U.S. SENIOR WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

August 18, 2026

Karrie Webb

Barton Hills Country Club

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Please welcome to the interview area two-time U.S. Women's Open champion and World Golf Hall of Famer Karrie Webb. You've played the course, seen all 18. What are your initial impressions of the test you and the other players are going to face here this week at Barton Hills?

KARRIE WEBB: I just love Barton Hills. I asked a ton of people over the last 12 months if they'd heard of Barton Hills or played it, and I didn't get any feedback about it, apart from what I could find online and a few photos. It's a great golf course.

I'm a big fan of Donald Ross golf courses. The course is in amazing shape. It's going to be a tough test. It's definitely a U.S. Open feel to it this week.

We're going to have to play well to shoot some good scores around here.

Q. Second start in this championship. What is it about this week and this U.S. Senior Women's Open that gets you excited about coming back here and playing in a field like this?

KARRIE WEBB: Yeah, I think obviously there's probably not the intensity of what a U.S. Open felt like when I was playing, the U.S. Women's Open. But coming to a venue like this and the USGA does it right, it does have a U.S. Open feel to it.

Most of the players will go to the player celebration tonight. That wouldn't happen at a U.S. Women's Open. There's a little bit more of a laid-back vibe and people catching up with one another when we don't see each other much anymore.

Q. Speaking of the U.S. Women's Open, 25 years ago you were the last person to win back-to-back U.S. Women's Opens. What did that mean in your career?

KARRIE WEBB: Yeah, to think that no one has gone back-to-back since then is kind of crazy really because Annika had done it before me, and ironically we both did it on the same golf course, both on Pine Needles back-to-back.

Obviously for me, anytime that I was able to put my name on that trophy and I did it two years in a row was very special.

Q. I'm curious how you're attacking the practice rounds maybe has evolved over the years, if at all, or do you do exactly what you did playing full-time on the LPGA?

KARRIE WEBB: Yeah, I mean, I think in some respects you go back into the old patterns of what you used to do, which feels familiar, like getting back on the horse. I guess probably not much has changed. Probably the intensity is there but probably not as ramped up as it would have been playing the U.S. Women's Open.

Q. Where do you spend the bulk of your time practicing these days and what part?

KARRIE WEBB: What part of my game? I don't know, all of it. I can still get stuck grinding on the driving range on my golf swing. Parts of my game that I hated practicing -- I never really liked practicing my short game. I love practicing my short game now. I probably spend more time on that just because I enjoy that, but I still get stuck on the range trying to be too perfect. It's good I only play a couple times a year now.

Q. Why do you think that changed, your short game love?

KARRIE WEBB: I think because it's so much more creative. It's hard to get too technical with your -- I know the one or two things that happen in my short game if it goes off, but otherwise being creative hitting different shots. Even practicing your putting you can do different things that isn't just hitting 20 7-irons at the same target.

Q. You talked about Donald Ross when you first came in. What is the quintessential golf course architectural feature that you just know you're at his course and that you have a love-hate relationship with?

KARRIE WEBB: Yeah, I think obviously the green complexes, and different Donald Ross courses -- obviously if you look in the Pinehurst area, No. 2, and Pine Needles, there's lots of closely-mown runoffs where they have a few here, but a lot of the greens it just falls off into the rough. All the greens are really well bunkered.

I feel like there's lots of false fronts and false edges. That's always been a key to Donald Ross's greens. But as far as the creativity option around the greens, it isn't quite there as much as probably some other Donald Ross golf courses. But to get to some of these pins, you're really going to have to be spot on with your distance control, and there's probably some pins that you don't attack and you just take your 30-footer and walk away with a par.

Q. With the leap program that the LPGA has for the college players coming in, it seems like the cream of the crop are -- they're golfing together a lot more. They're being identified and the players in general are finding out where they stand in college and deciding whether they should even come out. Is that something that is groundbreaking for the LPGA Tour?

KARRIE WEBB: Yeah, I know a little bit about the point system. Obviously I probably learnt about it mostly last year when Lottie Woad achieved the points.

But I think it's great to challenge the top amateur players. It's not just college players that can do it, but the top amateur players in the world to have another option of getting out on to the LPGA rather than Q-school. I don't think Q-school is necessarily the best test of who should be out on Tour. There's a lot of players that are good at Q-school and then don't play well for the next year and they go back to Q-school and they get their card back.

I think it's a great program to identify the top talent, and it's not easy to achieve. Even though two people have done it in the last two years, I think it just shows that they're truly ready to play on the LPGA.