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A Cart Crash, a Pain Pill and a Shot at the Lead

Cristie Kerr was afraid she might not be able to play in the U.S. Women’s Open after an accident that injured her and her caddie last week. Playing in pain, she’s five shots off the lead.

Cristie Kerr’s second-round 69 has her in a tie for sixth place in Houston.Credit...David J. Phillip/Associated Press

HOUSTON — The U.S. Women’s Open is one of Cristie Kerr’s favorite things, the tournament that she most wants to win every year. But in her zeal to add a trophy to bookend her 2007 title in the event, she has often hurt herself by overthinking her strategy, overdoing her preparation, overemphasizing the results.

But this year, before Kerr had the chance to get in her own way, a post abruptly appeared in her path. Driving a golf cart in the dark toward the practice range before an early-morning tee time in Dallas last week, Kerr had to swerve to avoid an oncoming cart.

Avoiding a collision, she slammed head-on into the post instead. The impact drove the steering wheel into Kerr’s sternum before throwing her, and her caddie, Matt Gelczis, who was riding with her, to the ground. Gelczis was hospitalized with a bump on his head.

Kerr, 43, also was hospitalized, with two dislocated ribs and bruises all over her body. Forty-eight hours before the first tee time at the Open this week, she feared she had no prayer of making her 23rd consecutive U.S. Women’s Open start. It is the longest streak of any active player.

She didn’t make a swing with her driver until Wednesday, yet still made it to the first tee on Thursday with a different caddie, Brady Stockton, on her bag. What has happened since has been more astonishing: After a bogey-free second round of two-under-par 69 at Cypress Creek, one of two Champions Club courses being used, Kerr sits tied for sixth place, five strokes behind the 36-hole leader, Hinako Shibuno.

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Hinako Shibuno of Japan holds a three-shot lead after the second round of the U.S. Women’s Open.Credit...Carmen Mandato/Getty Images

Kerr, a two-time major winner and former world No. 1, won her U.S. Women’s Open title in a week that started with her rolling her ankle. So maybe there is something to be said, she wondered in an interview, for managing pain instead of expectations.

“It definitely has lowered my expectations,” Kerr said, adding: “It’s kind of a nice mental place to be. I’m not happy how I got here, but maybe it’s meant to teach me a lesson.”

If anybody knows what Kerr is feeling, it would figure to be her friend and frequent playing companion Larry Fitzgerald, the veteran Arizona Cardinals receiver. In an exchange of text messages on Friday, Fitzgerald, an 11-time Pro Bowler, marveled at Kerr’s toughness.

“Whenever I have broken ribs or torn cartilage, I have to stop playing golf because the turn is so painful,” he said.

“I couldn’t imagine swinging a golf club for four hours.”

The world No. 6 Brooke Henderson, a former hockey goaltender, was similarly impressed, saying, “I don’t see how I would ever be able to do that.”

Kerr can wrap her upper body like a mummy in kinesiology tape, but that addresses only her physical ailments. The emotional wounds are tougher to protect. After Thursday’s first round, as Kerr was describing the accident, she choked up and her eyes welled with tears when she arrived at the part about being thrown from the cart.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Maybe I shouldn’t talk about it. I remember landing on my chest and it was awful. But I’m here and I played and I was tough today and I feel like I’m going to keep getting better every day.”

The Friday tee times were moved up in anticipation of a rainstorm that held off, except for scattered drops, until the end of Kerr’s round. On the final fairway, she walked over to the gallery ropes and exchanged umbrellas with her husband, Erik Stevens, who asked, “Are you OK?”

“Nope,” Kerr replied.

He hadn’t really needed to ask. Kerr’s uncharacteristic wildness off the tee over her last few holes telegraphed that the pain in her torso was flaring and her back was tightening. Despite the discomfort, which kept her from hitting through the ball with her usual speed, she played her last five holes in one under par. She birdied No. 8, her 17th hole.

“I’m proud of the way I’ve been hanging in there,” Kerr said afterward. “Clearly I’m not happy with the way I hit it coming in, but I know that’s not fully in my control right now, so I’ve just got to be patient with myself.”

Kerr, who started on Cypress Creek’s 10th hole, said she took half of a Tramadol pill for the pain before her round — “just enough to take away the edge,” she said — and then swallowed the other half with a swig of water while waiting to hit her second shot on her sixth hole. Before and after her rounds, she has been taking cold therapy treatments to reduce inflammation.

“So that should tell you how much pain I’m in,” Kerr said.

On her way from the scoring tent to the interview area, Kerr stumbled on a plastic covering put down over computer and TV cables to keep people from tripping. She barely lost stride. After the obstacles she has overcome, it’s going to take a lot more than that to throw her off her game.

Karen Crouse is a sports reporter who joined the Times in 2005. She started her newspaper career at the Savannah News-Press as the first woman in the sports department. Her first book, "Norwich," was published in January, 2018.  More about Karen Crouse

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