PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA | Kathy Hartwiger prepared for the 6th U.S. Senior Women’s Open at Fox Chapel Golf Club here in typical fashion, harkening back to a series of lessons focusing on imitating the swing of World Golf Hall of Fame member Annika Sörenstam.
More than 20 years ago, Hartwiger, 58, of Pinehurst, North Carolina, enlisted Hoover (Alabama) Country Club professional Michele Drinkard to “reboot” her swing. She is playing in her second U.S. Senior Women’s Open after making the cut in 2023, finishing 37th after shooting a first-round 70 that was one stroke off the lead of Catriona Matthew and Michelle McGann.
In 2001, Hartwiger was looking to enhance her national competition schedule for the next year, even with two toddlers at home.
“I knew I was mentally tough, but my swing was not simple enough,” said Hartwiger, who had already advanced to the quarterfinals of the 1995 and 1996 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur. “I told her, ‘I need to be like Annika. Can you do that for me?’”
With some band-aid fixes from Drinkard, Hartwiger worked on her game with drills in the garage while the kids took naps, and she didn’t play golf for six months.
“I just changed my swing,” she said. “It’s hard to play golf when you are hitting it bad, and I hit it bad for a while.”
But she persisted, and at the 2002 Women’s Southern Amateur, Hartwiger made it to the round of eight “with all the young girls.”
“I never lost again that year. I won everything else I played. All I was doing was this and this,” she said mimicking Sörenstam’s turn and follow-through with her arms and shoulders. “I was doing that, and the ball was going really good.”
The topper to her 2002 season of success was defeating three-time champion Ellen Port, 2-up, in the final match of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur at Eugene (Oregon) Country Club.
In her amateur career, Hartwiger, who retired from a teaching and counseling job in 2022, has played in more than 30 USGA championships and was a member of Alabama’s title-winning team at the 1997 USGA Women’s State Team Championship.
She loves the courses and the competitions at USGA championships that often include special surprises such as a practice round with Sörenstam last year.
“That was incredible,” Hartwiger said. “I used to say that I wanted to play with Tiger someday, but this was so special.”
She focused on her pre-shot routine, hoping to play well with the four-time USGA champion.
“I say to myself: Annika simple. That just means boom, boom,” Hartwiger said, again imitating Sörenstam’s swing. “I’ve been doing that for 20 years.”
During the practice round, Hartwiger and her husband and caddie, Chris, who is a long-time USGA agronomist, witnessed a world-class game as well as the graciousness of Sörenstam and her caddie and husband, Mike McGee.
“She doesn’t do anything but swing back and swing through,” Hartwiger said. “It’s a phenomenal look.”
“If Kathy’s bread and butter is hitting it straight, Annika hits it straighter and further,” Chris Hartwiger added.
After advancing to the round of 16 of the 2023 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, Hartwiger approached the Seth Raynor-designed layout at Fox Chapel this week with a veteran’s eye and an open mind.
“I had been a little suspect in the two qualifying rounds, and I was thinking, I am tired after this. How am I going to go into match play?” she said. “Chris said: ‘It’s simple. What do you need to do to play your best golf?’ I really thought about it, and I needed to do my pre-shot routine and keep the target focused in my head. He said, ‘We don’t need to talk about this anymore. You have a plan. Go do that plan’.”
That process lowers her expectations which are also tempered by the wet conditions at the5,964-yard, par-71 course that received almost three inches of rain on Tuesday and caused theUSGA to cancel all practice rounds. She shot 85 in the first round when she didn’t make her normal adjustment to faster greens, but followed with a 1-under-par 71, missing the cut.
“With it being wet, it is longer for me, but I do hit my woods well,” she said. “Expectations can be a fun killer and they can mess with you. I have that plan which started years ago at the [2002] Mid-Am. When I do my best, it’s when I can key in on that. What is the sole measure of my success this week? Am I going to do my pre-shot routine and am I going to keep my focus on-target when I am getting ready to hit?”
Simply, “Annika simple.”