JoAnne “Big Mama” Carner still smokes cigarettes, though she’s tried to quit from time to time. The 85-year-old joked that she might quit again this week given how many stairs there are from the bag room to the locker room at Fox Chapel Golf Club in Pittsburgh.
Carner, a 43-time winner on the LPGA, won both her U.S. Women’s Open titles in the state of Pennsylvania – at the Kahkwa Club in Erie in 1971 and Rolling Green Golf Club in Springfield five years later. Her first USGA title dates back to the 1956 U.S. Girls’ Junior.
At this year’s U.S. Senior Women’s Open, Carner’s 50th career USGA championship, she has a more modest goal of making the cut. The top 50 and ties in the field of 120 will play the weekend in Pittsburgh.
“I haven’t made it yet,” she said of her five previous appearances.
And it’s not getting any easier, of course, with players more than three decades her junior. Not to mention the fact that Tuesday’s practice round was washed out and she has yet to see the 1923 Seth Raynor design.
For the past couple of years, the once long-bombing Carner has lamented over a loss of distance. She’d be happy to hit it 220 yards, but hits it about 205 to 210 right now. Last Tuesday, she had a lesson with Tom Cooper, the new head pro at Carner’s club, Pine Tree, in Boynton Beach, Florida.
“He was demonstrating how screwed up I was,” she said. “I was getting too wristy and too upright.”
It also doesn’t help that the greens at Pine Tree, which normally run fast, are at about an 8 on the Stimpmeter as the superintendent works to deepen the root structure.
The oldest player to compete in a USGA championship, Carner opened with an 80 last year in Portland. She has shot her age or better six times in the championship’s five-year history. At the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Chicago Golf Club, Carner matched her age, 79, in the opening round.
The eight-time USGA champion has a familiar face back on the bag in Trevor Marrs, an Evans Scholar and Michigan State graduate who has caddied for her twice before. Marrs uses his vacation days to spend the week with a sporting legend.
Carner will again use a cart this week because her chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) makes it too difficult to walk hills. The par 71 layout will play to 5,964 yards.
Juli Inkster, who finished runner-up at the first two editions of the Senior Women’s Open, said she hears from fellow Pine Tree members Beth Daniel and Meg Mallon that Carner is out every day working on her game.
“When you go to the range, I call it my church,” said 64-year-old Inkster. “I’m just out there, put my headphones in, listen to the Giants game or music. It’s my peaceful time.
“I think that’s the same way with JoAnne. She’s done it for so long. But she plays because she loves the game. There is no one telling her to go out there and hit balls.”
While Carner has garnered much of the attention in the short but storied history of this event, all five past champions are in the field: Laura Davies, Helen Alfredsson, Annika Sorenstam, Jill McGill and Trish Johnson.
Carner is one of five World Golf Hall of Fame members at Fox Chapel. She’s joined by Juli Inkster, Hollis Stacy, Sorenstam and Davies.
Amateur Carol Semple Thompson, a seven-time USGA champion, received a special exemption this week. The native Pennsylvanian sunk a 27-foot putt on the final hole at Fox Chapel to clinch the 2002 Curtis Cup for Team USA. She went on to captain victorious Curtis Cup squads in 2006 and 2008. Thompson, 75, owns the record for most USGA championship appearances with 121.
