At U.S. Senior Women's Open, the only question for dropping minimum age is how low

ANN ARBOR, MI – Not long after 73-year-old Barb Moxness shot her age (again) at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, Juli Inkster threatened to do the same after she got to 4 under at Barton Hills Country Club in Ann Arbor, Michigan. A late triple-bogey, however, derailed those chances for the 66-year-old LPGA Hall of Famer, but she was still pleased with an opening 70 on the Donald Ross design.

Inkster was 58 when the first U.S. Senior Women’s Open was staged in 2018, giving her an uphill battle from the start. The USGA took so long getting this championship off the ground (38 years after the men’s U.S. Senior Open) that it lost out on a number of LPGA greats who played only once or not at all. 

The drumbeat to drop the minimum age from 50 to 45 has grown louder as the years go by. Inkster thinks even 45 is too old. She’d like to see it dropped to 40.

“I’m telling you, women’s bodies don’t stay the same as men at 50,” said Inkster. “It’s hard. You want quality golf. I know there’s a lot of people that totally disagree with me, and I get it. But even at 66, I want to play against the best.”

“You’re 66?” Inkster’s husband, Brian, quipped.

Annika Sorenstam, who won in her debut at this event five years ago, has changed her mind about lowering the age. While she’s not actively lobbying the USGA to do it, she sees the merits, noting there are two majors for seniors ― held in back-to-back weeks ― and they have two different age requirements (45 for the LPGA Legends and 50 for the U.S. Senior Women’s Open).

“We should have the same field, I think,” she said.

USGA CEO Mike Whan said that in his five years with the organization, there have been at least three passionate discussions about the topic. 

“I would say, at this point, there hasn’t been consensus to make a change,” he said. “People like our strength of field, like our breadth of players who can win.”

Meanwhile, on the LPGA, 30 is the new 40. Increased purses combined with the wear-and-tear of a global schedule make it appealing for players to retire early. 

Angela Stanford was the last player over 40 to win on the LPGA at the 2020 Volunteers of America Classic. She was 42 at the time. Stanford was 40 when she won the Amundi Evian Championship in 2018, a feat Stacy Lewis said might not ever be matched given the direction the tour is headed. 

In the last 10 years, only six players age 35 and over have won on the LPGA.

Karrie Webb, 51, agrees that lowering the age would benefit the U.S. Senior Women’s Open, noting the difficulty of trying to get back into competitive shape 10 to 15 years after retirement.  

“Our bodies change so much more quickly than the men,” Webb said. “The men at 60, 65 can still be hitting it as far as they were when they were 45. Our bodies change so much that we just become less impressive the older we get. I think, for the longevity of the event, the interest of the event, it could do with going to 45.”

The Legends of the LPGA, unlike the PGA Tour Champions, isn’t under the LPGA’s umbrella, though they’d certainly like for that to be the case. The Legends tour has only five events, including pro-ams and team contests, outside the majors this year. The purse for the LPGA Legends Championship of $350,000 was down 12.5 percent from 2025.

Bernhard Langer has made more than $38 million playing senior golf, while Annika Sorenstam still leads the LPGA’s career money list with $22,583,693. The PGA Tour’s no-cut Champions is the “retirement” dream tour, while former LPGA players cobble together what they can each season.

So, what is senior golf for women? It’s a tough question, given that it’s difficult to define forty-somethings as seniors, yet those are prime years for players coming off the LPGA proper. 

“I mean, if you think about it, how many people are still on tour at 36, 37, 38?” asked 56-year-old Catriona Matthew.

One could count them on two hands any given week.

“And then, even if they finish at 35, they’ve got to still wait 10 years to get to 45,” added Karen Stupples. “There’s a whole lot of life that happens in those 10 years.”

A drop to 45 would bring in the likes of Lorena Ochoa, Cristie Kerr, Suzann Pettersen, Angela Stanford, Se Ri Pak, and Natalie Gulbis. 

A drop to 40 would immediately bring in Paula Creamer, Stacy Lewis, Christina Kim and Brittany Lincicome. 

The men’s U.S. Senior Amateur age minimum is 55, five years older than the men’s U.S. Senior Open. A change to the U.S. Senior Women’s Open age minimum doesn’t have to impact the women’s amateur game.

Speaking of amateurs, there are 33 in the field of 120 at Barton Hills (that’s 28 percent of the field). At the men’s Senior Open, which features a field of 156, 14 amateurs qualified. 

The amateurs in the field this week have more opportunities to compete any given week than the pros. Add in a 10- to 15-year break after the LPGA, and it’s a gap many future pros might feel is too great.

“I think the argument against it is, do we think our championship is broken and needs to be fixed?” asked Whan.

Perhaps the question should be: Who does the championship serve?

Beth Ann Nichols is a senior writer for Golfweek covering the LPGA and all things women’s golf. Follow her on X/Twitter (@GolfweekNichols).

This article originally appeared on Golfweek: At U.S. Senior Women’s Open, the only question for dropping minimum age is how low