Following the conclusion of the LPGA Q-Series, a tweet was sent out that highlighted the game’s razor-thin lines. Kristy McPherson, 40, sent the tweet after missing out on a complete card by one bad stroke at the 144-hole marathon.
“I’m sad,” McPherson wrote. Disappointed. I’m a little crazy. Gutted Not broken, but heartbroken. Hopeful. Congratulations to all of the girls who competed in the Q-Series! I’m praying for the girls below that line because I understand their disappointment and anguish. I struck it 571 times after 8 rounds. “That was one too many,” says the narrator.
McPherson is a really down-to-earth guy. She’s a popular player among her peers since she’s the type of person who can brighten up a room.
She’s now at a fork in the road.
She said about a month later, “The absolute worst-case scenario is missing by a shot.” “You’d rather be 10 or 20 minutes late than never turn up.”
“There’s a million of them that you want back,” McPherson said, recalling every shot she fired in those eight rounds. It’s an entirely different discourse with only a bounce and a lip-in instead of out.
The fast-talking South Carolina grad was sailing on the LPGA just over a decade ago. McPherson finished 16th and 27th on the money list in 2009 and 2010, respectively, after being a member of the winning 2009 Solheim Cup squad and finishing second to good friend Brittany Lincicome in what is now known as the Chevron Championship.
She’d been diagnosed with Still’s Disease, a type of Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, when she was a child, and spent the whole of sixth grade in bed. McPherson turned to golf after leaving her beloved team sports out of the mix. Before advancing to the LPGA in 2007, she won seven times as a Gamecock and twice on the Symetra Tour.
For the majority of her life, McPherson had to deal with pain. In fact, after undergoing surgery on her right hip two years ago, she is feeling better than she has in a long time at the age of 40. The fact that she’s no longer in pain makes the decision to possibly stop playing full-time all the more difficult.
She explained, “I’ve had arthritis my whole life.” “There have been times when I’ve felt 60. But I’m in better shape now than I was ten years ago.”
She wonders if she should have had hip surgery years ago. She’s not the type to live with regrets, though.
What is McPherson’s level of toughness? Consider that she had a flare-up at the 2008 Longs Drugs Challenge, causing her face to swell up to the point where her right eye was completely shut. McPherson warned her caddie on the way to the first tee that if she whiffed, they were done.
Instead, she shot 71 while playing one-eyed and tied for fifth place.
When they used to travel together, close friend Angela Stanford said she’d have to open water bottles for McPherson since her arthritis was so terrible in her hands.
David, her father, describes her as “tough as a pine knot.”
Which, once again, makes answering the question of what happens next so difficult.
“I switch back and forth,” McPherson explained. “Am I still good enough to play?” Sometimes. However, this is not always the case.”
McPherson has opted not to return to the Symetra Tour, where it is so simple to lose money. She finished 15th at the LPGA event at Kingsmill just before the reshuffle last year and went on to play in ten more events. She ponders if the reshuffle was a blessing or a curse in retrospect. Because she’s having a similar dialogue with herself a year later.
“Change is hard for everyone,” Stanford said, “but it’s extremely scary when you’ve only had one thing in your life.”
“McPherson has a conversation scheduled with her friend Courtney Trimble, co-founder of Women For Hire, which began in November and tries to link females with golf-related careers.
McPherson would most likely be invited to five or six LPGA events and would have to perform well enough to advance in the reshuffle.
Every year, a large number of players conduct the same conversation with themselves. Most people go discreetly, still participating in pro-ams and qualifiers to stay in contact with the game.
According to Stanford, some people in the world have the ability to dig deeper than the majority. One of them is McPherson.
“It’s possible they’ve always had it tough,” Stanford speculated. “It’s always been a steep climb.”
Stanford would constantly advise her companion to keep trying if there was enough desire. The ability is still present.
“I don’t have the solutions,” a tearful McPherson admitted.
They will, however, arrive.
