The lingering image some golf fans have of Wendy Ward is of the 28-year-old Texas native calling a one-stroke penalty on herself after her ball moved almost imperceptibly on the 13th green during the final round of  last year’s McDonald’s LPGA Championship. That penalty might have cost Ward thousands of dollars and may, in fact have cost her the tournament.
Ward was widely praised for her actions that day but she doesn’t enjoy talking about them. She would rather discuss the here and now.
And there’s a lot to talk about. Because Wendy Ward is poised to become one of golf’s major stars.
Ward joined the LPGA Tour in 1996 with an impressive resume and high expectations.  The resume included the 1994 U.S. Amateur championship and an appearance on the Curtis Cup team the same year. She was also a three-time All-American at Arizona State.
The expectations were mostly those imposed on her by other people. When Ward turned pro there were those who expected her to take the Tour by storm a la Annika Sorenstam who had been the Rookie of the Year in 1994 and won six tournaments in the succeeding two years including back-to-back Women’s Open titles and hasn’t looked back since.
Though Ward’s progression from amateur star to professional standout wasn’t as dramatic she didn’t exactly fail. She played solid golf in her rookie season and in September of 1997 won her first tournament, the Fieldcrest Cannon Classic. Five months later she won again in Hawaii.
Ward didn’t taste victory again for more than three years until she won the Wendy’s Championship near Columbus in August of this year. But she narrowly missed two other wins earlier this year, losing a playoff to Wendy  Doolan at the Champions Classic in Dayton in May and tying for second in Rochester in early June. In the last three years Ward has recorded 17 top-10 finishes, including seven this season.
That’s a solid playing record by any standard but while Ward has been rolling along Sorenstam was winning four tournaments in a row this year after placing second in two others and Karrie Webb was making the McDonald’s LPGA Championship her second major title of the year. In light of those accomplishments, Ward’s achievements have sometimes gone unnoticed.
“The depth of our tour’s just so great,” Ward said. “To do something like Annika did, two seconds and then (four) firsts. That’s very rare out here. Like I’ve told people before, I have a higher expectation of myself than anybody else could ever put on me. I have to keep in focus and keep in  control, not let (expectations) get in the way and realize ’Yeah, I am still human, I’m going to make a bad swing. It’s hard to laugh and move on but you’ve got to do it.”
Ward admits that its easier for her to adopt that attitude now at age 28 than it was when she turned pro at 22. “Absolutely,” she said. “Maturity always plays a factor in that and Tom Thorpe (her caddy) keeps me real mellow and doesn’t let me get too down on myself.
“I just think it’s a combination of working with somebody who’s keeping me levelheaded and then me being a little more mature at 28 than I was when I first came out here.”
Ward has tied for third at the McDonalds’s LPGA championship the past two years after finishing fourth in 1998. Those are her best finishes ever in a major and have given her the knowledge that she contend every time she tees it up.“I feel like I’m becoming more comfortable with my game,” she said, “and I love being in the heat of the battle.”
And that includes her battles against the likes of Sorenstam, who was attending Arizona while Ward was at Arizona State. “I grew up playing college golf with Annika,” she said. “We went head-to-head for two years. I look at the players that are on top right now and you know, I’ve kind of competed with them all along.”
What Ward hasn’t done yet is win a major title but after three solid performances at DuPont Country Club there is little doubt that she has the game and the mindset to claim one.
“When I do win one it’s just going to be a culmination of all the hard work,” she said, “and the different people who have impacted me to make that possible. Working with (instructor) Mike McGetrick is one of the greatest things I’ve ever done. The minute I started working with him he made me believe I should be a top player. That’s great for me to hear but I’ve got to believe it.”