A source of embarrassment for Terry Jo-Myers used to be the golf course, a place where she mentally tracked each port-a-john for quick stops between shots.
Thanks to a medication that has cleared the symptoms of the bladder disease she lives with, Myers is finding out she can have lots of fun and play golf very well."It's kind of a neat habit if it becomes a habit," Myers said Sunday night after edging Laurel Kean on the fifth playoff hole for the title of $675,000 Sara Lee Classic. "I'm in here a lot sooner than I thought I'd be back in here."
Her victory is her second in three months and only the third of a career stumped as she suffered with interstitial cystitis, which causes agonizing abdominal pain with frequent urination.
When she won the Los Angeles Women's Championship in mid-February, she was crying as she finished her first victory in nine years. Myers had no tears Sunday as she used her recent experience to win the $101,250 winner's check that first Kelly Robbins, then Nancy Harvey let slip away.
Robbins, the second-round leader, was atop the leaderboard most of Sunday at 10-under. But she bogeyed two of the three par-3s on the Hermitage Golf Course and then double-bogeyed the par-4 15th with a three-putt.
She wound up a stroke out of the playoff after shooting a 72 and finished tied with Dale Eggeling, who closed with a 68.
That set up the three-way playoff with Harvey, Myers and Kean, who shot a 6-under 66 for a 207 total. Kean had been in the locker room for an hour when she came back out and matched Myers stroke for stroke for four holes as they alternated between 18 and the par-3 17th.
On the fifth hole, Kean finally blinked and lipped out a par putt. Myers, already anticipating the next hole, took a second to collect herself and then tapped in a 1-footer for par and the victory.