CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Accents, Southern and otherwise, were in the hot air of this old American city for the first round of the 74th U.S. Women's Open on Thursday.
This is a national championship in name only these days, professional women's golf long having become a global enterprise and its oldest major a marker of the evolution.
If Hank Haney, a prominent golf instructor who dismissively shrugged off the event during his radio show Wednesday, didn't know who was playing at the Country Club of Charleston, he probably wasn't familiar with who was leading after 18 holes, either.
Too bad for Haney, whose line about picking a Korean named Lee to win was as lazy as it was lame.
As if cued by a stage manager in the wings, an impressive cast of golfers from around the world -- 29 countries are represented in the Open -- stepped up on the big stage. Through their low scores, they seemed to be making a point about how Haney missed the point.
Japan's Mamiko Higa, a 25-year-old member of the Japan LPGA Tour playing in her first U.S. Women's Open, shot a 6-under 65 to lead Germany's Esther Henseleit and American Gina Kim by 1 stroke, with Celine Boutier of France at 67. South Korea's Sei Young Kim and Azahara Munoz of Spain followed at 68, with American amateur Andrea Lee and Spain's Carlota Ciganda among those who shot 2 under.
"The best players from all over the world are coming to play in this tournament," Higa said through an interpreter, "so I think definitely this is going to be the world championship, the highest level I have ever played."
Higa's significant other, Ikioi Shota, is a sumo wrestler, world-class in his field as his fiancée is in hers. Asked which half of the couple is more famous in Japan, Higa said, "I don't know."
The LPGA had spoken up for its tour after Haney's comments, tweeting, "We are proud of the many faces who represent the diverse and global nature of golf. We celebrate all our athletes for the people they are, the countries from which they come, and the unique stories that each of them have to tell. This game is for everyone."
Players from 33 countries are competing on the LPGA Tour this season, which in part explains why Nelly Korda is the only American to have won through 12 events. And the developmental Symetra Tour, from which golfers try to earn their way to the big show, is composed of women from more than 50 nations. Got a game? Get a passport.
"I think we're probably the most diverse professional sport. It's awesome. ... It makes the competition harder." Emma Talley
"I think it's really cool," said Korda, whose parents, Petr Korda and Regina Rajchrtova, are former pro tennis stars from Czechoslovakia. "You meet so many interesting people out here. You're friends with people from different cultures."
Kentuckian Emma Talley, who won the 2013 U.S. Women's Amateur held at this week's venue and shot a solid 70 in the opening round, has embraced her workplace.
"I think we're probably the most diverse professional sport," said Talley, who is 25 and in her second year on tour. "It's awesome. Your mind just expands when you come out here. You meet people from all over the world. It makes the competition harder. We're a worldly tour, so I think this is the best golf you're going to see."
Having peers from around the globe makes them more than names you're trying to beat. "The Jutanugarn sisters' mom gave me a little Thai medicine thing last week to beat the heat," Talley said. "It's all greens. You smell it, and it's supposed to rejuvenate you. I'm learning every day from them. The Thai girls are awesome."
Haven't heard of Henseleit? Only 20, from Friesland, Germany, she is a rookie on the Ladies European Tour. Henseleit hasn't won an LET event, but she has finished in the top 10 in six of seven starts, twice a runner-up. Of beating temperatures north of 90 degrees Fahrenheit, Henseleit said, "I think you need to drink a lot and seek shadow if you can."
Before Lee, a Stanford University junior, thought about 18 holes, she was concerned with 900 words -- an essay she completed last night in her hotel lobby for an ethics and bioengineering class. "My teacher got back to me at 9 p.m. saying, 'Oh, I'll give you a one-day extension,'" Lee said. "I was like, 'Great, I pretty much finished it.' It's tough to balance school and golf sometimes, but [I] kind of got used to it at Stanford."
Haney was suspended on Thursday night and apologized for his remarks, which he made on SiriusXM PGA Tour Radio about the same time Wednesday morning as three U.S. Women's Open champions (Sandra Palmer, 1975; Hollis Stacy, 1977, 1978, 1984; Meg Mallon, 1991 and 2004) were in the media center at the Country Club of Charleston. The three, who won a combined 55 LPGA titles, spent their careers doing what they loved, hoping to be treated fairly and wondering whether an LPGA winner would ever earn a seven-figure prize check. This week, one will.
Palmer joined the LPGA Tour in 1964, a time when, in many spots outside the United States, golfers still had to search hard for instruction and watched highlights from major tournaments months after they were completed. In 1964, South Korea had just gotten its second 18-hole golf course. The tidal wave of talented women golfers coming out of that small country was more than three decades in the future.
"I'm in awe of these players and what it takes to be on tour," Palmer said of the current generation. "It takes a lot of dedication. It isn't something that you can buy."
And, as the first round made clear, it doesn't matter where you're from.
