Trish Johnson made up for some of the disappointment of losing last month’s Senior LPGA Championship when she had the tournament in her grasp, when winning the US Women’s Senior Open by one shot at Waverley Country Club in Oregon.
The Bristol-born 57-year-old, who won the inaugural Senior LPGA Championship in 2017, doubled her senior major tally after firing a closing 72, to go with earlier rounds of 73, 72 and 67, to finish on four-under and just one shot ahead of runner-up Leta Lindley, with Scotland’s Catriona Matthew a shot further back in third.
After dropping three shots between the fourth and the seventh holes on Sunday, Johnson feared that the collapse that she suffered at the LPGA Championship was about to repeat itself, but she steadied the ship with a birdie at the 9th, and made further gains at 15 and 17 to keep her head in front. However, a bogey at the par-5 17th briefly opened the door for Lindley and Matthew, but the latter dropped at the last to drop into a third, while Lindley’s birdie on 18 wasn’t enough to get past Johnson, who made a par to win by the minimum margin.
“I’ve got to be honest; I am so knackered!” was Johnson’s immediate response to her victory. “I just gutted it out. After the front eight holes I thought, here we go again. But I rallied a bit and hit some decent shots coming in. I wasn’t brilliant today. I hit some good shots, but I hit some ropey ones as well, but I just got away with it.”
She added: “Beth, my caddie, was brilliant. I think she could see the colour draining out of my face, so she kept giving me water as she didn’t want me to faint in front of everybody. She was fantastic and a big part of why I won this week.”