There are upsets and then there are UPSETS! The 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey team defeating the U.S.S.R. in Lake Placid. Buster Douglas knocking out Mike Tyson. Joe Namath and the Jets "promise" victory in Super Bowl III.
There are certainly upsets in golf. Those 'out-of-nowhere' victories from virtual unknowns have happened periodically throughout the long history of professional golf. John Daly was an alternate for the PGA Championship in 1991. He snuck into the tournament then shocked the world by winning. Turned out he was a pretty good golfer later adding an Open Championship.
Remember Y.E. Yang? He stormed from behind Tiger Woods, the only time Tiger ever lost a 54-hole lead in a major championship, and won the 2009 PGA Championship at Hazeltine in Chaska, MN.
Speaking of Minnesota, here comes Hilary Lunke. The Stanford grad, born in Edina, MN, pulled off one of the greatest, out-of-nowhere, upsets in sports history.
On July 7, 2003, Lunke defeated Kelly Robbins and Angela Stanford in an 18-hole playoff to win the U.S. Women's Open at Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon for her first and only LPGA win. Yes, her only win was the U.S. Open.
"I think even more so now, my life is so far removed from golf in any way," Lunke told Tom Hauser on the WCCO Morning News this past week. "Stay-at-home mom for the most part, teaching at a women's Bible study locally, and just kind of pinch myself thinking, 'how did I even travel the world and play golf? Is that really me? Is this the same life?' In many ways definitely still pinching myself."
For Lunke, it is all about family now. Her husband, Tylar, was her caddie on that July day she won the U.S. Open. They married on November 2, 2002. Lunke gave birth to her first child, Greta, in November 2007. She had her second child, daughter Marin, in October 2009. Then she had her third child in 2012, Linnea.
Lunke was the first player to win the U.S. Open after advancing through local and sectional qualifying. To repeat: She had to play in local and sectional tournaments just to qualify to play in the U.S. Open. Then she won it. It was a miracle.
"That's one of the things that's so great about the Open is it's truly open and anyone can qualify and make their way in," Lunke exlains. "It is really special looking back to think, even though I was kind of begrudging it at the time that I had to even go through local qualifying, now makes it the win all that more special. It is pretty surreal. I was kind of reminded recently that I had actually shot 80 in one of the first qualifying rounds, the 36 hole sectional one. I had to have a great comeback round in the second in the afternoon even just to make my way in. Just so many little things that were orchestrated along the way that let me get into the tournament and it is still very much surreal in every way that I walked away the winner."
In all of the other women's major championships, Lunke's best finish is 37th. But for one magical week, she was the best women's golfer in the world.
Lunke's win took place 20 years ago this week, but she says there is still a lot of recognition she receives to this day.
"It happens all the time, actually. I don't exactly walk around advertising it, and as I said, my life bears very little resemblance to it at this point," Lunke said. "So golf is not something that comes up in the initial conversations. Sometimes what will happen is people will says, 'gosh, you're so familiar, I feel like I know you'. That kind of type of thing."
"Just the other night, we were at something with some neighbors and another neighbor made reference to it being the 20th anniversary. I could tell the other neighbor looked quite confused," Lunke laughed. "When we came home, I said to my husband, 'do you think that I should have told her? I felt like I should've said something.' But she was kinda trying to connect the dots and I didn't wanna suddenly say, 'oh, by the way, I did win the U.S. Open 20 years ago."
Eventually, being a mother made the grind of weekly golf tournaments too much and she hung up her clubs in 2008.
"My oldest daughter was turning one at the end of that season," says Lunke. "I had tried the tour life with a baby and was struggling. I think whenever I was on the golf course, all I was thinking about was being home with her. And when I was home with her, I felt guilty, feeling like I should be out practicing on the golf course. So I was just kind of feeling torn and it was also difficult with my husband having to work at home versus travel with me, and just started feeling like it was time. Time to make a change. Even though I was feeling like I was playing the best golf of my career, I was (playing) worse. The competition was just getting so much better. And the courses. I'm a pretty short hitter, so the courses were getting longer and longer and it was just harder and harder to compete."
While Lunke says now she didn't think it would be stepping away forever, it just got harder to come back.
"I hadn't played competitively in a year or two years. And just to roll out of bed and think you're gonna show up at a U.S. Open with a baby and a toddler, has not been able to practice? It just became something that was not in the cards for me to do," Lunke said.
The LPGA now takes the U.S. Open to one of the most storied courses in the world for the first time: Pebble Beach. While Lunke won't be playing, she will be on the Monterey Penninsula at that legendary venue.
"There's going to be a reunion of U.S. Open Champions at Pebble Beach," Lunke says with enthusiasm. "We're fortunate to be able to attend that. It'll be a dinner, I'll get a chance to play with some other former champions and just have a great week. So I'm looking forward to that."
You would think someone who was good enough at golf to win a United States Open would be a regular on the course, even if it's just for fun. But you are wrong in this case. Lunke says her new obsession is.... tennis?
"I took tennis up six or seven years ago and really enjoy that," she says. "Which I guess gives me my competitive fix in a much shorter amount of time, which is a good fit with my life these days. But actually was kind of feeling the push this summer to try to get back into it a little bit more. As it happens, I have a little tennis elbow, which golf does not bother. So maybe that's God's way of getting me back over to the golf side of things. I've played nine holes three times this year, which is actually big for me. "
Yes, you have probably played more golf this summer than a U.S. Open Champion. Upset doesn't begin to explain Hilary Lunke winning the U.S. Open who for one unbelievable run, shocked the golf world 20 years ago this week.
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