At age 65, Juli Inkster of Sant Cruz, California made LPGA history on Friday by becoming the oldest golfer ever to make the cut on the LPGA Tour according to Todd Kelly of Golfweek. In a team competition, Inkster joined forces with Angel Yin at the Dow Championship at the Midland Country Club in Midland, Michigan.
Inkster’s exact age on Friday was 65 years, 11 months and 19 days. JoAnne Carner of Kirkland, Washington had the old record as she was 64 years old when she made the cut at the 2004 Chick Fil-A Charity Championship.
Inkster and Yin had a 36 hole score of -3. At the time, they were in 25th place and nine strokes back of the leaders, Celine Borge of Norway and Polly Mack of Germany. Borge and Mack were at -12. In the first round, Inkster and Yin had a score of one-under-par 69, and then a second round score of two-under-par 68.
The overall champions of the Dow Championship were Americans Gina Kim of Albuquerque, New Mexico and Yana Wilson of Henderson, Nevada, who had a winning score of -17 and beat the South Korean duo of Hyo-joo Kim and Tye-jin Choi by two strokes.
Inkster and Yin actually improved their position after four rounds to 12th place. They finished at -9, and eight strokes back of the champions.
One of the greatest golfers of all-time, Inkster won seven major championships. She won the 1984 and 1989 Nabisco Dinah Shore Championships, the 1984 du Maurier Classic in Canada, the 1999 and 2000 LPGA Championship, and the 1999 and 2002 United States Women’s Open. Yin has never won a major, but did finish second to Jeong-eun Lee of South Korea at the 2019 United States Women’s Open, and had the round three lead at the 2023 Chevron Championship.
Even though Inkster set the record, Carner still deserves honourable mention. That is because Carner made the cut in an individual event, while Inkster made the cut in a team event.
