Fried Egg Stories: The Qualifier

This episode of Frida Egg Stories is brought to you by the US Women's Open for the first time in its history. The US Women's Open will be held at the Iconic Olympic Club in San Francisco. Tune in June third through the sixth to watch history unfold and find out who we'll get to call themselves the greatest in the game. You can find scores and all sorts of fun content on US Women's Open dot com.

The fried Egg requires a different technique. What you need to do is actually square the face so they'll dig down underneath that bad lie and propel that ball right out onto the green.

Here's the thing.

Playing out of a buried lion of bunker is completely different than playing out of a nice clean lion of green side bunker.

You need to be aggressive on any show weather it's sitting cleanly for its Friday Egg.

Well, we've all faith that the dreaded Frida Egg not to be feared, though it's actually a pretty easy shot to hit.

Where at half Moon Bay Golf Links it is about seven thirty in the morning. Half Moon Bay is a little town on the coast of California between San Francisco and Santa Cruz. It's known as the home of this terrifying surf spot called Mavericks, where earlier this year a guy named Peter Mel caught maybe the greatest big wave of all time, just this massive, perfectly formed tube that

Just stairways and greens. Try to as many stairways and greens as I could.

That's Julie Inkster, California native Hall of Famer, seven times major champion. The last of her two US Women's Open titles came nineteen years ago at Prairie Dunes. And here she is at half Moon Bay, trying to qualify at the age of sixty and here playing partners. They're a little younger. One is sixteen years old and the other is fifteen. I'm Garrett Morrison, and this is Friday Stories

I have the privilege of serving as Senior Managing Director of Championships for the USJA.

And John has his own history as a qualifying hopeful.

As a young boy growing up, it was always my dream to play in the USO.

After picking the range and cleaning the carts the club I grew up at, I would always play the first three holes home, you know, whether it was a thirty footer or fifteen footer or a three footer that putt as the sun.

Was going down. It was always for one thing for me was to win the US Open.

And I think for about ten or twelve years, I always tried to qualify for the USO local sectional. I got sexual qualifying in those days it's now final qualifying twice, and I got within one stroke of a playoff in nineteen eighty two to play at Pebble Beach and a teammate of mine, Dick Zochel, and a gentleman, a good player in the Pacific Northwest in the Seattle aera at that time, Elwen Fanning qualified and I missed that playoff

So for John US Open qualifying, US Women's Open qualifying is about that childhood dream.

It doesn't matter what your background is, what your address was growing up, what type of clubs in your bag, the type of clothes on your back, or the shape of your swing, or the color of your skin, or or your religious background or not.

It just really matters. If you can get your.

Ball in the hole in the fewest number of strokes in qualifying, you earn your right to play.

And I think it really embodies the values.

Of our country, the meritocracy that that represents the democracy, the openness, the inclusivity.

And we're very proud to represent all of those values.

So the qualifier is doing a lot of work for the USGA, because golf at the elite level, at the major championship level, is an exclusive club in a lot of ways, very hard to break into even if you're really good. But the Qualifier is supposed to be different. It's supposed to be a truly level playing field, a kind of symbolic version of the American dream. It is precisely what's supposed to be open about the US Open,

He's among the most inspirational stories of you know, really earning your way into the US Open.

Trevino was a club pro from El Paso when he qualified in nineteen sixty six. He made the cut, qualified again in sixty seven, placed fifth, earned his exemption for the sixty eight US Open, which he won at Oak Hill.

There as your United stikes when the Champion.

And similar things have happened at the US Women's Open, where sectional qualifying has been around since nineteen seventy six. Think of two thousand and five. A qualifier named Bertie Kim holds out from a bunker to win at Cherry Hills.

History might be kid.

And tied for second behind her are two amateur qualifiers, Brittany Lang and Morgan Pressel, both of whom go on to become major champions themselves. But beyond the obvious spectacular results, there are many more stories of players who simply qualify, get solid finishes, and use it as a jumping off point. That's in b Park at the two thousand and seven US Women's Open, where she finished fourth. It's Lexi Thompson

Boy, we missed. We missed it terribly.

We as the USJA had to develop from scratch a process.

That identified a field. But let me tell you, Garret, it was heartbreaking to make that decision.

Qualifying is part of our DNA. It's part of what makes our championships so special, the ability to follow your dream.

And now USDA qualifying is back. It's one of those small glimmers of hope that twenty twenty one has brought. And that's really what drew me out to Half Moon Bay on April twenty sixth. It had been a hard year. I just wanted to see some dreams come true.

