(This story was originally published on July 11, 2010)
By Bill Brink, Special to Bay Area News Group
OAKMONT, Pa. — After her final putt dropped, Paula Creamer covered her face with her hands. The tape around her surgically repaired thumb, the one that hurt so badly during the tournament and in the four months she didn’t play, was in plain sight.
Somehow, the worse she felt all week, the better she played.
Creamer, who grew up in Pleasanton, shot a 2-under 69 Sunday to win the 65th U.S. Women’s Open at Oakmont Country Club, her first major tournament victory. In an Open that saw rain shorten some days, lengthen others and test the resiliency of the competitors, Creamer was the only golfer to finish under par. She totaled a 3-under 281.
Creamer’s lead never dipped below two shots in the final round. Na Yeon Choi of South Korea shot a 5-under 66 to tie Suzann Pettersen of Norway for second place at 1-over 285.
“That’s kind of a big relief off of my shoulders, but I knew that the time would come,” Creamer, 23, said. “I just had to be patient.”
So did all the players. Thunderstorms forced the second round to be suspended Friday, and play resumed Saturday before the third round was played Saturday afternoon. Creamer played 28 holes Saturday and finished the final five holes of her third round Sunday morning.
That’s a lot of golf for a bad thumb to handle. Creamer withdrew from her first tournament this season, the Honda LPGA Thailand in February, because of a thumb injury that required surgery in March and three months of rehabilitation.
Limited to 40 practice shots before each round to lessen the pounding, Creamer found the best possible way to limit the discomfort: take as few strokes as possible.
“I believed I could do this,” she said. “I believed I could do this when I had a cast on my hand. That’s what I just kept thinking about was Oakmont, Oakmont, Oakmont.”
Creamer kept the thumb taped for the entire tournament and estimated her thumb to be 60 percent healed.
Still, she broke par in her final three rounds and made only five bogeys over her final 36 holes. Creamer birdied the 18th hole to end the third round, then birdied the fifth and ninth holes in the fourth round to move to 2 under. After a bogey at 12, she birdied 14 and 15.
“I knew I could make pars up until 12, 13, from there in,” she said. “You know, there are some difficult holes, but I thought if I could maybe go around 1 under, I might have a good chance of pulling it out.”
Creamer said she didn’t look at the leader board until she walked up the 18th fairway, but that she had an inkling she was in good shape when her caddie, Colin Cann, told her she could hit a 5-iron on the 229-yard, par-4 17th. Her plan all week was to try to drive the green with the tees up so far.
“Then I kind of figured, OK, well, that’s fine then,” she said. “We can lay up.”
This was Creamer’s eighth U.S. Women’s Open. She finished tied for sixth the past two years.
“My main goal was to have four good days of golf,” she said. “I’ve never really been able to put four good rounds of golf in a major championship. I really give myself, you know, I guess the credit for being patient.”
Patience contrasted with her previous aggressive approach, but Oakmont, with its tight fairways, punishing sand traps and greens that roll faster than hardwood floors, forced her to revamp her style.
“I really feel that I’ve learned how to play major championships,” she said. “You know, being super-aggressive has kind of hurt me in the past.”
She may need that aggressiveness back to enjoy her post-major championship celebration plans. Once she won a major, she told herself, she would go sky diving with her father, manager and coach. Not her caddie, Cann, who’s afraid of heights.
“I’d have to win a grand slam or something for him to get up there,” she said.
The way she played this weekend, you never know.
All nine of Creamer’s LPGA victories came as she led going into the final round.
Creamer is the 12th first-time winner among the last 15 majors. Until Cristie Kerr won the LPGA and Creamer won the Women’s Open, the United States had won only eight of the last 39 majors.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
