Nothing fuels golf commentary like parenthood—especially the nostalgia of a dad returning to the fairways. Take Scottie Scheffler, for example. Just days after his wife Meredith gave birth to their first child, he stepped onto the tee at the 2024 PGA Championship and immediately delivered with an eagle setup from 167 yards. In perfect timing, CBS’s Jim Nantz burst out, “Oh! Hello, Dad!” While celebrations like this are well deserved, one LPGA legend thinks the spotlight on fatherhood often overshadows the real challenges of motherhood.

Seven-time major winner Julie Inkster doesn’t cringe at the celebration but finds the media’s comparison strikingly unfair. She also finds it absurd for analysts to say things like, “‘Uh, Scottie Scheffler just had a kid and he’s back next week.’ It’s like, right, okay. Yeah, he didn’t have the kid.”  Motherhood, she rightly points out, is far more taxing in the early months.

And so, this isn’t the first time she has pointed out this aspect of golf media. In 2024, she said, “The wives are actually having the kids and having to take six or seven months off. Guys take the week off and come back as heroes because their wife had to give birth.” So, if anything, Inkster has been pretty admanat on letting you know where she stands in this particular discussion.

Now, Inkster continues on Inside the LPGA Podcast, “You know, it’s, uh, I mean, you know, um, the men’s genes as being a parent and women’s genes being a parent are really two different things. Um, you know, I think the guys are great dads,” but still points out that for the first eight to nine months (and more), “it’s on the mom to be the breadwinner and traveling with your kids and staying in different hotel rooms and trying to practice and trying to play and trying to be a mom…”

Balancing the rigors of pro golf with the whirlwind of new motherhood is no easy feat. For Juli Inkster, it was a juggling act like no other, all while bouncing back from the physical grind of childbirth and adjusting to caring for tiny humans. Inkster had her first kid, Hayley, in 1990, and four years later, welcomed Cori. In 1999, she bagged her first U.S. Women’s Open title. That was no easy feat.

In 2014, she said, “I think it’s really tough to be a mom and play out here because you’re going overseas so much. And I’m not sure that’s the smartest thing to bring your kids overseas.” In a 2014 interview during her last LPGA start in that decade, she recalled the ’90s as a wild ride of road trips from tournament to tournament in minivans packed to the brim with toys and luggage.

And now reiterates that it’s because parenthood is all about “you know, it’s the quality time, it’s not the quantity.” Still, playing close to home made it easier to raise her two daughters, as Inkster admits now, “And you know, I didn’t have to leave them for 4 weeks. Um, so, uh, it was definitely easier on me, um, you emotionally.”

Motherhood has driven several LPGA stars to make difficult career choices. Take, for instance, Amy Olson, who retired in May 2024 at 31 after finishing her original 10-year plan, cited motherhood and long-term burnout as motivating factors. She said, “If I was going to fail at something, I’d rather fail at golf than motherhood.”

Moreover, taking a break from golf for a few years during the early stages of motherhood and coming back to the grind can also feel exhausting, and many women tend to lose out on their previous spike in lay. Sophia Popov definitely felt that with her own motherhood days.

Sophia Popov says returning to golf after giving birth made her feel like “I’m a total noodle”

Postpartum is a seriously underestimated struggle for moms – and for pro athletes like these LPGA players, dealing with the spotlight adds to the challenge of coming back. Sophia Popov welcomed daughter Maya Mae Mehles in June 2023. After maternity leave, she jumped back into the tour in 2024, playing 17 events.

Getting back to golf after having a baby wasn’t a cakewalk. Popov was raw about her feelings at the 2024 Fir Hills Seri Pak Championship: “It is so hard to get back into playing shape…I feel horrible. Like I’m a total noodle. I can’t swing the golf club. My body is so out of shape. How am I ever going to be the same again? Everything changed, my body, everything.”

This season, Popov scored a win at the Carlisle Arizona Women’s Golf Classic on Mother’s Day – a sweet victory near her Arizona home with daughter Maya watching. “You only get this chance once a year, so I think that was also a driving force behind me playing this week. It’s a home game, finishing on Mother’s Day, and I wanted it so bad,” Popov said following the win.

She is currently playing at the 2025 Portland Classic. Yet, both Popov and fellow pro Caroline Masson said in 2024 they “totally underestimated what it’s like to come back” after maternity leave. So, yes, therein lies a nod to Inkster’s statements.