KAHUKU — With each birdie yesterday in the SBS Open at Turtle Bay, Sherri Turner struck a blow for history, for the overlooked, for the ...

Shall we say, "veterans."

Turner, 49, is the oldest player in the 132-player field. Old enough, as she said she is frequently reminded, "to be lot of their mothers, easily." With 23 years on the LPGA Tour, she's been playing it longer than some of the others she shares space with on the leaderboard have been alive.

Counting college — which was before the NCAA held women's championships — she's been playing courses at Turtle Bay for 30 years. She's been through five LPGA commissioners and could, despite tentative plans to retire next year, simultaneously hold LPGA and AARP cards.

So when the bespectacled, church-lady lookalike shot a 4-under 68 yesterday, it was about more than just taking a prominent place on the leaderboard.

Much as Turner might like it to be about introducing herself to the wave of twentysomethings and teenagers, she knows her performance needs to say more. It must also speak for a generation largely unknown by the youngsters who increasingly populate the ranks.

For Turner, whose last win came here in the Orix Hawaiian Ladies Open 17 years ago, it is about reminding the Susie-Come-Latelys that golf history didn't begin with Tiger Woods. That a women's tour didn't grow out of a video game.

In a tournament that, with the debuts of wunderkinds Morgan Pressel and Ai Miyazato, is all about a youth movement, Turner serves as a competitive reminder of the legacy of a generation that helped build and shape the LPGA to where youngsters now can cash $1 million endorsement checks before their senior proms.

"I mean, a few years back there were players who didn't know who (Hall of Famer) JoAnne Carner was," Turner said incredulously. "I was, like, 'how could you not know JoAnne Carner is?'

"I would like for players to know who I am but I have to accept that they probably don't," Turner said. "I don't mean that they are disrespectful, it is just that they are so young and it is a totally different generation. And, I understand that. But they need to know how hard it was to get where this tour is now. They need to know it didn't just happen overnight. It took a lot of years by a lot of people."

Yesterday, she gave the younger generation something — and someone — to look up to on the leaderboard.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.