Women’s Open brings back 39 champions for a reunion at Pebble Beach

PEBBLE BEACH, California:The USGA doesn’t hold an annual dinner for past champions like at the Masters or PGA Championship, just on special occasions.

Being at Pebble Beach is a special occasion, and the “Reunion of Champions” attracted quite the crowd. The USGA said 39 former Women’s Open champions gathered on Monday night, ranging in age from 22-year-old Yuka Saso to 84-year-old Jo Anne Carner.

“To see 39 of the champions to gather together and to get a chance to catch up and talk, great food, great wine, and for the USGA to put this together, to fly everybody in and for Pebble Beach to host down there at the beach club, it doesn’t get much better than that,” said Annika Sorenstam, who has three Women’s Open titles.

Sorenstam said various players were asked to share stories of their victories, and that went as far back as the 1960s — Mary Mills defeated Louise Suggs and Sandra Haynie at Kenwood Country Club in Cincinnati in 1963.

“I hope that we can continue that tradition,” Sorenstam said.

The most recent winner was Minjee Lee last year at Pine Needles, and she said some of the stories include prize money. The entire purse was $9,000 in 1963, and Mills earned $1,900 that week. This year’s purse is expected to top the $10 million from last year.

“Every time you have interactions with the older generation, you just realize that we all have a job because of them,” Michelle Wie West said. “Because they were our founders, because of the women that came before us, because of all the hard work and things that they did to make the tour better.”

Lee got a special pep talk from two-time Women’s Open champion and fellow Australian Karrie Webb. Lee is the defending champion. The last player to go back-to-back in the