Closing 64 Earns Lindley a Promotion in U.S. Senior Women's Open

USGA

PITTSBURGH -- It was almost as if Leta Lindley was serving an apprenticeship the first two times she played in the U.S. Senior Women's Open. The former LPGA Tour regular became eligible for the Senior Open on June 1, 2022, when she turned 50. Not long thereafter, she finished second by a single stroke to Jill McGill in that year's Senior Open. A year later, it was the same result, exept that she was runner-up to a  different champion, Trish Johnson, but once again by a single stroke.

On Sunday, she received -- or more accurately, she earned -- a promotion with a sensational final round of 7-under-par 64 at Fox Chapel Golf Club. And on her third try, Lindley became the Senior Women's Open champion with a 72-hole aggregate of 275 (9 under).

Kaori Yamamoto led by five strokes when the day began, and she didn't play all that badly. She birdied the 17th and 18th holes for an even par round of 71. That equalled the fifth-best score of the day, but the 56-year-old veteran of the Japan LPGA and Legends of the LPGA tours couldn't withstand the charge by Lindley, and she had to settle for second place, two behind Lindley at 277.

Lindley turned professional in 1994, after graduating  from the University of Arizona with a degree in communications. She played in 294 LPGA tournaments before she got her first -- and as it turned out, only -- victory on the women's tour. Her LPGa Tour career earnings were just over $3 million. For her efforts at Fox Chapel during the past week, however, she received $1.8 million.

Nobuko Kizawa shot 69 on Sunday and moved up into sole possession of third place at 281. 

Annika Sorenstam, who collected 10 major championships duriing her slightly more than a dozen years as a regular on the LPGA Tour -- and won the Senior Women's Open in 2021, her first year of eligibility --  shot 71 for the third time in four days. That gave her an overall 282, and fourth place. The other Hall of Famer in the top 10 was Juli Inkster. She shot 73 and ended up alone in sixth place at 284.

Lindley came flying out of the starting blocks Sunday. She birdied the par-5 second hole, and the par-3 third. By the time she got to the ninth tee, she had three more birdies, at the par-4 fifth, the par-3 sixth and the eighth. Playing one group behind her, Yamamoto was making bogeys at the fifth and sixth, but getting one back with a birdie at the relatively short, par-5 eighth (453 yards). That got her back into a tie with Lindley at 7 under for the first 62 holes. 

The issue was settled, basically, on the first six holes of the back nine. Lindley hit a couple of suspect birdie putts at the 11th and 13th holes, but saved her pars with a couple of clutch par putts in the 5-to-7-foot range. That enabled her to remain tied with Yamamoto. But Yamamoto three-putted the 13th hole, and a minute later, up ahead, Lindley made a 20-foot putt for a birdie. Another bogey by Yamamoto at the 14th, combined, in quick succession, with Lindley's birdie at the 15th expanded Lindley's lead -- which hadn't existed 20 minutes earlier -- to four shots. 

That four-shot lead meant that Yamamoto's valedictory birdies at the 17th and 18th holes didn't really matter.

Lisa Grimes, the four-time Minnesota Women's State Open champion who is Director of the Alexandria Junior Golf Academy and plays occasionally on the LPGA Legends Tour, was in the top three on the Leeaderboard for the first two days with rounds of 68 and 71. But she slipped out of the top 10 on a rainy Saturday, and her 75 on Sunday put her in a tie for 17th at 291. That was one better than the total for former University of Minnesota women's coach Michele 
Redman (T19, 292), although she turned in one of the best rounds of the day, a 69.


2024 U.S. Senior Women's Open

At Fox Chapel Golf Club

Par 71, 5,764 yards

Pittsburgh

Final results 

1. Leta Lindley                       69-71-71-64--275 (-9)

2.  Kaori Yamamoto               67-67-71-71--277

3. Nobuko Kizawa                 73-71-69-68--281

4. Annika Sorenstam             71--69-71-71--282

5. Mikino Kubo                       70-71-70-72--283

6. Julie Inkster                        72-68-71-73--284

T7. Christa Johnson                68-70-77-71--286

T7. Junko Omote                     72-71-72-71--286

T17. Lisa Grimes                     68-71-77-75--291

T19. Michele Redman             77-74-72-69--292

T31. Karen Weiss                    72-75-78-71--296

What it took to make the cut -- 151

Did not make the cut 

Barbara Moxness                          70-75--154