The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Memories still there for Stephenson at Brooklawn
FAIRFIELD — Jan Stephenson remembers seeing the Brooklawn Country Club sign as she entered into the property off Algonquin Road.
That was in 1979. It was the week of the U.S. Women’s Open. There were no cell phones, no GPS units to help her. Back then, you stopped at a store or gas station to ask for directions if you were lost.
“I drove there on my own. I had a rental car and I remember thinking. ‘How do they expect us to find this place?” Stephenson recalled. “Now it’s easy with Waze and GPS.”
Stephenson, now 69, is back at Brooklawn CC this week to tee it up in the third U.S. Senior Women’s Open. She has long been a fan of A.W. Tillinghast courses, of which Brooklawn is one. She remembers making a double bogey on the 11th hole after bunkering her approach shot, then the next one coming off the green.
“Tillinghast does put a premium on shot-making rather than power,” Stephenson said. “That part of it I love. You definitely have to be in the right place on the greens. You can’t go for the pin. As I get older, I like it even more because I don't hit it as far as I used to.”
When Stephenson goes to golf courses now, it’s usually to promote her wine distributorship (Jan Stephenson Wine & Spirits) and not to play. There are not too many chances for the senior women to play tournaments.
Stephenson herself isn’t sure how much longer she can play. She said she was diagnosed with Wet Macular Degeneration in her right eye. She receives a monthly shot in her eye.
She now closes her right eye when she putts and Stephenson has had to basically re-learn her entire short game, a strength throughout her 41 worldwide victories and three major championships during her heyday on the LPGA Tour.
“I went from being righteye dominant to left-eye dominant,” Stephenson said. “Every one of my chip shots I have to pace off. I have no depth perception, I can’t see out of the eye straight. It’s really been a struggle. If the left one ever goes wet, I’m done. I’d be legally blind.”
So could this be Stephenson’s last professional tournament? She says it definitely could be.
“It very likely will be my last one unless there is some miracle cure in the next year or two,” Stephenson said. “I want to make the cut and finish on some type of respectability. It means a lot more to me than it would normally. It’s hard not to be emotional … It’s going to be really hard not to cry if this is it for me.”
DAVIES GOING FOR NO. 2
Laura Davies won the inaugural U.S. Senior Women’s Open in 2018. She is looking forward to the opportunity to win title No. 2.
Davies, 57, also plays on the LPGA Tour, but hasn’t played too often the last two years. She estimates playing in about 12 events in all.
That doesn’t include the Evian Masters, an LPGA major held last week. Davies withdrew “just in case I got COVID or anything and I really wanted to play in this event, so I withdrew from a major, which if you’d have told me that 10 years ago I’d say ‘don’t be ridiculous,’ but that’s how important this one is to me and all the other players.”
To say Davies is tired of all the COVID-19 testing would be an understatement.
“I’ve not been playing the LPGA because I’m fed up with people sticking things up my nose,” Davies said. “It’s just all of the COVID testing is just, it puts you off. It really does.”
SORENSTAM CLINIC
Annika Sorenstam held a “Share My Passion” Clinic at Brooklawn CC on Tuesday afternoon. Girls between the ages of 6-14 from the tri-state area were in attendance.
Sorenstam spoke about the basics of the game, how to grip the club properly, how to hit to certain yardages, how to hit a proper fade and how to stay hydrated on the golf course on humid days like Tuesday. The LPGA Hall of Famer also took plenty of questions from her eager audience.
Sorenstam, 50, will be playing in her first U.S. Senior Women’s Open this week. She is paired with Davies and Liselotte Neumnn to go off the first hole at 7:55 a.m. in Thursday’s opening round.