LPGA 75: Sherri Steinhauer's Early Struggles and Breakout

This work is part of a series profiling the career of major champion Sherri Steinhauer: Part 1

Being a rookie on the LPGA Tour isn’t easy. That is something that hasn’t changed much since Sherri Steinhauer’s first year on Tour in 1986, other than the emergence of technology to lighten the load a bit.

The difficulties don’t come only on the golf course, where the level of competition raises significantly with every rung of the ladder a player climbs, but also in the parts of the job most of us non-professional athletes don’t even think about.

“It’s really hard. The first year is really hard because you’re trying to figure out airline flights, you’re trying to coordinate cars. I did it all myself. A lot of players did it all themselves.” said Steinhauer. “And then once you get there, now you got to figure out where the airport is, where the hotel is, where the golf course is, where am I going to park?”

The confusion didn’t stop there, once at the golf course, it was the same story all over again.

“And then you get to the golf course. Now you’re like, where’s the first tee? Where’s the putting green? Where’s the driving range? You don’t know where anything is.”

On the course, Steinhauer struggled as well, making just eight cuts in 26 starts and failing to record a single top-10 finish. Steinhauer was having fun, but it wouldn’t last long as she lost her card and had to go back to qualifying school, this time with a bit of added pressure.

“My dad was helping me along the way. And I said, well, Dad, I guess I gotta go back to qualifying school. And he says, yeah, and this will be your last time, so it’s time to really buckle down,” said Steinhauer.

Steinhauer went from finishing first place in her first Q-School start to being the last player to qualify in her second, but she did earn back her tour card for the 1987 season.

She was much improved in her second go around, making 20 cuts and grabbing two top-10 finishes. She was pretty consistent at those numbers for the next couple of seasons, generally making around 80% of cuts and sprinkling in a top-10 finish or two.

Her breakout came at the end of 1990, when Steinhauer had top-10 finishes in four out of her last five starts, bringing her total up to five for the season. That was one more than she had in her three-year career to that point. She was still looking for her first win, but momentum was starting to build up.

The momentum carried over to 1991, where Steinhauer made 27/31 cuts and finished in the top 10 four times. With back-to-back solid seasons on the LPGA Tour, Steinhauer was starting to make a name for herself as a solid and more consistent presence on leaderboards.

The 1992 season though would change everything about Steinhauer’s place on the Tour.

To be continued.