KARRIE WEBB • 42 • QUEENSLAND • WORLD GOLF HALL OF FAMER • 57 PROFESSIONAL WINS
THE life I’ve led as a professional golfer is my wildest dreams come true. But last year was a tough time for me. One of the things I had to reassess over the holiday break was not going to the Olympics, which was very disappointing. It really took me a while to work out what I wanted to do. But the game has been so good to me, and I couldn’t let not making the Olympics bring all of that down. So I’m committed to playing a full year this year, and then we’ll just see.
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Can I still win in America? Yeah. If I’m at a golf tournament, I’m not just there so everyone can say it’s great to see me out and about. I’m there to try to win. I don’t want to be making up the numbers. It doesn’t ever appeal to me to be teeing off early on a Sunday, even though that does happen. I would prefer to be off late and having a chance to win.
I’m going take things year-by-year with what time I have left competing but at some point I’m actually really excited to look into other avenues and explore different options outside of being inside the ropes competing. I’ve done that for more than half my life now and it does excite me to take on new challenges that I don’t have as much experience at as playing golf. But I still think I’ll play some golf, it just might not be as much as it has been in the past 20 years or so.
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I think the progression of Minjee Lee and Su Oh is exciting for Australian golf. Minjee has won three times already on the LPGA Tour and Su had a great year in 2016 considering she struggled in her first year as a pro. It was great to see her improve so much. I’m really excited about Hannah Green and her prospects on the Symetra Tour this year. She’s very talented and another one Australia should get behind
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My fear for the young girls of today is that it’s either Lydia Ko, or fail. I have seen it with the young Aussie girls – they feel like if they’re not ready to play on the world stage at 18, then they’re past it. I’m 42 and still playing. In golf, fortunately, you can have a long career if you choose to and you can peak at an older age. I just think mentally right now kids are being told that they won’t peak in their 30s – if they don’t peak when they’re 22, they’re never going to succeed.
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When you look at men, most of the mainstream sports you can have a career in and make lots of money. But there are only two mainstream sports – golf and tennis – where women have the opportunity to make a great living and not have to be in the top one percent to do it.
A successful career in my mind is someone who plays for X number of years and when they decide it’s done for whatever reason, they have no debt, own their own house and have money put away for their retirement. They might not be able to retire but they’ve got their life set up and played a sport they love and it gave them a great life in return. I’d like for us – as a sport – to aim to have lots of girls doing that and out of that bunch, one or two special players who make lots and lots of money.
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I hope there are more tournaments that allow women to compete with the men. It takes special courses for that to happen, obviously courses with 36 holes to cater for the field. I think the Vic Open is a great concept because it brings fans of men’s golf out to appreciate the women’s game and vice-versa. I’m not sure that we will ever see both the men and women play off the same tees. I watch the guys hit it today and they just hit it forever.
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What’s the secret to growing the game? I know a lot of new golf courses being designed have the sixth hole coming back to the clubhouse, along with the 12th and 18th so you can play any stretch of six, depending on how much time you have. People can get out and play six holes in an hour-and-a-half. If you get them hooked on that shorter version of golf, they are likely to stay in the game and support the club manufacturers and local golf club.
I have a huge number of bucket-list courses I’ve been told I must play. Believe it or not, I haven’t played that many top courses outside the tour because in my downtime I’m not someone who wants to play more golf. Case in point: I’ve never even been out to the Monterey Peninsula to play Pebble Beach or Cypress Point. Back home in Australia, I hear I have to get down to Tasmania and play both Barnbougle courses and King Island’s Cape Wickham and Ocean Dunes. Hopefully I can play them all sometime soon.
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Fishing and cooking are two of my passions away from golf. I do most of my fishing when I’m in Florida. Unfortunately when I’m home in North Queensland during the summer the last thing I want to be doing is sitting in a boat all day because it’s too hot. But living near the Great Barrier Reef does allow me to get out and catch some coral trout and that’s the best fish in the world to eat. With my cooking I don’t really have any specialty dishes. I love finding a new recipe and trying it. I subscribe to a food and wine magazine so I get most of my ideas from that.
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People may have noticed my unusual routine on the practice green during the Women’s Australian Open at Royal Adelaide. I typically practise my putting every day with my sand wedge and the toe of my putter. It looks weird but it actually gives me a lot of confidence if I’m making putts like this because I automatically think it should be easier when I’m out on the course doing it the proper way (with the centre of the putterface).
