Becky Morgan had a plan: no leaderboard watching. The 50-year-old Welsh pro entered the final day of the U.S. Senior Women’s Open in a three-way tie for the lead but didn’t want to get ahead of herself on Sunday at San Diego Country Club.
Then, on 18, she finally gave in.
“What’s the score?” she asked her caddie, former LPGA pro Beth Allen, who responded: “You have a six-shot lead.”
Morgan closed with a final-round three-under 70 Sunday, finishing seven under overall and winning the seventh edition of the U.S. Senior Women’s Open by a touchdown.
She also became the first player from Wales to win a USGA championship.
It was the biggest win of Morgan’s life. Before Sunday she had had a long professional career on both the LPGA and Ladies European Tour but was never able to pile up the victories. She was winless in 355 career starts on the LPGA Tour and had won just once, at the 2018 Hero Women’s Indian Open, on the Ladies European Tour.
Now, she’s a national champion.
“I would not have dreamt this,” she said. “Since I started playing on the sort of senior tour, I’ve had some decent success, but obviously nothing like this. Yeah, it’s absolutely unbelievable.”
Morgan stopped playing on the LPGA in 2018 and focused more on the LET, although competing with the younger women started to become more difficult. This year she decided to focus more on the senior circuit and ended up winning the biggest one.
Morgan entered Sunday four under and tied for the lead with Maria McBride and Corina Kelepouris, but Kelepouris shot four over on the front and McBride made a quadruple-bogey 9 on the 14th hole. Eventually, it was just Morgan out in front by a landslide.
She birdied the first two holes and, after a birdie on 17, was three under on the day and six clear of anyone else. She said in that win in India in 2018 she didn’t look at the scoreboard either since it often makes her think too much. When she got to the 18th on Sunday she told her caddie, “Just let me know what I need to know.”
“I obviously knew I was leading because we had the cameras and stuff, but I didn’t know by how many,” Morgan said. “So I’m glad I didn’t know.”
Juli Inkster finished in solo second and was another big story of the week. Inkster, the 65-year-old World Golf Hall of Famer, won 31 times on the LPGA and captured seven major titles. Morgan never had that kind of success, even though she says she probably should have. No matter, she’s a USGA champion now.
“It is what it is,” she said. “I had a decent career. But obviously probably didn’t win as many as I should. This is icing on the cake.”
