of Norway, on the 21st hole yesterday.
It doesn’t stop, though. Everybody’s younger. Today, she takes on 20-year-old Amy Yang, who beat 45-year-old Michele Redman.
Inkster already had played two U.S. Women’s Opens before Pettersen was born. She’s been in the World Golf Hall of Fame for 10 years. Yet she continues chugging around the course for the same reason so many desk jockeys would if they could.
“I play because I like to play,” said Inkster, fourth all-time with $12,787,288 in earnings. “What else am I going to do? Go home and . . . ?”
Instead, the 35th seed sent Pettersen packing to today’s consolation par-3 pro-am and then home.
“I am 49 and the train’s coming fast on 50. I don’t feel 50,” Inkster said. “When I was [her opponent’s] age and my parents were 50, I thought they were old, so I’m sure they think I’m old.”
Inkster stands 33rd ($65,369) on this year’s LPGA money list, while Pettersen, despite a hip injury, is second ($509,047).
“It felt like a final match,” said Inkster, who never led in the match until she rolled in her par putt on the third extra hole for the victory.
Inkster went two down on the first two holes and climbed back to even three times. Pettersen took her fourth lead of the match on No. 14, and held it until No. 18, when Inkster birdied the 515-yard par 5 to force the playoff. That might have been the omen on this long course.
“It definitely favors the bombers because these par 5s, they definitely can get home in two,” Inkster said.
Pettersen is fifth in LPGA driving distance at 267 yards, while Inkster is 48th at 248.
“Match play, it’s weird,” Inkster said. “If Suzann and I played 10 days in a row, she’d probably beat me seven.”
Just not yesterday.
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Seconding Inkster’s sentiments about big hitters here, ninth-longest Sophie Gustafson said, “I can really whale it more than normal and I don’t have to think too much about the consequences.”
Gustafson was a 5-and-4 winner over Na On Min. A quarterfinalist twice here, Gustafson, the 19th seed, today will face 14th seed Morgan Pressel, who came back late to beat Jimin Kang on the 20th hole.
Michelle Wie, the No. 8 seed, was one down at the turn but rallied to beat Stacy Prammanasudh (50th) 2-up . . . Christina Kim (40th seed) lost, 4 and 2, to 27th Jee Young Lee, while No. 44 Natalie Gulbis lost, 5 and 4, to No. 29 Candie Kung.
No. 16 Brittany Lincicome, winner here in 2006, was ousted by No. 62 Beatriz Recari, 1-up. Top seed Jiyai Shin advanced, 3 and 2, over No. 42 Kyeong Bae.
The remaining field of 32 trims to 16 today. After two rounds tomorrow, the semifinals and championship match will be played Sunday.
