Juli Inkster (born Juli Simpson; June 24, 1960) is an American

professional golfer A professional golfer is somebody who receives payments or financial rewards in the sport of golf that are directly related to their skill or reputation. A person who earns money by teaching or playing golf is traditionally considered a "golf pr ...

who plays on the LPGA Tour. With a professional career spanning 29 years to date, Inkster's 31 wins rank her second in wins among all active players on the LPGA Tour; she has over $14 million in career earnings. She also has more wins in Solheim Cup matches than any other American, and is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. Inkster is the only golfer in LPGA Tour history to win two majors in a decade for three consecutive decades by winning three in the 1980s, two in the 1990s, and two in the 2000s.

Amateur career

Born and raised in Santa Cruz, California, Simpson graduated from Harbor High School in 1978 and played college golf at nearby San Jose State, where she was an All-American in 1979, 1981, and 1982. She was also All Nor-Cal 1979–1981 and SJSU Athlete of the Year in 1981, and is a member of the San Jose State Sports Hall of Fame. From 1980 to 1982, Inkster won three consecutive

U.S. Women's Amateur The U.S. Women's Amateur is the leading golf tournament in the United States for female amateur golfers. It is played annually and is one of the 13 United States national golf championships organized by the United States Golf Association (USGA). F ...

s, her first victory coming three weeks after her marriage to Brian Inkster. She became the first woman since 1934 to win three consecutive U.S. Amateur titles. She was a member of the winning U.S. Curtis Cup team in 1982. She was also a member of the winning U.S. team at the Espirito Santo Trophy in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

and 1982. She won the 1981 California State Amateur Championship, was California’s 1981 Amateur of the Year, and 1982 Bay Area Athlete of the Year. She won the Broderick Award, (now the

Honda Sports Award The Honda Sports Award is an annual award in the United States, given to the best collegiate female athlete in each of twelve sports. There are four nominees for each sport, and the twelve winners of the Honda Sports Award are automatically in th ...

) as the nation's best female collegiate golfer in 1982.

Professional career

She turned professional and enjoyed success in her rookie year of

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

with a victory at the Safeco Classic. She won two major championships in

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

, her first full LPGA season, and was LPGA Rookie of the Year. She has won 31 tournaments on the LPGA Tour, including seven majors and the career Grand Slam for ladies' golf. she is fifth on the LPGA career money list. Inkster won a tournament in 16 out of 24 seasons from 1983 to 2006, but has never finished at the top of the money list; her best finishes were second in 1999, and third in both 1986 and 2002. Inkster played on the United States Solheim Cup team in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

, and

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

; she has won a total of 18.5 points, making her the winningest American Solheim Cup player as of 2011. She teamed with Pat Hurst, represented the United States at the 2007 Women's World Cup of Golf. She was voted Women's Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year in 1999 and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2000. She was recognized during the LPGA’s 50th Anniversary in 2000 as one of the LPGA’s top-50 players and teachers. Inkster was a player and assistant captain on the 2011 Solheim Cup team. She was the oldest player and the first playing assistant captain in Solheim Cup history. In late 2011 at age 51, Inkster suffered the first major injury of her career, necessitating surgery in January 2012 to repair nerve and tendon damage in her right elbow. The surgery kept her out of the 2012 season until late June.

Solheim Cup captaincy

Inkster was the captain for the United States team in the

2015 Solheim Cup The 2015 Solheim Cup was the 14th edition of the Solheim Cup matches, held 18–20 September at the St. Leon course of Golf Club St. Leon-Rot, St. Leon-Rot, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The Solheim Cup is a biennial team competition between the ...

. The United States started the final day down 10–6, but mounted a historic comeback to capture the victory by a final score of 14.5–13.5. Inkster captained the United States team again in the

2017 Solheim Cup The 2017 Solheim Cup was the 15th edition of the Solheim Cup matches, held August 18–20 at the Des Moines Golf and Country Club in West Des Moines, Iowa. The Solheim Cup is a biennial team competition between the top women professional golfer ...

set at the Des Moines Golf and Country Club in West Des Moines, Iowa, which the team won 16.5-11.5. On January 31, 2018, it was announced that Inkster would captain the United States team for a third consecutive match in 2019 at Gleneagles. Europe won the match against United States 14.5–13.5.

