In February 2010, a little over a month into his tenure as LPGA Tour commissioner, Mike Whan faced his first crisis.
Whan was in Thailand attending his first event as commissioner and was in the corporate sponsor’s office when Paula Creamer came in with her father. She tearfully withdrew from the tournament and apologized to the sponsor.
Creamer had been battling an injury to her left thumb, and her father, Paul, explained to Whan they were going back to the U.S. to see a hand specialist. Whan was in shock.
There was little indication she would be hoisting the U.S. Open trophy at Oakmont Country Club five months later. In Whan’s mind, there was little indication she would play golf again.
“I remember thinking to myself, ‘I don’t know what it looks like when a player’s career is over, but I bet it looks a lot like that,’ ” Whan said. “I remember saying to my wife, ‘I’ve only been here a day, and I think Paula Creamer is no longer going to be on the LPGA Tour.’ ”
But Creamer returned and, 10 years ago this week, staked her claim to being arguably the best player in women’s golf. Her thumb heavily taped, Creamer earned a four-shot win at Oakmont.
It was her ninth LPGA Tour win and her first major. At only 23 years old, she was on top of the golf world.
“The biggest thing about that win was I had been so close so many times and kept falling short at the U.S. Open,” Creamer said in a recent interview with the Tribune-Review. “We had a plan for every practice round. We had a plan for every tee box there was.
“You have to think on every shot, and I challenged myself to do that.”
Creamer said the discomfort in her thumb, in a strange way, helped her. Normally an aggressive player, Creamer said she never deviated from her gameplan and even had to wave off her caddie, Colin Cann, a few times when he suggested bolder shot selections.
Staying on script, she methodically made her way around Oakmont’s challenging terrain. She finished at 3-under-par with only one round — an opening 1-over 72 — over par.
“When she was walking up 18 (on Sunday), I was with her dad,” Whan said. “He was crying. I was crying. I hadn’t spent my life around professional athletes, but I know how hard it was for her. That (win) was a real long shot.”
Creamer said she recently watched a replay of the win on television.
“I was pretty impressed with myself,” she said with a giggle.
In the 10 years since she conquered Oakmont, Creamer has added just one win to her resume despite contending on numerous occasions. She has battled a wrist injury — in the same hand where she had the balky thumb — and stiffer competition, thanks to the LPGA’s steady growth.
When Whan took over as commissioner, the tour, she said, was “pretty much at rock bottom,” but 2020 was to be the LPGA’s biggest year in terms of number of events and total prize money before covid-19 intevened. And the tour is more global than ever as a wave of Asian players has cut into the former dominance of the Americans and Europeans.
All of it, Creamer said, adds up to a much stronger tour. She has heard the chatter that some Americans have a hard time identifying with today’s LPGA because of all the Asian players but believes a more open-minded approach is necessary.
“Look at tennis,” she said. “Tennis has people from everywhere, and people still watch that. There is just so much talent everywhere. People say, ‘Where are all the Americans?’ Well, we are there. It’s just hard. It’s not an easy sport.”
Creamer will turn 34 in August, an advanced age for women’s golf given how young most of the current top players are. She continues to strengthen her wrist — she had surgery on it at the end of 2017 — and actually welcomed the layoff brought on by the pandemic.
She is not sure if she will play either of the events in northwestern Ohio when the LPGA restarts at the end of the month. One thing she is sure of: She isn’t done.
“I love what I do, and I love competing and there is no way my career is over,” she said. “I definitely am not ready to hang up my golf shoes.”
Chuck Curti is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chuck by email at ccurti@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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