When Pat Bradley started the final 18 holes of the 1981 LPGA Open Championship at La Grange Country Club, she was six strokes behind leader Kathy Whitworth.
But Whitworth faded in the final round, shooting over par for the first time in the Open, and Bradley came from behind to win after a tense duel with Beth Daniel on the back nine.
The win solidified La Grange as one of Bradley’s favorite courses.
“This is my golf course,” she told a crowd of about 70 people who had gathered in August for a special luncheon and meet and greet with the golfing great. “This golf course and I, we get it. We see one another. It’s kind of like a New England course, tree lined and with great rough.
“The moment I stepped on these grounds, I fell in love with this golf course.”
Bradley had played La Grange Country Club once before, when the Club hosted the U.S. Open in 1974, her first year as a professional.
After turning pro in 1974, Bradley went on to win 31 LPGA victories, six major championships and earn a place in both the World Golf Hall of Fame and the LPGA Hall of Fame.
La Grange Country Club’s head golf professional Trey Robbins said Bradley’s visit Aug. 12 was “huge for the club.”
“Pat Bradley, World Golf Hall of Fame and LPGA Hall of Fame, won her only coveted U.S. Open here, one of six majors that she won,” he said. “For the club, it’s a crown jewel for us. We’ve hosted two of them (U.S. Opens), in 1974 and 1981, and Pat played in both of them.”
She said she liked the course so much she was ”licking my chops” when she found out the Open was coming back to La Grange in 1981.
As she recounted her experience winning the Open, she noticed a similarity between then and the lead up to the luncheon, when a raging thunderstorm hit the area.
“Mother Nature came to my help, softened the golf course and softened the greens,” she said. “So when my low shot came in, it kind of held the green. The first hole I hit driver-seven iron, and I almost holed the seven iron. It lipped out of the cup, I tapped in for birdie and I could hear some voice say ‘Pat, somebody’s trying to tell you something.’”
Her win came against one of her golf heroes.
“I was rooting for Kathy Whitworth. She had never won the Open, she was our number one player, she had won over 80 tournaments. … She was the winningest pro — male or female.
“I was rooting for her. But at the ninth hole I’m still in the ballgame, and I said to myself ‘Pat, you can’t root for Kathy anymore.’”
The 1981 Open was still special for Whitworth; her prize money for finishing third made her the first million dollar prize winner on the LPGA Tour.
But for Bradley, the tournament came down to a duel with Daniel.
“Beth and I were six under,” Bradley said. “I chipped in on 13 to go seven under and Beth birdies 14 to go seven under, so we are matching shot for shot, putt for putt.”
The 15th hole was key.
“I made a 50 to 60-foot putt. I knocked it in. … For the first time, the wind had come out of Beth’s sails.”
Bradley stressed that she really didn’t expect the putt to go in and was just “lagging,” hoping to get close.
“I just wanted a no-stress second putt,” she said, “and the damn thing went in!”
After Bradley birdied 15, Daniel hit a shot out of the bunker to within a foot of the cup to get “up and down” and save par.
They both parred 16, Daniel birdied 17 while Bradley held par, setting up the crucial last hole, with Daniels trailing by only a stroke.
“Eighteen was the pivotal hole, it was the whole tournament,” she said.
Bradley hit a sand wedge from 70 yards out to two feet from the hole, but Daniel hit a wedge shot to within inches from the cup, missing out on the chance to eagle and set up a playoff the next day.
Bradley only had to make the short putt for birdie and the tournament win.
“Pat, do not overthink this putt, get up over it and stroke it,” she told herself.
The putt went in, and Bradley made history in La Grange. Bradley’s six under par was the lowest score in a LPGA U.S. Open, a mark that stood until 2004, and her four day total of 279 was the Open record until 1988.
“I knew right away that I could not get home in two,” she said of her approach to the 18th hole. “So I wasn’t going to force it. Beth did force it, but she hooked it to the left. … I didn’t want to get caught up in trying to match her strength and her length. I just hit my second shot to a comfortable spot.”
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
