Australia’s rising star wants a US Open title, ‘even if it takes until 2050’
TAMIE Durdin hopes the dream is only just beginning. Winning a ticket on the US LPGA tour for 2010 is simply the first step on a journey she hopes will have the ultimate finale. And while a US Open win might be more than any professional golfer could ever hope for, its all this Queensland-based South Australian has ever dared to dream of.
If it doesn’t come to fruition in 2010 Durdin won’t lose too much sleep.
She’ll simply soldier on. “I don’t care if it takes until 2050, it’s what I’ll be chasing – and dreaming about,” Durdin told Golfer Pacific last month, just hours aft er winning back her card on the USLPA Tour.
Durdin finished fast and played some impressive golf to secure her ‘second go’ at the world’s richest women’s tour. She shot a final round of two-under par 70 to finish at three-under par and tied for 12th behind American Amanda Blumenherst at the 2009 LPGA Qualifying tournament at LPGA International.
Fellow Australian Sarah-Jane Smith earned ‘priority category 16 status’ for 2010 aft er moving up 10 places during the fi nal round to finish in a tie for 22nd. Central Coast golfer Nikki Garrett missed out on her card firing a disappointing final round of seven-over par 79 to fi nish in a tie for 43rd.
“It was a long, long, long week,” Durdin said after qualifying.
“And nothing can gear you up for a day and half rain delay, which is what we had.”
Durdin had a card on the tour six years ago before losing it and heading to Japan, where she scored a breakthrough win in 2009
“It was defi nitely the plan to come back for another crack (at the US),” she said.
“I still want to play full-time in Japan, so the US Tour will only really be part-time-ish.
“The purses are probably bigger here in the US but it probably works out pretty comparable because Japan has probably 10 or 11 more events than the US LPGA Tour.
“And the money in Japan is pretty good too.”
Durdin puts her new-found enthusiasm and good form down to a change of coach last year, using Japanese coach Tadashi Ezure, who is based at Kobe to help take her game to the next level.
“I’ve also done some work with a sports psychologist and I think its been a combination of the two that has helped,” she said.
“My swing is a bit of a work in progress at the moment. I’ve pretty much changed everything. But I feel like I’m moving in the right direction and I really feel like things can only get better from here.”
Durdin, the longest hitter on the Tour when she did play the US LPGA Tour, is happy to report that she hasn’t lost any of that length either.
“Hopefully I’ll have that at least until I turn 50,” she laughed.
Durdin said all the work on settling her nerves in big events was also paying off .
“If I knew eight years ago what I know now it might have been a completely different scenario,” she said.
“I knew that I had my tour card in Japan so that eased an element of pressure to start with.
“I could go out there and play with a bit more freedom than a lot of the other girls who don’t have that security."
“I didn’t get to talk to Nikki Garrett all week, but all the Aussies pay attention to what the others are doing.
“I saw Sarah-Jane Smith briefl y but we all played and finished and went back to our hotels.
“It was interesting because the Tour School was played on two courses and the Legends course was a lot tighter and probably the tougher of the two.
“We played it three times and I was surprised when the last round was on the Champions course, because it was longer and wide open and probably suited me better.”
Durdin said she would now sit down and look at both schedules before deciding what to play in 2010.
“It’s a great problem to have,” she said.
“Obviously travelling will be an issue as well.
“I’ll take a break now, sit down and work out what I want to do.
“It’s an interesting position to be in. If I could rewind the clock to fi ve or six years ago and if someone had said you’ll be playing on the two biggest golf tours in the world, I would have laughed at them.”
Unlike a lot of players, Durdin doesn’t travel with an ‘entourage’ and admits even things like the language barrier in Japan are problems she has had to learn to deal with.
Now her goals will be to make her mark in the United States, with the bigger events certainly the ones she will focus on.
“I never had a plan to go ahead and get my tour card with a goal of just holding onto it,” she said.
“Ultimately there has only been one tournament on this planet I’ve always wanted to win.
“That’s the US Open and I don’t want to sound arrogant but it has been the one event that if you have the right people around you striving and working with you for that one goal, then it is attainable.
“At least that’s the goal I am working towards.
“You always want to win the big ones and eve since I first started in golf I have dreamt about things like that.
“While I was growing up the men’s majors were always that big four (Masters, US Open, British Open and US PGA), but with the women, the US Open was always the one event that stood out.”
Durdin laughs that she will now be ‘homeless’.
“I guess I will now be living from hotel room to hotel room,” she said.
“But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Durdin said she would play the Australian Masters and the Aussie Open, so locals will get a chance to see her in action.
“I have played 34 events this year (2009) and that is a lot of golf for me,” she said.
“At some point I need to take a break.
“I’ve spent a lot of time in Japan and worked hard. So I’ll take most of January off and head for Japan for some coaching and then come back and play the two Aussie events.”
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