This work is part of a series profiling the career of major champion Sherri Steinhauer: Part 1 Part 2
Despite not having any wins yet in her LPGA Tour career, Sherri Steinhauer entered 1992 with some solid success. She was coming off her best season yet in 1991, with four top-10 finishes including a couple top fives. She was consistently making cuts and it seemed like only a matter of time until she hit the winner’s circle.
Steinhauer started the season strong with a top-10 finish at the Nabisco Dinah Shore, now the Chevron Championship, and a third place finish at the Sega Women’s Championship in Atlanta. She continued playing well throughout the year, adding a few more top-10 finishes along the way, and was entering the du Maurier Classic in good form.
At the time, the du Maurier Classic, now the Canadian Open, was one of the four majors on the LPGA Tour schedule, along with the Nabisco Championship, The LPGA Championship (now the Women’s PGA Championship) and the U.S. Women’s Open. The Women’s British Open eventually replaced the du Maurier Classic in 2001.
This was a big week for Steinhauer. She was still looking for her first win, she was in strong form and her parents were going to be in attendance. The tournament was being played at St. Charles Golf Club in Winnipeg.
Thanks heavily to 67s on Thursday and Saturday, Steinhauer was in good position heading into Sunday. On the final hole, she hit her tee shot right, out of position. She had a tree in her way, but pulled off a low-runner four iron that found the green. A two-putt would win her not only her first major, but her first LPGA Tour title. She hit that long putt perfectly, to just a few inches.
“It was such a feeling of satisfaction, of all the hard work paying off. That’s the best way that I can describe it,” said Steinhauer.
“It was like it was all worth it, everything I put into it. So it was pretty cool.”
For Steinhauer, she wasn’t even thinking about the fact that she was now a major champion, just getting the win was satisfaction enough.
“And so like the major aspect at that point, I mean, it was absolutely amazing. But for me, it just kind of felt lucky. It was like, well, I picked the right time to play well,” said Steinhauer. “And I happened to win a major, so kind of felt lucky at that level with getting that one.”
Steinhauer won her second event at the Sprint Championship in 1994, and had 14 top-10 finishes between 1993 and 1994. This opened up the opportunity for Steinhauer to play in her first Solheim Cup. Steinhauer went 2-1 at Solheim in 1994, including winning her singles match against Dale Reid in a fairly dominant United States home victory.
Her next few seasons weren’t necessarily up to the standards she had set from 1991-1994, with no wins and just 11 top-10 finishes from 1995-1997. All this was setting up though for the best three-year stretch of her career.
To read about Sherri Steinhauer’s British Open success, revisit Fore-All.com on the morning of August 17
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