U.S. Women’s Open: 10 champions from The Babe to Karrie Webb
Karrie Webb – 2000, 2001
Back-to-back U.S. Women’s Open victories are rare. It’s happened seven times in the history of the Open: Mickey Wright (1958, 1959), Donna Caponi (1969, 1970), Susie Berning (1972, 1973), Hollis Stacy (1977, 1978), Betsy King (1989, 1990), Annika Sörenstam (1995, 1996), and Karrie Webb (200, 2001). Webb got the 10th spot on my top-10 list because she’s the most recent of these back-to-back champions.
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Karrie Webb is no stranger to golf’s winner’s circle. She has 57 worldwide pro wins on her resume. Seven of them are major championship titles.
At the time of her induction the youngest-ever Hall of Famer had been a dominant force across all the pro tours – ALPG, Ladies European Tour, LPGA of Japan, and LPGA – for three decades, since she turned pro in 1994.
Webb’s 2000 Open victory came at the 6516 yard par-72 Merit Club track in suburban Chicago. She was six years into her pro career and had already put the 1999 du Maurier Classic and 2000 Kraft Nabisco Championship on her resume. She added her third major championship title with her Open victory. (Tiger Woods was, almost simultaneously, winning his fourth major that week at St. Andrews.)
Webb outplayed some of the game’s dominant figures: Cristie Kerr, Laura Davies, Annika Sörenstam, Juli Inkster, Meg Mallon, Betsy King. It was reminiscent of the enduring rivalries of the 1950s and 1960s.
The following year, 2001, Webb became the 7th player to successfully defend her Open Championship title at Pine Needles Golf Club in North Carolina by outplaying the same list of challengers and contenders.
With her game fully dialed in, Karrie Webb went on that year to become, at the age of 27, the youngest winner of the LPGA Career Grand Slam with her victory at the LPGA Championship.
Next: Inbee Park's lessons from the links
While each Open Championship is dramatic in the moment, and each champion enjoys a tremendous personal achievement, some moments endure and become the the standards that those who follow will remember and attempt to emulate.