A key component in the complicated chemistry of a champion is belief. When belief matches ability, great things happen. In Thursday’s first round of the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, seven-time USGA champion Ellen Port was paired with fellow legends JoAnne Carner and Carol Semple Thompson and willed her way to a 1-under-par 71, four strokes off the lead.
After disappointing performances in the first two U.S. Senior Women’s Opens – T-33 in 2018 and T-40 in 2019 – Port played with the precision that made her one of the best amateurs of her generation, winning the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur three times and the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur on four occasions, most recently in 2016.
And she opened this U.S. Senior Women’s Open with a belief in herself that was lacking the last two times she competed in this event.
“I stuck to my routine,” Port said. “I really had a strategy, because I worked my game back up to where I have confidence coming into this tournament. I brought not very good games the last two. My comment to people was, ‘I don't know if I'll be able to put it all together in this tournament, but I will.’ And that's a really good place to be when you're a golfer who's feeling like you're getting ready to play better than you have the last few years.”
The key, Port says, was to revisit who she was and make that who she is. Another key was to believe in that woman and trust that she would play her best when it mattered most.
“I was just going back to kind of foundations and my roots,” Port said. “Unlike JoAnne and Carol, I'm a very quick player, and I have gotten shorter with my swing through the years. I've tried to force things. So, I just tried to take a longer, more patient backswing, keep it simple. Before, some mechanics were off and I couldn't really do that. I didn't let myself do that.”
Port says she was not motivated by her disappointing efforts in the first two U.S. Senior Women’s Opens but rather by her own vision of greatness.
“By my standards, played decent,” she said about 2018 and ’19, when she placed as the third- and fourth-lowest amateur in the field, respectively. “I'm just motivated as any golfer when we know that you can do better. I've never had problems with motivation. My friends that play golf with me probably tell me you're too motivated. Chill out a little bit.”
Port’s 71 could have been lower, in fact. She hit 15 of the 18 treacherous Brooklawn Country Club greens and needed to use her putter 32 times. That’s a part of her game she feels she can improve going forward.
“I burned so many edges,” said Port about her putting on Thursday. “I could have had 4 or 5 under. I was just like, wow. And that's another good thing. I just said, ‘Hey, don't worry about it. I burned the edges. I had birdie putts. They didn't drop.’ But I didn't have any big mistakes, and that's really fun to say. My misses were very, very manageable.”
Port also found motivation from her playing partners. Carner’s score matched her age – 82 – and Thompson, who didn’t play in the first two U.S. Senior Women’s Opens because of her husband’s ill health, shot 84. Carner has won eight USGA championships and Thompson matches Port with seven.
“That was probably the best pairing I could have had,” Port said. “None of us had anything to prove. Very inspirational.”
Also inspirational is the way Port performed under major-championship conditions.
“I just am so tickled that I was able to, when it mattered, put together a round like that,” Port said. “I was not calm. I didn't feel calm for the whole round. For some reason I couldn't eat anything, and I know you shouldn't be nervous and I know this isn't life or death, but this is a USGA event and I worked hard and I wanted to see the fruits of my labor. That doesn't always happen.”
Just as Port says she is not motivated by failing to contend – or even be low amateur – in the first two U.S. Senior Women’s Opens, she says she is managing her expectations for the rest of the championship. What are those expectations for Friday?
“Nothing, because tomorrow is a new day, and I know who's behind the wheel,” she said. “[But] the fact that I did this once shows me I can do it again. And you know what? Might not be tomorrow, but there will be another day. And that's exciting to me. That's what we all believe. JoAnne, all of them. We believe there is a better day.”
For Port, Thursday was a good day. If there are better days ahead for her at Brooklawn Country Club, she could find herself in a very familiar place come Sunday afternoon – contending for a USGA championship.
Ron Sirak is a Massachusetts-based freelance writer who frequently contributes to USGA digital channels.
