Although she considers her play during the 1986 U.S. Women’s Amateur the finest golf of her life, Kay Cockerill can tell you champions need to find a way to win.
As a UCLA senior, she evaluated the situation before the championship at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, California, and “talked herself” into winning the first of her two consecutive Women’s Amateur titles that come along with the custody of the Robert Cox Trophy, arguably golf’s most beautiful prize.
“I consciously remember that I started to verbalize to myself: I am going to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur,” said Cockerill, a Golf Channel and NBC Sports on-course reporter/commentator, in advance of the 124th Women’s Amateur at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on August 5-11. “I laughed the first few times I said it. I made myself verbalize it multiple times every day.”
Cockerill, a member of the UCLA and Northern California Golf Association halls of fame, grew up playing public golf at DeLaveaga Golf Course in Santa Cruz, not far from the Alister MacKenzie-designed Pasatiempo. In her final two years of high school, she worked at a private course, La Rinconada in Los Gatos, receiving a junior membership.
Honing her plan, she took full advantage of her proximity to the national-championship site and played it as much as she could, to gain an “understanding of the strategy of where to place the ball and to try to get total command of putting on those greens.”
Cockerill, who now lives in San Francisco, defeated her NorCal friend Kathleen McCarthy of Stanford, 9 and 7, in the 1986 final and remembers not three-putting all week. She followed up with a 3-and-2 win over Tracy Kerdyk at Rhode Island Country Club in 1987.
Recalling her 1986 victory, Cockerill said: “When I look back on that week, it encapsulated what I imagine as a perfect week, both mentally and physically. I just love that golf course. The weather was so good. Being so close to home, it felt so familiar.”
Even with her daily “I will win mantra” Cockerill was focused on advancing to the match-play portion of the championship that had eluded her in her first two attempts.
“I was looking forward to the opportunity,” she said. “There was no pressure. No huge intensity put on myself.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THIS UNLOCKED STORY AT GGP Women... AND USE COUPON CODE GGPW48 TO SAVE 20% ON AN ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION