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MIAMI - At first, Diane Lang wasn't sure she had heard correctly.
Before facing Carol Semple Thompson for last year's U.S. Senior Women's Amateur crown, a U.S. Golf Association official noted the duo had combined to play in 102 USGA events.
"I said, What?'' Lang recalled. "The official said, `Yeah, she's played 100 and you've played two.""
Lang laughed before adding, "Now I'm up to five."
And what the Weston, Fla., golfer lacks in quantity, she's making up for in quality. Not only did Lang beat Semple Thompson for the 2005 crown, she last week became just the seventh player to win the event back-to-back.
A 1-up victory over Texan Anna Schultz in Sea Island, Ga., kept Lang unbeaten in 12 Senior Women's Am matches, the second time she has come from behind in the championship match.
"I have been lucky enough," said the Jamaica-born Lang, who fought back from 3-down after eight holes. "Anna played great, but I managed to pull it out."
She became the first to successfully defend the title since Semple Thompson, amateur golf's "grande dame," who won four in a row from 1999 to 2002 and owns three other USGA crowns.
The two also squared off last week, with Lang prevailing in their quarterfinal encounter 3 and 2.
"I love those kind of matches," she said. "You know you have to bring everything you've got and see who comes out on top."
In local and even state competition, it isn't always easy for Lang, 51, to find a good measuring stick. Two weeks before heading to Sea Island, she won the Florida State Women's Senior by 22 shots.
"I guess I was pretty tournament-ready," she said.
Out of the game for 15 years, Lang's second time around has brought a renaissance.
She was talented enough to spend one season on the LPGA Tour (1984), but lost her card and walked away two years later to start a family.
Lang turned to selling real estate, building a successful practice while her clubs gathered dust. She took them up again about four years ago, wanting only to play some friendly competitions at Weston Hills Country Club.
"One thing led to another," she said. "A couple of girls told me where I could find out about more tournaments. I did that and just got in the groove of playing."
These days, Lang's real-estate business is mostly on hold while she plays.
She was to go to Mississippi in preparation for the U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur that begins Saturday at Old Waverly GC. No Senior Women's Amateur champion has gone on to win the Mid-Am.
"Talk about pressure," Lang said. "I like that little fact."
TOUR TALK
-Phil Mickelson, shutting it down after the Ryder Cup, found time earlier this month to shoot 60 at George H.W. Bush's favorite golfing ground. Mickelson's nine-birdie round as Bush's guest at Maine's Cape Arundel GC came eight days after going 0-4-1 in Ireland.
-Stewart Cink and J.J. Henry will reprise their Ryder Cup pairing as the U.S. entry for December's World Cup team event in Barbados. The duo went unbeaten at The K Club last month (OK, they halved both matches).
-Hall of Famer Louise Suggs has been named winner of the USGA's highest honor, the Bob Jones Award. Suggs was one of the LPGA's 13 founders and called Delray Beach home for decades.
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(c) 2006, The Miami Herald. Distributed by Mclatchy-Tribune News Service.
