The Women’s Australian Open and its greatest champion, five-time winner Karrie Webb, were born in the same year, 1974. Destiny perhaps? It just might be, for the stories of both have been intertwined from that time.
Not that the young Karrie was to know that, of course. Five years after its first running, the championship was put in abeyance and not resurrected until 1994. Karrie, by now 20, was there, a fledgling professional playing her first event. She has been there for every running of the championship since.
With breaks again in 1999, 2006-2007 and again in 2021, this means the 2022 ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open will be her 25th championship appearance.
It’s an auspicious year for her to celebrate her silver anniversary. The women’s championship will be run concurrently with the men’s for the first time, from December 1-4 at Victoria and Kingston Heath Golf Clubs. It’s also the 30th running of the women’s event, in the year that WPGA Tour of Australasia - formerly Australian Ladies Professional Golf (ALPG) – celebrates its 50th birthday.
And there’s the 25th anniversary of the victory by Webb’s mate Jane Crafter in 1997. Karrie, Jan Stephenson and Crafter remain the only three Australian women to have won the championship in its history and Karrie and Jane the only two in the seven consecutive years it was held at Yarra Yarra Golf Club.
That alone should say how hard winning a national title is, and why Webb’s record is so special.
But it hasn’t always come easy. Does it ever for any illustrious champion? It’s the tough breaks that
