Big Momma JoAnne Carner Shoots Age After Replacing Non-Conforming Wedge
JoAnne Carner, aka “Big Momma” is an LPGA Hall of Famer. She won 43 Tour events, she’s the only woman to have won the U.S. Girls’ Junior, U.S. Women’s Amateur, and U.S. Women’s Open titles, and was the first person ever to win three different USGA championship events. Tiger Woods is the only man to have won the equivalent three USGA titles. Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Carol Semple Thompson have also won three different USGA titles via Wikipedia.
During 2004, she still played 10 tournaments and became the oldest player to make a cut on the LPGA Tour at age 65. Sam Snead has the men’s mark for lowest beating-your-age score at the 1979 Quad Cities Open posting a 66 at 67-years.
Yesterday, she played in the first U.S. Senior Women’s Open. And, she shot her age (79) with a birdie on the par-5 18th. Golf.com’s Jessica Marksbury with the details.
The 79-year-old Carner had an inauspicious start at the inaugural Senior Women’s Open at Chicago Golf Club on Thursday, carding five bogeys and a triple in her first nine holes. But things changed for the better after the turn, when she made three birdies on the back nine — including one on the par-5 18th — to neutralize two bogeys on Nos. 11 and 13.
Add it all together and you get 79 — a remarkable acheivement in just about anyone’s mind. But not JoAnne Carner’s.
“I just hit some atrocious shots,” Carner told Golfweek after the round. “Like golf 101. Really, I can shoot this course under par.”
However, this was after having to relinquish her beloved (and non-conforming grooved) 20-year-old wedge as GolfWeek’s Beth Ann Nichols shares.
At the end of the table was a gentleman from the USGA who manages equipment conformance who asked Carner a few questions. It wasn’t long before Carner realized that her trusty Wilson R-90 wedge wouldn’t make it to the first tee. Carner estimates she’s had the club in her bag for three decades, roughly the same amount of time she has waited for a Senior Women’s Open.
“Oh, it was awful,” said Carner of parting with a club that’s been critical to her game around the greens and from 75 yards out for so many years. It felt like parting with an old friend.
When head pro John Guyton got wind of Carner’s predicament, he pulled out the wedges that had been cleared away from the pro shop to make room for championship merchandise and presented them to Carner. The 79-year-old legend whittled it down to two wedges, and Guyton adjusted both to match the loft and lie of old faithful. Guyton had the clubs out to Carner before she’d even reached the first green of her practice round. She wound up choosing a Titleist Vokey 54-degree wedge that was bent to 55.
It’s not often that the USGA places someone from its conforming department at registration, but with so many players in the field who are competing in a USGA event for the first time in a long time, it seemed like a good idea. This week, USGA officials tested more than 20 clubs onsite. Seven didn’t make the cut.
Here’s the entire non-conforming explanation (From GolfWrx.com) for you golf equipment geeks.
