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No need for complaining as Creamer ends Cast steel

Countless players participating in practice rounds for the 65th U.S. Women¡¯s Open came off a brutally difficult Oakmont golf course shaking Cast steel their heads and worrying how they might avoid being embarrassed. Paula Creamer, on the other hand, never let anyone see her sweat, or grimace or complain about much of anything, from the start of her week to its fabulous finish.

pro football team and its shot-and-a-beer, blue-collar Steel City work ethic. ... When I had my cast on, I just kept thinking Oakmont, Oakmont, Oakmont

Certainly few could have blamed her if she did. After all, she was playing her fourth straight tournament since returning to the LPGA Tour from thumb surgery at the end of March. She missed the cut the week earlier in Toledo, and her thumb was so sore and swollen, she was not even allowed to hit balls off the ground at the practice range until she arrived here for the tournament.

And yet, when her last par putt had dropped in the Pittsburgh suburbs late Sunday afternoon, there was Miss Pretty in Pink standing tallest of them all with a four-shot victory and the only below-par score in the field, a 3-under 281 and a final-round 69. Her left thumb was still wrapped in tape and numbed by an ice bag not long before she hoisted the championship trophy after what had to be one of the most physically demanding and mentally draining weeks of her playing career.

"There was a time before my surgery I thought I might not play golf again if the surgery goes wrong," she said. "Here we are, winning the U.S. Open. It¡¯s pretty cool."

It seemed perfectly fitting that Creamer would finally break through for her first major championship on a sprawling, brawling golf course located in an area that has always taken immense pride in its tough-guy pro football team and its shot-and-a-beer, blue-collar Steel City work ethic.

She may have been dressed in pink head-to-toe, with a pink bag, pink shoes with pink soles, pink grips and a Pink Panther head cover. But beneath the girlish garb and other assorted accouterments was a tough-girl athlete who played with true grit all week, a 23-year-old woman who never brought up the state of her painful thumb unless she was asked, and then often made light of it.

(Just as an aside, Cristie Kerr, winner of two of her last three events, Cast iron steel declined an interview request Saturday night after three double bogeys in 13 holes took her out of contention. It was a classless act, to say the very least, unbecoming of a 32-year-old woman who only two weeks ago had moved into the No. 1 position in the world rankings. If you¡¯re the best player in the world, act like it, win or lose.)

And now back to Creamer. Asked about her thumb Saturday night, she smiled and said "it¡¯s tired, my whole left hand is pretty tired. I¡¯ll probably sleep with an ice bag on my hand. I¡¯m afraid to take this tape off. My thumb is going to explode out of it. The more I think about making pars, the less my thumb bothers me."

An hour earlier, her father Paul, a graduate of the Naval Academy and a former airline pilot, walked behind the gallery ropes following her progress and candidly admitted his daughter was "in uncharted waters.

"We weren¡¯t even sure what to do between rounds because we haven¡¯t been faced with it," Paul Creamer said. "It¡¯s not the best thing to happen, but these are the cards you¡¯re dealt."

Creamer has been allowed to hit only 40 practice balls a day before she plays. She needed 58 shots to finish her second round and 51 shots in the third, meaning she was far over the proverbial pitch-count limit in terms of putting extra stress on the finger.

"She¡¯s tough," Paul Creamer said. "She¡¯ll fight, she won¡¯t complain."

Sunday was another grueling test for the California native playing in her eighth Open. Once again, she had an early-morning wakeup call, this time to finish out the last five holes of her third round. Then it was more ice on the thumb, an abbreviated warm-up and 18 more holes in the final round, starting off with a three-shot lead as the only player in the field to be under par after 54 holes.

It was hardly a walk in the park for Creamer in the sun-kissed final round Sunday afternoon, especially after South Korea¡¯s Na Yeon Choi, who won a week ago in Toledo, make a six-foot eagle putt at the ninth hole to finish a 5-under front nine and creep within two shots of Creamer¡¯s lead.

But Creamer birdied the ninth herself, and when Choi had a three-putt bogey up ahead at the 13th, Creamer was able to open a four-shot lead as she made the turn to the back nine, the only player in the field in red under-par numbers, and she continued to follow her game plan to think par on every hole the rest of the way in.

In the end, she maintained that four-shot advantage with some gorgeous ball-striking and clutch birdies at the 14th and 15th. She insisted afterward that she had never looked at a leaderboard all day until she got to the 18th hole. She also admitted that "I don¡¯t even think I¡¯m 80 percent.

"I think I¡¯m about 60 percent. It just shows you how important the mental side of golf can be. When I had my cast on, I just kept thinking Oakmont, Oakmont, Oakmont. For my fourth week out, I¡¯ll take it, I¡¯ll definitely take it."