Juli Inkster cruises to victory at Suquamish Clearwater Legends Cup

Inkster finished the tournament 15-under after shooting rounds of 65 and 66 this weekend

KINGSTON — Juli Inkster made a difficult course look easy on Saturday in the second round of the Suquamish Clearwater Legends Cup.

The LPGA and World Golf Hall-of-Famer followed up a course record 8-under 65 on day one with a 7-under 66 on day two at White Horse Golf Club to capture the victory in the LPGA Legends Tour event by four strokes.

After sinking a birdie putt from about ten feet on 16, Inkster pumped her fist in celebration, knowing she had moved three strokes ahead with just two holes remaining.

“I played pretty conservative, I tried to take advantage of the par 5’s,” Inkster said. “I played steady for 36 holes, it was nice.”

Inkster followed a similar script from day one, converting four birdies on the front nine. Runner-up Michele Redman was hot on her heels for much of the day, and at one point was within a single stroke, but Inkster recaptured her two-stroke lead with a birdie tap-in on 14.

The Pacific Northwest has been kind to Inkster, who also works as a golf commentator for Fox Sports. She won her very first LPGA Tour event at the Safeco Classic in 1983, beating future World Golf Hall-of-Famer Kathy Whitworth at Meridian Valley Country Club in Kent.

36 years later, she still enjoys golfing in the northwest and is eager to return to White Horse Golf Club in 2020.

“I’m looking forward to coming back,” Inkster said.

Redman, an Ohio native and former LPGA Tour golfer, had the second best round of the day, shooting a 6-under 67 to finish at 11-under for the tournament.

She got off to a quick start, sinking birdie putts on two of the first three holes and jumping up further on the leaderboard with an eagle on the par 5 eighth hole. Back-to-back birdies on nine and ten put her within one stroke with eight holes to play.

Unfortunately, Redman ended up parring the rest of the holes, missing out on a couple of good birdie opportunities while Inkster continued to play top-notch golf.

Moira Dunn-Bohls was paired up with Inkster on Saturday, and if not for a couple of poor shots on five, Dunn-Bohls could have been right in the thick of things.

Dunn-Bohls put her tee shot into some deep rough on the right-hand side of the fairway. From there she sent the ball across the course and into the out-of-bounds area for a penalty stroke. She ended up with a double-bogey on the hole, dropping her down to 5-under. She did, however, rebound nicely with four-consecutive birdies on eight, nine, ten and 11, finishing tied for third at 8-under for the tournament.

Defending champion Trish Johnson also finished at 8-under.

— Mark Krulish is a reporter for Kitsap News Group. He can be reached at mkrulish@soundpublishing.com. Follow him on Twitter @MKrulishKDN.

— Kitsap News Group reporter Tyler Shuey contributed to this report.