Davies’ 1987 U.S. Women’s Open Victory A Breakthrough Triumph

I have no idea whether South Korea’s Jiyai Shin knew the ins and outs of Dame Laura Davies’ win in the 1987 US Women’s Open when she made the following remark about this one-off of a UK golfer: “It’s as well for Laura that she wasn’t born a Korean.”

Certainly, no one else in Laura’s position in a major would have tackled the Sunday of that week at Plainfield Country Club in New Jersey the way she did.

Ayako Okamoto during the 1987 U.S. Women's Open Photo: USGA/Larry Petrillo

The then-Women’s British Open champion was one shot behind Japan’s Ayako Okamoto on Saturday night and all set for the final lap when Sunday morning resounded to the clatter of one of those all-American thunderstorms, the magnitude of which was on a different scale to any Laura would have known back home. At 11:30, play had to be suspended and when, eventually, the rain stopped, water had gathered on several greens and there was nothing for it other than to delay pla...