LPGA Tour star Angela Stanford played in her 98th consecutive Major at last week’s Chevron Championship, and before the event spoke of her desire to reach 100 – a feat only surpassed in the game by Jack Nicklaus.
Short of winning the first women’s Major of the year at The Club at Carlton Woods, Stanford knew her next best chances of keeping her run going at next month’s US Women’s Open at Lancaster Country Club would be either with a special exemption or via a qualifier for the event that took place in California earlier this week.
The 2018 winner of the Amundi Evian Championship headed to Soboba Springs Golf Course on the back of a missed cut. However, as first reported by Golfweek, any hope she had of rediscovering her form and confirming her place at the next Major was dashed with consecutive rounds of 74 as Hsin Yu Lu and Mariel Galdiano qualified.
To compound her agony, Stanford was informed by the USGA beforehand that, unlike the Chevron Championship, where she received a special exemption, no such invite would be offered for the US Women’s Open, further narrowing her options.
Following her qualifying disappointment, Stanford wrote on Instagram: “Unfortunately, I did not qualify for the US Open today. I thought I would say thank you. While a handful of people did not believe the road to 100 was a worthy pursuit, I feel like most did.”
Stanford also suggested that, had she been handed an invite to the US Women’s Open, she would have likely been granted a spot at the third big event of the year, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.
She continued: “Thank you to the LPGA media, golf media, the fans, Chevron, and I believe KPMG and PGA of America would have embraced 100.”
Stanford’s dream of reaching 100 consecutive Majors is not quite over, as she can still get there with an LPGA Tour win before the US Women’s Open or a return to the world’s top 75 beforehand. However, the 46-year-old’s most recent LPGA Tour win came almost four years ago and she is currently ranked 398th.
Perhaps aware of the slim odds of qualifying via those routes, Stanford admitted her pride at having come so close.
She continued: “As I was standing on my 36th hole today, I was overcome with pride. I haven’t been that proud of myself in a long time,” before adding: “Sometimes we don’t get the results we want in this game but I went after it. I put myself out there and went for a goal that was really hard.”
Before last week’s Major, Stanford hinted that if she achieved her ambition, she would retire, and, even though that dream now appears to be a long shot, she reiterated that her time on the LPGA Tour is drawing to a close.
Her statement concluded: “I’ve been told I should smile more on the course. I’m going to try that for the rest of the year. Play some of my favorites and call it a career on this tour.”
Stanford’s next attempt to qualify for the US Women’s Open comes at this week’s JM Eagle LA Championship at Wilshire Country Club.
