50 years after her first LPGA victory, Jan Stephenson\u2019s glamour still masks a ferocious fighter<\/a><\/p>\nThe 74-year-old is planning to be back this weekend with family in tow, and is thrilled with the opportunities on offer through the Golf NSW fortnight of events, followed by next week\u2019s women\u2019s Australian Open and the Australian WPGA Championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a long way because there\u2019s a lot of traffic nowadays,\u201d Stephenson joked on Wednesday of her drive from the Central Coast to Wollongong, with each a drive of more than 90 minutes either side of Sydney.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was back playing, there wasn\u2019t that much traffic, but it\u2019s so lovely to see all the new Australians playing, and I always like to try to be behind them and see how they\u2019re doing. And I\u2019m excited today, I\u2019m playing in the Pro-Am with Hannah, so I\u2019m very excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suggesting she would only offer Reeves, who started her pro career with three straight victories, advice if asked, Stephenson was thrilled to discuss the chance four weeks of top-class golf offers the next generation of Australian players, as well as the bigger names returning from overseas over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying and competing, it\u2019s two different things. Playing for fun and trying to get ready for a tournament to be actually able to compete with European players is huge for them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe only had a couple (of tournaments) and once I left and went to America, it kind of fizzled out a little bit. I\u2019m glad to see it\u2019s back and I think it\u2019s so good for our players and especially for the young players. I\u2019m going to bring my grandniece out on the weekend, so I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stephenson\u2019s excitement extends beyond her home Tour, with Hannah Green\u2019s latest LPGA Tour win last week in Singapore, another proving point that Australian women\u2019s golf has never been stronger.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore it was just either me and then it was Karrie (Webb). But to see multiple\u2026 We\u2019ve got three top, top players between Grace (Kim) and Hannah and Minjee (Lee),\u201d Stephenson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really proud of what Australian golf has done. Golf Australia has really supported the golf, especially for the women, and I love that. I know the LPGA and the States has now got a new commitment to do that, but Australia\u2019s always been way ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Preparing to be on site to see another winner this week near her Australian home base, Stephenson is also hopeful that next week at Kooyonga might finally deliver a drought breaker for her countrywomen, with the big three and so many more a great chance to become just the fourth Australian to lift the Patricia Bridges Bowl, and first since Webb in 2014.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would be fantastic. I\u2019d love to see it. And the girls are playing well, so it\u2019s all about how you\u2019re playing at the moment, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 5th, 2026 By Australian Golf Digest [Photo: Scott Campbell\/Golf NSW.] As the WPGA Tour of Australasia and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[4225,64,63,121139,258337,259215,755,165964,176367,161924,259216,44,259217,259218,85,258341],"class_list":{"0":"post-519015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-golf-digest","12":"tag-australian-womens-classic","13":"tag-australian-womens-golf","14":"tag-golf","15":"tag-golf-nsw","16":"tag-jan-stephenson","17":"tag-let","18":"tag-magenta-shores","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-patricia-bridges-bowl","21":"tag-rising-golfers","22":"tag-sports","23":"tag-wpga-tour"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}