Leta Lindley finished runner-up at the 2022 and 2023 U.S. Senior Women’s Open championships, falling by one stroke to Jill McGill two years ago at NCR Country Club in Dayton, Ohio, and by one stroke again last year to England’s Trish Johnson at Waverly Country Club in Portand, Ore.
She wasn’t going to be denied Sunday at Fox Chapel Golf Club. Despite trailing third-round leader Kaori Yamamoto by five strokes heading into the final round, Lindley, a Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., resident, roared into the lead on the front nine and extended her advantage down the home stretch for a two-stroke victory at 9-under-par.
It is her first United States Golf Association championship victory. “I can hardly believe it,” Lindley told NBC Sports shortly after receiving the first-place trophy on the 18th green. “I’ve been dreaming about this since before I turned 50 and thinking about winning this championship and coming close the last two years.
I spent the last year sitting on my couch looking at the place I wanted to put this trophy. I’ve had sticky notes on my mirror saying that I could do this and I could achieve this. I’ve been dreaming of this day for so long.
I can hardly believe it’s here.” Playing Sunday with three-time U.S.
Women’s Open champion and 2021 U.S. Senior Women’s Open titlist Annika Sorenstam in the second-to-last pairing, Lindley made her move to the front on the strength of five birdies in her first nine holes.
Yamamoto, who golfed Sunday with f.