Confident Jenny goes for big one

This is one event Jennifer Rosales, her coach and her family had been looking forward to all this time.

The US Women’s Open Championship, which gathers the world’s best players in women’s golf, gets underway Thursday (Friday in Manila) at the par-71 Witch Hollow Course at Pumpkin Ridge in North Plains, Oregon with Rosales hoping to finally land a big one in what could be the defining moment of a four-year LPGA career bedecked with marked improvement the last few tournaments.

"She’s feeling good, very confident of her chances," Jennifer’s brother Gerald told The STAR via text messages. The former Philippine Open champion took time out from his Davidoff Tour campaign and accompanied their mom Lourdes to the US for the support Jennifer needed in her campaign.

Swing guru Bong Lopez left a week earlier for some finetuning of Jennifer’s game, which took a downswing in the last two tournaments after she barely missed clinching her first-ever LPGA victory in the Giant Eagle Classic.

"Despite those finishes, her level of confidence remains the same after she lost to Rachel Teske in a playoff for the Giant Eagle crown last month," said Lopez, referring to his ward’s second place finish and a 21st place effort the last two weeks.

But all agree it could go down to a test of putting skills on Sunday.

"Putting lang siguro ang magiging problema dahil maraming slopes ang surface. Besides, hindi naman siya nalalayo kung paluan lang naman. She did not keep scores pero she’s more than satisfied with the way she’s hitting the ball now," added Gerald.

"She prepared so hard for this event. I think she’s ready," said Lopez of Jennifer, who has so far dished out four top 10 finishes in the season.

Meanwhile, as Juli Inkster prepared to defend her US Women’s Open title, it was hard for her to comprehend that a pair of her challengers are just 13 years old.

Inkster, 43, didn’t even start playing until she was 15.

"The only reason I really played golf was I got a job working at the golf course in Santa Cruz, parking carts and picking up the range one summer, and I decided maybe I’ll just start," she said. "And really, the reason why I started, it gave me something I could do that I didn’t have to compete with my older brothers."

A star was born. Inkster has gone on to win seven major championships, more than any other active player on the LPGA Tour. She has 29 victories overall, and earned her place in the Hall of Fame in 1999.

Three years after she took up golf, Inkster played in her first Open. That was in 1978, 11 years before Michelle Wie was born.

Wie and Sydney Burlison, both 13, are the youngest among 14 teenagers playing in the Open, which started Thursday at Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club.

"I could be a mother to all of them," Inkster said.