I'm Julie, I'm Harper, Harper, Nice to meet you. Hey, Matt, nice to meet you. I want to meet you.

It's a little after eight o'clock and there's a group around the first t You've got some officials from the Northern California Golf Association, which is running the qualifier. You've got players and caddies, friends and family, and for the group that's about to tee off a few media.

I'll take the Harper argue.

I mean, at first, I just thought they were going to call out everybody's names, just kind of like how they always do.

That's Harper Clements, sixteen years old, and she's paired with Julie Inkster.

And when they announced her, they called out all her titles that she's won, and that was a little shocking. You look around at all the people and you're going, oh, I'm playing with the player that has actually won this tournament before, the winner of the nineteen ninety nine in two thousand and two US Women's Open, Julie Inkster.

But this actually wasn't the first time Harper had met Julie.

Yeah.

So I used to every year go to the a Anda Inspiration Tournament, or we used to be the Dinah Shore because my family had a house down there, and I would go and watch the players and I would a lot of times wait for them to come off at the eighteenth pole, hoping to get a signed ball or something. And when I went there, she took off the glove that she had come out of scoring wearing and she signed it and she handed it to me. I was about ten, I think at the time, and

So that was really cool, really special.

And at half Boon Bay in Harper's red golf bag, is that signed glove from Julie Inkster. She kept it all these years and she's playing to show it to Julie, but first they have to play from.

San Jose, California.

Please welcome Kara Romero.

On the tea box. I was actually really nervous.

That's Kiara Romero, fifteen years old and the third member of Inkster's group.

When I was hitting, there were like ten people watching filming and everybody was there, and I think that's like the most people that were watching me on the first tea So it was a little overwhelming and stuff.

She told me after it was the most nervous she's ever been in her life.

That's Rick, Kiara's dad. I asked him to join us for the interview.

She went immediately after Julie's, so I was like, and now on the tea box.

After Julie Easter just hit her t shots.

I think at fifteen, I'd be pretty darn nervous too.

I keep having to remind myself that Kiara is fifteen because she carries herself like an LPGA pro, you know, study demeanor, sharp Nike outfit, strict pre shot routine, and she's a heck of a player.

I think last year, my whole year was really good for my local tournaments. I was Player of the Year for JT and C.

What does that stand for?

Junior Tour of Northern California. Gotcha?

She was like one of the youngest actually win player of the year.

Golf is at the center of Kiara's life. She's been going to online school since eighth grade pre pandemic, basically in order to accommodate her travel and practice schedule.

I usually wake up at like seven, workout for an hour, and then eat breakfast and do score work for as as much as I can, and then we go to the golf course around twelve, practice for two to three hours, and then play eighteen holes and then come home and just finish the rest of my schoolwork.

So Kiera is no ordinary junior. She's a contender in this qualifier. If she has two good rounds, she could get one of those three spots at the US Women's Open, San.

Francisco, California.

Please welcome Harper.

Clement.

Harper has a different mindset going in.

So my goal was to break eighty five both times, because one it's like the hardest golf for us I've ever played in a tournament.

Now, make no mistake, Harper can play hard course as well. She's literally a junior merit member at Olympic Club. But she also goes to a high school that doesn't have a girls golf team, and she could have played on the boys team this year, but she decided to do field hockey instead.

I'm goalie and I just did it to make friends and to kind of play another sport in high school.

So Harper's really in Half Moon Bay for the experience to play as well as she can, but she has no real expectation of advancing against highly ranked juniors, LPGA pros and Julie Inkster. Now, as for Julie, she's here for one very specific reason.

Well, the only reason why I did it was because it was an Olympic Club. I've grown up, you know, in the Bay Area and my whole life, and Olympic Club has always been a great venue for open for.

The men, for the men, But this is the first time Olympic Club has hosted the US Women's Open, And Julie see's real significance in that.

Oh yeah, definitely, it's It's huge. I mean, whenever you could play iconic venues, I think it really ups the status of the competition and women's golf. You know, everybody knows the holes and how it's played, and the fog and the history. It just helps tells the story. But I didn't want to ask for an intention because I just didn't feel like I deserved it, you know, I wanted I wanted to qualify.

On my own.

Yes, have a good day, Lady, prey good.

So the Inkster group sets off, and Kiara, who says she normally doesn't get nervous, is a little shaky in Julie's presence.

I guess it affected my game for a little bit, for the first few holes putting. I guess it affected the most. And I three putt in the first hole.

