Juli Inkster stays connected to the game and is still collecting awards.
Logan Riely, Getty Images
BELMONT, MICHIGAN | Here’s a different scene: There is an LPGA event going on just a few yards away on a magnificent June day in Michigan, but the accomplished pro sitting directly across in player dining doesn’t have her clubs. It would make great fodder for some 3 a.m., cold-sweat nightmare if it weren’t something that Juli Inkster is finding so absolutely glorious.
Inkster is in Michigan on this day as the guest of Cathy Cooper, the longtime tournament director for the Meijer LPGA Classic outside of Grand Rapids. There were no clubs required, which delighted Inkster, who gleefully wheeled her small carry-on bag down the aisle of her flight and hoisted it into an overhead bin. That’s a dream moment for somebody who spent decades lugging two weeks of clothes and heavy golf clubs around the world.
Inkster is in Michigan to, well, be Juli Inkster. Shake some hands, kiss some babies, talk a little golf, visit with younger players, share some funny stories. To just be there. It is a task that she takes on and performs exceptionally. For Inkster, who will turn 64 on June 24, her playing days are fading, which is not easy for the ultimate competitor, but she is finding peace with that fact. She is in a great place in life and expresses her gratitude.
Finally, people who spent all those years watching Inkster are fully appreciating what they witnessed. It was special, wasn’t it? The USGA gave her the 2022 Bob Jones Award, the organization’s highest honor. In March in Boston, Inkster accepted the Francis Ouimet Award. In Ohio a few weeks back, Jack Nicklaus and the Captains Club at Memorial made Inkster and the late Tom Weiskopf their tournament honorees.
“I’m like, Are you kidding me?” said Inkster, who won 31 LPGA titles, seven of them majors, and made an indelible mark on the Solheim Cup, one of the key figures in really placing it on the map. “It was great having my kids [daughters Hayley and Cori] there, because they were out there on the road with me. They’ve finally figured out that all the hard work you put in, sometimes, if you do the right things, it pays off.”
Inkster had another significant moment in Ohio. At the Memorial, she announced the 2024 winner of the Juli Inkster Award during the same week when the Memorial’s famed host was naming his Jack Nicklaus Award winners. That was a first. Inkster always had a soft spot for education, putting a professional career on hold and returning to San Jose State as a senior to fulfill a commitment and earn her degree. (It was a win-win; Inkster won 17 tournaments.) The Inkster Award honors a female player who returns and completes a final year of eligibility. This year’s winner was LSU’s Ingrid Lindblad.
“Juli would never describe herself as a ‘mentor.’ She’s a goofball most of the time, actually. But she has stayed connected to the game.” – Wendy Ward
Winning the Inkster is an honor accompanied by some nice perks. Lindblad earned an exemption into the LPGA’s Portland Classic, to be played August 1-4. She also advances to the second stage of LPGA Q-School this fall and will receive $50,000 from the Juli Inkster Foundation to help offset expenses Lindblad will incur as she gets started in the pro game. The best perk of all? Two days spent with Inkster as part of a mentorship retreat in Northern California. Lots of today’s top pros might place a high bid on that one.
“She was always a great friend to me,” said longtime LPGA pro Wendy Ward, now a teaching professional, at the KPMG Women’s PGA. “I lived up here [Washington state] and sometimes the weather isn’t great, and she would say, ‘Come on down. Let’s go practice.’
“Juli would never describe herself as a ‘mentor.’ She’s a goofball most of the time, actually. But she has stayed connected to the game.”
When Ward began to feel a little disconnected, Inkster asked her to fill an assistant captain’s role in the Solheim Cup. Three times. The experience filled Ward with a treasure chest of memories.
“Juli has the biggest heart you can believe,” Ward said. “I think a lot of people feel that about her, that she’s one of the best.”
From three consecutive U.S. Amateur victories – Inkster was Tiger Woods before Tiger Woods – to all those wins on the LPGA, to the Solheim triumphs, to her two gritty U.S. Open victories, Inkster always has been a golf warrior. That same first week in August that Lindblad will be playing in Portland, Inkster will be in Pennsylvania, teeing it up at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, competing at Fox Chapel. Her competitor switch will be flipped to “on.” It’s a tournament, after all, and if you think Inkster ever would take any tournament lightly, try thinking again.
She played in an LPGA Legends event and could not believe the jitters and nerves she was experiencing on the opening tee. It was as if she were a rookie again.
“I was like, Seriously? You know?” Inkster said, laughing. So now she is thinking about adding the LPGA stop in Canada, the CPKC Women’s Open on July 25-28, before heading to Fox Chapel, you know, just to work out the nerves.
Said Ward, “She shows up every time ready to play and kick your butt. I love that about her.”
Growing up with two older brothers made Inkster super-competitive, and it served her well. Between the ropes, she was the consummate grinder. She never figured she was the best at anything, and that pushed her and propelled her. There was never any give-up or give-in churning inside Juli Inkster.
“I was always working out there, going to find something out, one way or another,” she said. “That was probably my highest quality.”
“I might be out there an hour and a half. I putt a little bit, maybe chip a little bit. I probably do that maybe three times a week. It’s fun. I call it my church.” – Juli Inkster
Soon, Inkster is going to be a grandmother. Hayley is expecting a boy. Any doubt as to which sort of grandmother Inkster will be?
“I’m the fun one,” she said. “Lots of sugar.”
At home in California, on those quiet days with nobody around, she still likes to sneak off to the practice tee at Los Altos Golf & Country Club, where her husband, Brian, was the head pro for 37 years. She will put earphones in, turn on some tunes, and just hit balls. She still loves to practice. Nothing has changed.
Some days, if anyone is apt to join her, it’s the family dog. It’s quite peaceful.
“I might be out there an hour and a half. I putt a little bit, maybe chip a little bit,” she said. “I probably do that maybe three times a week. It’s fun. I call it my church.”
And nobody has more fun at church than the venerable golf reverend herself, Juli Inkster. Just make sure that she brings her clubs.
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