Inkster, Juli

Juli Inkster, née Juli Simpson, (born June 24, 1960, Santa Cruz, California, U.S.), American golfer who was one of the leading players on the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) tour.

She attended San Jose State University, and in 1980 she married Brian Inkster, a golf instructor. Several weeks later she won the U.S. Women’s Amateur championship title; she became the first person to win three years in a row (1980–82). In 1980 and 1982 Inkster was a member of the U.S. World Cup teams, and in the latter year she also played for the United States in the Curtis Cup competition. She joined the LPGA tour in 1983 and won her first title in only her fifth event, the SAFECO Classic. In 1984 she became the first rookie to win two of the four major championships—the Nabisco Dinah Shore and the du Maurier Classic—and during that season she was named LPGA Rookie of the Year.

In 1986 Inkster won four tournaments, and two years later she captured three titles, including the SAFECO Classic. She repeated as champion at the Nabisco Dinah Shore in 1989. Inkster subsequently struggled on the tour, winning only four events between 1990 and 1998. In 1999, however, she dominated women’s golf, winning five events—notably the U.S. Women’s Open and McDonald’s LPGA championship. With those two triumphs she became only the fourth woman to have won a career LPGA Grand Slam; the Nabisco Dinah Shore and the du Maurier Classic were the two other events that constituted the Grand Slam at the time. In December 1999 Inkster joined Tiger Woods and Bruce Fleisher as one of the Golf Writers Association of America Players of the Year. Her later notable wins include the McDonald’s LPGA championship (2000) and the U.S. Women’s Open (2002). In 2006 she won her 31st tournament and became just the third LPGA player to have surpassed the $10 million mark in career earnings. Inkster was inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame (1999) and the World Golf Hall of Fame (2000).