Kiara drops another shot on the second hole, but she isn't the only one who's struggling on the greens.

My putting was horrible. You know, when you haven't played in anything, no tournament draining, it's hard to get the competitive juicus.

Julie Bogie's the second and suddenly Harper Clements is beating Julie Inkster with pars.

I thought she was going to blow me out of the water, if I'm being honest, I was going to be flour back after four holes.

But by the end of the front nine, Harper falls back to Julie and Kiara, and everyone's battling a bit because frankly, the course is tough.

Half Inmbay's really windy. Those greens, a lot of them can be really narrow, especially on some of the longer holes, So if you're not hitting an eight on into the greens, you can't hold the green. You just don't have the shot.

And the green corner exactly smooth. They have a full location corner, exactly easy.

I think my game was okay, but my putting was really struggling.

She's typically a really outstanding hutter and I think she was just the speed was off a little bit, and the greens were difficult.

They were really fast, like three peters. I would be hitting way too hard. I lipped out so many.

Yeah, and it seemed like the pins were in some interesting spots too.

Yeah, behind bunkers, like in the corners and stuff. It was hard to get too.

I mean, they don't want you to be able to get a bunch of birdies. I mean, the goal of the US Open is to shoot even They want the leader to shoot even so, they don't want the pins to be accessible, they want them to be hard.

At the end of the morning round, Harper has actually achieved her goal of breaking eighty five. She shoots eighty two. Julie and Kiara not as happy with the rounds. They're tied for seventeenth after shooting seventy seven six over. The leader is at one under, but only seven players have broken seventy four in the morning, So going into the afternoon round, Julian and Kiara, well they're not exactly in it.

So in the morning I started off, I was three over through like six holes, and I was like pretty upset about that.

Lucy is eighteen now, but she still remembers that day very well.

And then I ended up playing the rest of the whole whatever, twenty eight holes in like three under par.

She was the youngest player ever to qualify for the US Women's Open, and when she showed up at Pinehurst and pigtails and her American flag themed outfit, Lucy became a bit of a media sensation. What was that like as an eleven year old? Was it one of those things that was kind of intimidating or were you young enough so that you were just kind of enjoying yourself.

Yeah, I definitely was pretty young, so I was just kind of like, I took it as it came, and I probably didn't fully comprehend what was going on.

For example, she remembers being in the Pinehurst clubhouse after one of her rounds.

I was watching like the NBA playoffs, and they were like showing my highlights during the game, and I remember being like, oh that, I was like, dude, kept showing it like every like ten minutes. I was like, Oh, that's so funny, but it's kind of annoying someone to watch the game. Yeah, And so like looking back then now like like, that's so crazy to me that I had been on such a big platform, and I think at the time I had, I didn't really fully comprehend it.

Lucy went on to have an incredible junior career. But the other reason you might know about her is that a couple of years ago she ran a foul of the USGA. Basically, she appeared in an ad for the Apple Watch, and while our family says she didn't get paid, the USGA found that she had breached a rule of amateur status and gave her a one time warning. Some people thought that wasn't enough, and Lucy, as well as the USGA, took a lot of criticism, which say what

Yes, I was definitely disappointed, but I knew going into that season that, you know, I probably was going to be playing another year in the Cemetri Tour.

I think there's a lot of perspective in terms of, yeah, that sucked for me, but that year sucked so much more for everybody else.

So Lucy's back on the Semetra and she's doing all right. She's thirty third on the money list, but she could use a break and getting one of the three qualifying spots out of Half Moon Bay for the US Women's Open than doing well at Olympic Club, that would be a break.

The day before the tournament, I remember feeling pretty nervous because I really really wanted to play Olympic Club and that's been my goal probably for the last few years.

I mean, I really enjoyed playing kind of you know, northern California, like that kind of golf Olympic club kind of golf where it's like, you know, tree lined, and I knew that it would be a pretty good opportunity if I could get in, and so that's why I was really put a little more importance into this open than maybe others in the past. And so I felt really nervous, and that was actually the most nervous I'd probably fell in them really long time.

In the morning, Lucy posts a decent two over round, and in the afternoon she makes the turn at three over on the day. At this point, she's starting to check live scoring on her phone and she sees that there's a handful of players hanging around where she is, between even par and a few over. They're the ones who are really in the mix for those three qualifying and two alternate spots.

So I knew that it was close there. But I also knew that this is a course where like in the afternoon, like when it gets windier, the sours can pick up, and they had some really tricky pins out there.

