Take that, Donald Ross! Makes you want to turn some greens upside down, doesn’t it?
Yeah, it rained on Friday. It thundered a little and flashed a little lightning, but none of that deterred Webb from her appointed round.
It’s anything but surprising that Webb has taken the catbird’s seat in this championship. She’s heard and read so much about Annika Sorenstam in the last couple of months that she’s probably ready to cancel her subscription to Golf World and have the Golf Channel taken off her cable TV.
When you’ve been the top money winner, the LPGA Player of the Year and the No. 1 ranked golfer in the world for two straight years, you don’t run away and hide when your reign is threatened, though.
What you do is grab your clubs and fight back. With a birdie barrage. So what if Annika is something like $700,000 up in the dollar race. As Karrie said earlier this week, there’s still a lot of golf to be played this year. Then she went and played some of it on Friday.
Hey, suppose Webb does hang on and take the $520,000 winner’s share of the $2.9 million purse? Look how that whittles Sorenstam’s lead. Look out!
And whose record do you think Webb’s 65 broke? Sorenstam’s, that’s who. Annika held it with a 66 in the final round in 1996.
Know what? Webb wasn’t even surprised that she put up the 5-under-par 65.
“Not really,” she said. “I would have been happy with anything in red numbers today and five under is definitely in the red. But I don’t feel too surprised, because I played really well and didn’t make a lot of mistakes out there.”
As deeply as Webb is concentrating on her own game, she is very much aware of two facts about this Open: Thirteen-year old Morgan Pressel is here, and Nancy Lopez isn’t.
“It’s sad to see the day that Nancy Lopez isn’t playing a U.S. Open,” she said. “It’s just a hard thing. It’s good that the Open is open for anyone to qualify, but it’s unfortunate for Nancy that she had go back to it this year. I feel bad for her and I hope we see her back here again.”
As for the kid, who has been a huge hit with the media, fans and other players this week, Webb is delighted and amazed that she’s here.
“I saw an interview of her last night and she was in tears after shooting 77,” said Webb of Pressel. “And I thought … I was surprised that she broke 80, as much attention as she’s had. I know how tiresome that is even on an adult, let alone a 13-year-old kid.
“I would tell her that 77 is an unbelievable score, that I think what’s happened to her in the last month is something she’s never going to forget.”
Karrie and Morgan met in the women’s locker room on Monday and had a chat during the rain. But Morgan didn’t ask for Karrie’s autograph.
“I just told her to enjoy her week, because this is a bonus,” Webb said. “I can’t imagine how I would feel trying to qualify for the U.S. Open at 12.”
Although Web is from Queensland, Australia, she now lives in Boynton, Fla. Pressel lives only about 10 minutes away in Boca Raton. But Webb doesn’t think it’s likely that they’ll be getting together for a round of golf any time soon.
“I might let her ask me,” Webb said, “but I don’t know. I just think of how I was when I was a kid and I would never have put myself in that situation if you had paid me. I guess that I’m just a shy enough person that, as much as I’d like to play with a great player, I would never have put myself in a position to be that nervous over an 18-hole round of golf when it doesn’t count for anything.”
