After 2 and a half years of work, I managed to win my second big championship, but not the least !!: the US WOMEN’S OPEN 1967.

Under the guidance of the USA team captain in Saint Germain, Mrs. Mildred Prunaret, my parents decided to take me to play this championship in 1965 and the week before, the Lady Carling Open in Philadelphia where I was turning 20!

2 years later, I returned on my own, at my request (I was a big girl!) To Hot Springs, Virginia, taking a plane from Paris to Kennedy Airport (NY), a helicopter to NewArk (NY) and a plane to Hot Springs where the championship was played on The Cascades, course ranked among the 100 best courses in the US:

I was lucky enough to be able to train with the pro of this course, Herman Perry, which sure helped me a lot to get to know the course well. I meet a wonderful family who are still friends today (I saw them again 3 years ago). The Prestons were vacationing (not golfing!) In the same motel as me (the Cascades Inn) and I spent the hours between my workouts with the 3 children (Leslie, Tom and Katherine 11, 10 and 5) in the pool as well. than meals.

I celebrated my 22nd birthday with them and Patty Berg, one of the best players and professionals of the time, with an extraordinary sense of humor. 

The first and second round draw placed me with Murle Lindstrom which was a highlight because with her kindness it surely helped me to finish the first 2 laps 5 points ahead.

After the third lap, I also finished with 5 points! 

That evening, contrary to general custom, I was going to dinner with the Preston family, invited by the grandparents and, to everyone's amazement, between courses of a good dinner, I was dancing a Charleston with Billy Preston on the music played by an orchestra from the Hot Springs hotel.

After a fairly normal night, the morning was quite long until I left at 2.30pm!

I was playing the last round with Margie Masters, Australian, (https://wantesgolf.wordpress.com/2014/10/07/la-increible-hazana-de-catherine-lacoste/) and after 1 hole I was 7 strokes ahead. It was an eventful day with a thunderstorm that stopped us for half an hour and soaked the greens with the result of the difficulty of guessing the putting speed.

Finally, and after a sock at 16 despite which I managed to keep 1 point ahead, I arrived at 17, dogleg to the left and after a drive with my tendency to the Basque sweater, I found myself at the distance of a 8 iron with which I attacked the flag 3 m from the hole and entered my ball in the center of the hole. What a relief!

At 18, a fairly long par 3, I played a long iron and got on the green a few yards from the hole and, with my 2 strokes ahead, I put my first putt about 40cm from the hole, despite the impression of still being at least 1 m away!

When I got in, I realized that I had won a championship that would mark my life! The biggest of the Championships!

The next day my first thought was that I was no longer just my parents’s daughter but also someone by myself!