Women’s History Month
Almost no one noticed as a 79-year-old woman with bad knees and hips hobbled over to a group of young women with their heads down. Their breathing was labored in the Malaysian heat, the exhaustion and dejection evident on their faces. The older woman wasn’t a miracle worker. But she felt certain that she could help.
This was the 2002 World Amateur Team Championships – a biannual USGA event comprised of three-person teams, men and women, competing for the Eisenhower and Espirito Santo Trophies. The 79-year-old was the now late LPGA Founder Louise Suggs who had traveled to Kuala Lumpur to support the U.S. Women’s Team, comprised of 2002 U.S. Women's Amateur champion Becky Lucidi and Curtis Cup team members Laura Myerscough and Emily Bastel.
The American women didn’t fare well, despite winning the Espirito Santo Trophy 13 of the previous 19 contests. They finished fifth, well behind the winners from Australia, a team made up of future LPGA Tour players Katherine Hull, who most fans know as Katherine Kirk, and Lindsey Wright, along with Vicky Uwland.
Katherine and Lindsey were teammates at Pepperdine at the time, a fact that Australian men’s coach Ian Triggs felt played a role in the Aussie’s success. “The U.S. collegiate system gives players of all nationalities the opportunity to compete at a very high level throughout the year,” Triggs said. “In their home countries, the players would only have a small amount of elite-level competition. So it is not necessarily that the USA team has gone backward, but the rest of the world has caught up.”
The American men’s team won the Eisenhower Trophy with two future PGA Tour winners, Hunter Mahan and D.J. Trahan, leading the way, while the Aussie women went down to the wire with the teenaged Song twins, Aree and Naree, who played for Thailand, their mother’s homeland and the country where they were born.
But it was the other end of the leaderboard where the story took place and where Suggs gave a lesson in what the game is all about. Unfortunately, at the Saujana Golf and Country Club, her acts of kindness were witnessed by far more gray monkeys than humans.
On the opening day of play, the women’s team from Iran, playing in their first international competition as temperatures reached the triple digits, shot a combined 90-over par. That was without counting the team’s third score, a 134 shot by Zohreh Kasrai.
Seeing the leaderboard, Suggs made her way to the chipping green where the Iranian team huddled with their eyes cast at the ground.
“It’s the mother in me,” Suggs said at the time. “I felt bad for somebody who was in a situation where they didn't have any help. And they didn't have any after they got here.”
The Iranian women had little help at home, either. At the time the country had five golf courses, three of them with no grass, and no more than 50 women golfers.
Suggs huddled the team together and told them that not only would their play improve going forward, but the most important part of an event like the World Amateur Team Championship was meeting fellow travelers and creating friendships through the game.
Then the holder of 58 LPGA Tour titles, including 11 majors, worked with the women on their chipping and pitching, explaining to them that the shots around the greens were the most important to scoring.
“We thought that was kind and very friendly of her,” said Mina Varzi, the Iranian player who had the team’s best single around, a 110.
Overall, the Iranian women’s team had a total of six pars and one birdie in four days and shot 341-over par for the event. Still, they were appreciative that a Hall of Fame player took the time to help them.
According to Varzi, “We learned a lot.”
So did the few who witnessed this selfless act of sportsmanship.
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