Especially on the back nine, which is what Lucy played first in the afternoon. Now she's onto the relatively scorable front nine and she makes a birdie putt on the third hole, her twelfth. She's two over, but the wind is picking up. And on the sixth hole, her fifteenth, she has an approach directly downwind, and I flushed.

It a little bit too much and it just like it bounced over the green. There's like a group of ten or twenty people behind the green on that hole, and they're all like, it was so funny. I remember walking over to the green and they're like, you got this. She's totally gonna like make part here something.

And I was like kind of upset about my second shot, and so I was like trying to like know, you know, folkusn't I knew that that ship back there is really tough.

She winds up with about a ten footer to stay two over. This is her most important put of the day. It's going to be a turning point one way or another, and she makes it. I'm standing next to one of her family members who lets loose with a big fist pump, and the crowd behind the green is enjoying it too, And then I when I made.

The plot, they all started cheerings. That felt pretty good. Yeah, there weren't that many people there being pretty loud.

Yeah, but the round's not done. A couple of leaders have posted scores, one at one over, another at two over. And on the seventh hole, Lucy makes a bogie. On the eighth her recovery from a green side bunker looks like it's going in, but then it doesn't.

It was right on the lip, well.

Like one more turn of the ball and that would have went in right yeah, yeah, yeah, oh my goodness. And on the ninth hole, her last of the day, she has a five foot putt.

For birdie and so you know, I I didn't.

I didn't.

I don't know what happened on the putt. I hit an okay stroke, I just it just didn't go in.

So after the round you finished, you're walking off the green. I'm not sure if it was your family who was there with you. I believe they. I believe they were right. Yeah, were you kind of checking in with them, looking at the leaderboard and and sort of figuring things out?

Yeah, I was checking the leaderboard the whole time. I was pretty heated after I missed that hut because I was like, damn it. If I made it, I would have felt a lot better because at that point, you know, some of the players hadn't finished yet, and so I was just checking up on the leaderboard and I just sat in my car for like fifty minutes, like just I don't know, like just being upset and moping around.

I don't know.

Lucy is at three over exactly in third place. There are a couple of players close behind her who haven't finished yet, and all she can do is wait and stew over the missed opportunities. Meanwhile, Julian Inster's group is still on the course, and while Julian harper clements have fallen back a bit, ki is making a bit of a charge.

I was like starting to get my game back. I was hitting approaches closer, and my putting was a lot better.

Like Lucy, Kiara is playing the easier front nine as her back nine, and she gets birdies on three and four.

After my birdies, I thought like, if I could just get a few more, maybe I'd have a chance.

And stuff, She's at seven over and it's starting to look like five or six could be a playoff for an alternate spot. Remember, in addition, to the three qualifiers out of Half Moon Bay, there will be two alternates, and alternates sometimes get.

In and I've seen her catch fire where she can go pretty low in around, so I always had confidence that she was going to be somewhere within the vicinity.

But then bogie's for Kiara on six and seven, and on number nine.

The last hole, I four putted, which happened like once in my whole life.

Mus be nice.

Actually yeah, when I was finished, I was pretty mad about that. I don't know how it happened. I mean, I just slipped out a three footer and did it again, and I was like, Okay, how much you can do about it.

Kiara finishes at eleven over, tied for eleventh place. Two players at six over are the alternatives. Kathleen Scavo, a pro and a former standout at the University of Oregon, is the medallist.

Today with the plus one.

Kelly tan and LPGA tour player, is in second two, and Lucy Lee in third place. Qualifies for the US Women's Open for the third time as a teenager.

And plus three.

Yes, once you were certain that you were getting through, what went through your head?

What were the feelings at that point relief probably, and then after that I felt really excited, you know, when I started thinking forward to getting to play Olympic Cup. I was really excited.

Over by the scorer's table, Julie, Harper and Kiara are wrapping things up. Julie shot seventy seven seventy nine. Harper struggled in her second round, and obviously Kiara was sad about her four putt go off.

It hard, it just doesn't work out.

But everyone's kind of keeping it light. Harper approaches Julie and she has the glove Julie gave her all those years ago at Mission Hills about ten years ago.

I wanted to play the A and I inspirations, Oh no way, that's that's.

Oh that's great, that's sweet. I had just asked her if I could take a picture because I wanted to remember the moment obviously, and I wanted to show her the glove that I had brought along and kept in my bag with.

Me all day.

After the round, I sent her a thank you card and my glove that I played with that round.

