|
Karrie Webb was a 20-year-old unknown when she first won theWomen’s British Open, before it was a major championship and beforeshe had any idea how good she was. That was in 1995. “I’m setting goals now that seven years ago I never dreamed ofsetting,” Webb said as she waited for a series of flights thateventually took her to the Ayrshire coast of Scotland. High goals come with lofty expectations, and Webb agrees thisseason hasn’t been her best. She has only one victory heading intothe British Open, which starts Thursday on the Ailsa Course atTurnberry. Typically a fast starter — 16 of her 27 victories have comebefore summer — Webb barely got out of the blocks before AnnikaSorenstam had won five times, including a major championship, andhad virtually wrapped up the player of the year and LPGA Tour moneytitles. Where does that leave Webb? “I’m setting little goals for the rest of the year,” she said.”But when you’ve achieved so much, little goals don’t seem to meana lot.” One big goal that remains is to win the British Open.golf match golf star At stake is a chance to become the first woman to win the SuperSlam (the Nabisco, U.S. Open, LPGA Championship, British Open andnow-defunct du Maurier Classic), and to join Mickey Wright, theonly woman to have won a major four years in a row. Wright won amajor every year from 1958-64. “It could still turn out to be a good year,” Webb said. Her problem is defining exactly what a great year is. She already has been No. 1 in the world. She already has won thecareer Grand Slam, becoming the youngest woman (26) to capture allfour majors. She already has enough points for the LPGA Hall ofFame. Johnny Miller once said that when he got to the top of themountain, he looked around and wondered, “What now?” He said thedifference between him and Jack Nicklaus was that Nicklaus reachedthe top and looked for another mountain. All Webb sees is Mount Everest. Like so many other great players, she has fallen into the trapof putting her entire emphasis on the majors at the expense ofeverything else. That could lead to boom or bust, with not much inbetween. She was tied for the lead going into the final round of theNabisco Championship, only to falter Sunday and finish seventh. Shewas two strokes out of the lead going into the weekend at the LPGAChampionship, but went 72-74 and tied for fourth.Golf Driver City Then came the U.S. Women’s Open, where she had a chance tobecome the first player to win three in a row. She opened with a 79and missed the cut. “I wanted to play well in the majors. Those are the onlytournaments I focused on this year,” Webb said. “Apart frommaking sure my game is progressing, I haven’t really focused onanything else. I might need to change the way I look at the year.” The focus wasn’t always this narrow. Webb was splitting time between Europe and the Futures Tour in1995 when she won the British Open at Woburn over Sorenstam andJill McGill.http://www.golfdrivercity.com/ She earned her LPGA card that fall by finishing secondat Q-school, despite playing with a broken bone in her hand. The rest is history. She sandwiched a victory between two runner-up finishes in herfirst three LPGA starts, then closed out her remarkable rookieseason with a victory in the LPGA Tour Championship to become thefirst woman to surpass $1 million in a year.golf match “I was going to give myself until this age to see if I couldmake it,” Webb said. “Yeah, I wanted to win rookie of the year.But I didn’t think I would win four times and win the money list. Ididn’t know I could get better, and I did. Not a lot of people cansay they were No. 1, even for a day. I never thought I would beable to say that.” She can’t be faulted for zeroing in on the majors, the benchmarkof greatness in golf. Webb was only 24 when she was hounded byquestions of what it would take to win the big one, and the answerwas swift and decisive. No one — not even Tiger Woods — completed the career Grand Slamas quickly as Webb, who won all four in a span of eight majors. What next? Staying on top has been more difficult than getting there. Webbmakes no apologies, refusing to let the game consume her life. Shesays she is working just as hard now as when she won seven timesand two majors in 2000.Golf latest information The weather in south Florida was perfect last week, and Webblonged to take her boat out to the Atlantic Ocean. Instead, shespent two days under a steamy sun, pounding balls to get ready forthe British Open. “Maybe I would have gone fishing if I’d already won a couple ofmajors,” she said. She can’t catch Sorenstam this year, although there is still onebig fish waiting across the pond.
Related Articles -
golf,
| 
