Course change

Susie Keane credits much of her golf success to her short game. Jeff Haynes/USGA
Susie Keane didn’t start playing golf until she was in her early 40s, but that’s because she competed professionally in tennis and was a national champion in platform tennis.
The Orlando, Florida, resident is rightly proud of qualifying for this year’s U.S. Senior Women’s Open, which begins today at Fox Chapel Golf Club in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the second time as an amateur. She also qualified in 2022 but missed the cut.
Tackling the competitive cauldron of the championship might be a formidable task because the field includes names such as Sörenstam, Davies, Inkster, Matthew and Alfredsson, but Keane considers herself to be up to the task, mostly because she has endured similar challenges on the tennis court.
As Susie Mascarin, she was the No. 1-ranked junior tennis player in the world as a 16-year-old, when she turned pro. She competed in every Grand Slam event including on Centre Court at Wimbledon against Martina Navratilova in 1982 and Chris ...