LONDON, 9 July 2003 — Hilary Lunke’s unlikely victory at the US Women’s Open in an 18-hole playoff on Monday was a triumph for improvisation over conventional golfing wisdom.
The 24-year-old American — one of the shortest hitters in the women’s game — says her husband and caddie Tylar used to make fun of her club selection when he first carried her bag.
Instead of bag full of irons, Lunke gets by on a selection of woods, ranging from a three to an 11, the latter coming regularly to her aid at Pumpkin Ridge on Monday where she holed a 10-foot birdie putt on the 18th to win by a shot from compatriot Angela Stanford.
“I had to give Tylar a sheet of what my game is like, how far each club goes, so that he felt like he could answer me if I asked him an advice question,” Lunke said on the US Women’s Open website after winning the biggest prize in the women’s game.
“Otherwise we’re standing over a shot from 150 yards and I say I’m hitting a six-iron and he says, whoa, I’d hit a wedge.
“I’ve had to teach him a little bit about my game, but he adapted really quickly.”
Lunke, who met Tylar at Stanford University while studying sociology, hits marginally over 200 yards through the air with a driver, meaning that she has to approach a course differently to the longer hitters in the game.
“I don’t think he realized how much shorter I am than the average woman, he teased me about that for a long time,” said Lunke who hits her trusty 11-wood 165 yards. “He told me my 11 wood looks like a garden shovel.
“But once he saw the way I hit it, he loved the club as much as I do. He said he would defy anybody to hit a four-iron as good as I hit the 11 wood. As a short hitter the majority of shots I hit on Tour are between 160 and 180 yards, so I’d rather have as many clubs as I can in that area.”
Having scraped through the qualifying school in 2001, then through the qualifying rounds for this year’s US Open, Lunke will now gain an exemption for the next 10 Women’s Open championships.
Her winner’s check of $560,000 dwarfs her total pre-Open career earnings of $65,000 and means money will not be a worry as she prepares to move to Austin, Texas where Tylar is to attend University of Texas business school.
“He was thrilled to be accepted there, and it was pretty automatic we’d move there once he got in,” said Lunke who hails from Minnesota where she used to caddie for her father before taking up the game as a 13-year-old.
Refreshed Els in Upbeat
Mood for Loch Lomond
In Loch Lomond, Scotland, fresh from a fortnight’s break, Ernie Els is in confident mood as he prepares for this week’s Scottish Open and the defense of his British Open title at Royal St. George’s in nine days.
The world number two, who has not played tournament golf since tying for 11th at last month’s Buick Classic in the US, has always enjoyed the picturesque Loch Lomond layout, where he triumphed in 2000.
“It’s absolutely beautiful, even more so if the weather turns out to be good,” South African Els said on his official website.
“It’s one of the most immaculately prepared golf courses we play, anywhere in the world. It really is that good.”
Twice US Open champion Els heads a high-quality field for this week’s European Tour stop, which starts tomorrow and offers 2.2 million pounds ($3.61 million) in prize money.
However he will not have fond memories of last year’s event.
In rain-sodden conditions, he fluctuated between scores of 68, 74, 69 and 72 on his way to a share of 50th place. But his game then dovetailed the following week at Muirfield, where he clinched the 131st British Open in a four-way playoff.