I signed it.

Yeah, she was really cute. I signed a glove for her a long time ago, and she set me in the mail, she sent me a signed glove by her, so when she gets to be a big star, so I'll have her glove. So I thought that was really cute.

There you go again. And then after I asked to take a picture with her, and then she goes, hey, this is a future champion right here, and that.

Was like, wow, future star right here.

Yeah, she's a good player. Yeah she's going to be good for a while. I mean I didn't even start while I was fifteen, so she's got a bright future ahead of her, that's for sure.

I mean, for a champion to say that, a champion of the US Open, it's a hall of famer to say that to me, Like it inspired me to just keep playing and competing and practicing, working hard.

You know, I just couldn't wait to get home and put my feet up and have a cocktail.

It's a long walk. It's no joke.

God, it's just forever to play. Oh my god.

Julie says this was her last US Women's Open qualifier, so it's worth reflecting for a minute on the amazing arc of her career. She starts when she's fifteen, qualifies for her first US Women's Open, three years later, wins majors at ages twenty three, twenty four, and twenty eight. Then she has kids in her golf career kind of stalls for a few years, but somehow in her late thirties into her forties, she gets even better than she was in her twenties.

It was kind of like, you know, kind of a tale of two careers, you know, one before kids, well really three, one in in the middle when I had kids, and then after kits. So it wasn't always smooth sailing, that's for sure. You know, I had a lot of struggles, a lot of down years traveling with kids when you're young and they don't they didn't have datecare out there, and it was just a lot going on. So but you know what, I wouldn't changed it for anything. You know,

And after it all, after the seven majors spread across three decades, after the kids and the puppies, Juliingster still wants to grind out a thirty six hole qualifier at age sixty because she believes that the Olympic Club Open is an important moment for women's golf. And she's playing alongside two young women who weren't even born the last time she won a major, and somehow she gets both of them what they're looking for, and they're looking for really different things.

You know.

Kiara, this is how she answered without hesitation, when I asked what she loves about golf the competition.

I just really love playing against other people, testing my ability and winning.

And so it's not surprising that Kiara saw that competitiveness reflected back at her in Julie.

It was pretty cool to see someone that's been playing golf her whole life to just want to still compete.

Yeah, I mean, it's it's got to be like, you know, the fact that she's sixty and she's still grinding away.

Like yeah, it's like definitely something I would want to do.

And then there's Harper who would like to play college golf, but ultimately it's not about competition for her.

I think that.

Golf has the ability to grow different aspects of your life. Outside of it. So not only can you make network connections with other people, it teaches you patience. Plus it's something I enjoy and it's a nice way to just relax and enjoy something.

And at this point in Julie's life that's basically where she is too.

I've played because I like to, because I want to play in these combinations.

Right, So, after all these years, golf is still fun for you.

Yeah, I love it. It's a lot of fun.

So to go back to my initial question, why is the qualifier important in the world of golf. Part of the answer is certainly what John Bodenhammer talks about, the idea that anyone can qualify. If you're good enough, you get a seat at the table. But looking at the results of the Half Moon Bay Qualifier, the players who got through are more or less who you'd expect. Three professional golfers, including Lucy Lee, who did this when she

I think it's important for a lot of these kids to.

Be able to have the opportunity to try to qualify and play against the best and see how they stack up, whether you're going to be a pro or not a pro, or just the opportunity of playing a great golf course is playing against great competition, and.

Then there's always that chance, right the big maybe, maybe something incredible could happen. This episode of Friday Stories produced by me Garrett Morrison, with transcript assistants from Meg Atkins. Our executive producer is Andy Johnson. Big Thanks to John Bodenhammer, Julie Inkster, Lucy Lee Harper and Cindy Clementz and Kiara and Rick Romero and thanks as well to the NCGA for just letting me walk around the qualifier with a microphone. That was nice. So we'd love to know what you

Very good.

One thing, how many fold one?

And how old were six?

So when she was six she got her first hole in one and she got one every year for the next seven.

Years, No kidding, Yes, so she's got a like how.

Many I have nine?

Nine hole in once?

How does that happen?

I've never heard of anything like it.

Wait, wait, so you got your first hole in one when you were six? Yeah, this, and you got another one when you're seven.

Eight, yeah, nine, And then I think had two when I was ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen.

Fourteen, fifteen, and you've kept the streak going your fifteen year old year.

I haven't had one. I haven't had one when I was fifteen, but up to fourteen, I've had one every year.

I'm sure it's coming