Senior career

Inkster has won four tournaments in the Legends Tour and finished second in the

2018 U.S. Senior Women's Open The 2018 U.S. Senior Women's Open was the inaugural U.S. Senior Women's Open. It was a professional golf tournament organized by the United States Golf Association, open to women over 50 years of age. The championship was played at the Chicago Go ...

Broadcast career

In 2014, Inkster began a career as a golf commentator for the Golf Channel, gaining experience as both interviewer and analyst. In 2015, she joined Fox Sports to serve as commentator for that network's coverage of USGA events.

Professional wins (45)

LPGA Tour wins (31)

LPGA Tour playoff record (6–4)

Ladies European Tour wins (2)

Compaq Open *

Evian Masters (co-sanctioned with LPGA Tour)

Other wins (7)

*1986 JCPenney Classic (with Tom Purtzer) *1990 Spalding Invitational *1996 Diners Club Matches (with

Dottie Pepper Dottie Pepper (born August 17, 1965) is an American professional golfer and television golf broadcaster. From 1988 to 1995 she competed as Dottie Mochrie, which was her married name before a divorce. She won two major championships and 17 LPGA T ...

) *1997 Diners Club Matches (with

), Gillette Tour Challenge (with Rosie Jones) *1999 Diners Club Matches (with

) *2000

Hyundai Team Matches The Hyundai Team Matches were a series of golf tournaments from 1994 to 2002. The matches features four two-player teams from the LPGA Tour, the PGA Tour, and the Senior PGA Tour (now the Champions Tour). Within each tour, the teams competed in a m ...

(with

)

Legends Tour wins (6)

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Legends Championship *

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

Walgreens Charity Classic, Walgreens Charity Championship *

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Walgreens Charity Classic *

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Suquamish Clearwater Legends Cup *

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Land O'Lakes Legends Classic

Major championships

Wins (7)

¹ Defeated Bradley on the first hole of a sudden-death playoff
² Defeated Croce on the second hole of a sudden-death playoff

Results timeline

''Results not in chronological order before 2019.'' ^ The Women's British Open replaced the du Maurier Classic as an LPGA major in 2001.
^^ The Evian Championship was added as a major in 2013. CUT = missed the half-way cut.
DQ = disqualified
NT = no tournament
T = tied

Summary

*Most consecutive cuts made – 16 (twice) *Longest streak of top-10s – 4 (twice)

LPGA Tour career summary

* official as of 2022 season * Includes match play and other events without a cut.

U.S. national team appearances

Amateur * Curtis Cup: 1982 (winners) * Espirito Santo Trophy:

(winners),

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street bridges, 14th Street Bridge in ...

(winners) Professional * Solheim Cup:

(winners),

(non-playing captain, winners),

2019 Solheim Cup The 2019 Solheim Cup was the 16th edition of the Solheim Cup matches, held from 13 to 15 September at the Gleneagles Hotel, Gleneagles PGA Centenary Course in Scotland. The Solheim Cup is a biennial team competition between the top women professi ...

(non-playing captain) * World Cup: 2007, 2008 * Handa Cup: 2014 (winners), 2015 (winners)

Solheim Cup record

Awards

*1982: Broderick Award for Golf *1984:

LPGA Rookie of the Year The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) is an American organization for female golfers. The organization is headquartered at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Florida, and is best known for running the LPGA Tour, a series of weekl ...

*1989: GWAA Female Player of the Year *1999: Women's Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year *2000: ESPY Awards Best Female Golfer *2004: LPGA William and Mousie Powell Award *2009: ASAPSports/Jim Murray Award *2009: LPGA Patty Berg Award *2022:

Bob Jones Award The Bob Jones Award is the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf. It is named in honor of Bobby Jones. Winners *1955 Francis Ouimet *1956 William C. Campbell *1957 Babe Za ...

Notes and references

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Inkster, Juli American female golfers San Jose State Spartans women's golfers LPGA Tour golfers Winners of ladies' major amateur golf championships Winners of LPGA major golf championships Solheim Cup competitors for the United States World Golf Hall of Fame inductees Golfers from California People from Los Altos, California Sportspeople from Santa Cruz, California Golf writers and broadcasters Women sports announcers 1960 births Living people