Kay touched by magic of golf’s fairy godmother
IMAGINE yourself as a 19year-old rugby league dreamer being ushered around training and into the Maroons dressing room before Origin kick-off by captain Greg Inglis.
You’re the conspicuous one with eyes popped open at every tip you pick up, every star that walks by and you get to pepper Inglis with questions four days in a row.
Gold Coast golfer Becky Kay has only a passing interest in league but she knows exactly that scenario because she’s living it this week, outside Chicago, thanks to Karrie Webb.
It’s hard to think of a stillactive sporting great who puts more hands-on-time into advancing the next generation as seven-time major winner Webb.
More than Webb funding this year’s two $10,000 scholarships to Kay and Sydney’s Grace Kim, it is the access to golf’s inner sanctum that money can’t buy.
It is not at any tournament but a major, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship starting tonight.
“Karrie is so giving ... there wouldn’t be a bigger supporter for young golfers,” Kay, 19, said.
“It’s awesome when every question you ask is being answered by someone who has been your idol since you started in golf.
“You get to be inside the rope watching during practice rounds, you see how the best golfers always stick to their routines and how they switch on-and-off.”
World No.9 Minjee Lee, Su Oh (No.78), Hannah Green (No.85) and Japanese Tour starlet Karis Davidson (No.193) are among the rising stars who Webb has helped this way over the past decade.
Webb is like golf’s fairy godmother and the girls often stay at the Hall-of-Famer’s rented base in tournament week.
“Yes, you want to care about the tour when you are playing but Karrie cares about the future of golf and that it keeps growing for us as Aussie girls,” Green said.
“I never knew how important professional caddies were with their detail until my US visits (2015-16) with Karrie ... or how good her meat loaf tasted.”
For Kay, this week is a highlight she never expected after last summer when she partially severed the tip of her left middle finger in a car boot.
“I was on holidays in Hawaii and the tip was sort of just hanging after it was caught in the boot,” said Kay, who needed six stitches to reattach it.
A hat-trick of top amateur titles in March was the proof she needed that her game was back even with the loss of a little feeling in the damaged fingertip.