HOUSTON — Cristie Kerr first had to overcome the physical pain of three dislocated ribs, among other bumps and bruises.
Then there’s the emotional scarring.
“We were both thrown from the cart, and I just I can’t remember,” Kerr said Thursday at Champions Golf Club before choking up as she recounted the harrowing moments of last week’s freak golf cart accident at the LPGA’s Volunteers of America Classic that sent her and her caddie to the hospital and nearly knocked the 20-time tour winner out of this week’s U.S. Women’s Open. “I remember landing, I remember the impact, and—I’m sorry. Maybe I shouldn’t talk about it.”
A few moments later, the 43-year-old composed herself, wiping away tears and shedding more light on the bizarre crash in the dark in which she swerved the cart she was driving toward the range to avoid an oncoming one, only to slam head-on into a cement post. Kerr can’t remember if her body hit the steering wheel before she crumpled to the ground in agony. She does remember how bad it hurt.
Miraculously, it still wasn’t enough to knock her out of this week’s major, a championship she was playing for the 23rd straight year, the most of any active golfer. And despite it hurting “everywhere,” Kerr still managed an even-par 71 on the Jackrabbit Course at Champions Golf Club and is tied for 24th after the first round.
That was quite a turnaround from just two days earlier.
“I walked and chipped and putted around Jackrabbit [on Tuesday] and then my caddie is like let’s hit a 60-yard shot here and see what you got,” Kerr said. “I skulled two of them over the green because it hurt so bad.”
But Kerr didn’t want to miss this one.
How tough is she? Ask Canada’s Brooke Henderson, who grew up playing hockey, a sport known for its players playing through injuries.
“That’s pretty crazy. I didn’t know that,” Henderson said of Kerr’s ribs. “Hockey players are pretty tough, but I don’t see how I would ever be able to do that.”
Kerr wasn’t sure she could either.
“If you would’ve told me on Monday that I would be playing today I would have said you were crazy,” she said.
That opinion didn’t change much the following day. But she persisted, waking up at 4 a.m. every day this week to ice her body. She’s undergone two cryotherapy sessions a day, while also receiving more treatment and regularly taking pain medication.
“Wednesday morning, I really didn’t want to get out of bed because I was like, This is going to hurt so bad to hit drivers and play nine holes,” she said. “It did, but I was able to do it.
“I’m pretty tough, but, yeah, it’s the chest and the ribs. It moves around depending on where—the first four or five days I had such a sharp pain in my left chest and in the back I couldn’t even hardly get out of bed.”
On a scale of 1-10, Kerr said the pain level is a six, down from the 10 it was on Monday, and that’s a level that she can deal with, especially as she keeps moving.
Still, Kerr was understandably apprehensive with her ball-striking when she began her round on the cool, 50-degree morning, and it showed. Kerr bogeyed the par-5 first.
Eventually, she became more comfortable, though. Kerr made birdie on the par-4 third and added another at the par-5 10th as her ball-striking improved as the day wore on, admittedly aided by some doctor-approved pain meds mid-round.
Kerr bogeyed the par-3 11th but made seven straight pars coming in.
A two-time major winner, this week marks Kerr’s 25th U.S. Women’s Open start overall, most of any player in the field. It’s her favorite tournament and one she won in 2007 before adding a second career major at the 2010 LPGA Championship.
And while it’s been three years since Kerr has won a tournament anywhere, just being here this week is its own victory.
“I remember landing on my chest and it was awful,” she said. “But I’m here, and I played, and I was tough today, and I feel like I’m going to keep getting better every day. God darn it, I’m going to do this.”