Karrie Webb Wants A Hook In the Off Season
On the golf course, LPGA veteran Karrie Webb demonstrates every round why she is a Hall of Famer. Webb is an intense, precision-driven player who is seemingly in the hunt every single round.
Off the course, you might say the same rules apply in her fishing boat, “Ayr Waves,” named for her hometown of Ayr in Queensland, Australia. She prowls the waters of South Florida and at home Down Under hoping to land the big one.
And in the off-season, “Webbie” wants a hook. And a good fight.
While her shorts aren’t pressed and her shoes aren’t shined on the water – and even a cold one (or a few) might add to the trip’s enjoyment -- make no mistake about one thing. For Karrie Webb, it’s always “game on,” even in the open seas.
“It’s different than golf, but I’m still competitive when I go fishing,” admitted Webb, who has 38 LPGA wins, including seven major championships. “I hate going out there and putting the time in and not catching any fish.”
At this time of year, Webb takes her boat deep-sea fishing for wahoo and swordfish. Last year in the off-season months, she caught white marlin. Those large fighting fish tested the Hall of Famer’s patience, strength and tenacity.
“I caught a 50-pound white marlin and it was a real fight,” she said. “All you’re doing is cranking and cranking the reel to get the line in.”
Six years ago in Florida, Webb hauled in an 80-pound white marlin – which is her largest catch, to date.
But there have also been those times when she has taken her sister and brother-in-law out to fish and returned back to shore with nothing on ice. Twice, they had tooled around in Florida waters, looking for fish with no luck. Finally, during an idle week in September – their third time fishing together – Webb and her family brought home a catch.
“It was a good day and I was glad, because I didn’t realize until then that I had not caught any fish with my brother-in-law,” said Webb, who is the first LPGA player in history to win the Super Career Grand Slam -- winning all five major championships available in her career.
While Webb looks forward to some time in the off-season to pursue her other passion, she admits to being “a bit of a fair-weather fisherman.” South Florida gets considerable wind during the winter months and the Aussie won’t take her boat out if seas are up by more than three or four feet.
But Webb, who grew up near the Great Barrier Reef -- one of the seven wonders of the natural world that is a unique 1,800-mile-long marine habitat – is right at home on the water. Whether she is deep-sea fishing for giant marlin or bottom fishing in the backwater creeks of Australia, she is a happy angler.
And after prowling the waters for a few months each year, her fellow LPGA playing pros understand why Webb shows up at the start of each new season with a smile on her face and maybe a couple of big-fish pictures stored on her cell phone.
They have known for years that they shouldn’t be too surprised when the great champion talks about how she spent the off-season in the hunt, in the fight, and finally, in the feast. The story is same wherever she goes.
- By Lisa D. Mickey