Post by philknj on Apr 21, 2019 14:50:23 GMT
On the eve of 2019 USWO qualifiying, let's step into Mr. Peabody's WABAC Machine (this was posted on the defunct SS Forum). What I recall about this golf course is that it had a work-in-progress look to it. One of the players said there were no rest facilities out on the course! This was a failing golf course with a different name purchased by Mr. Orange in 2008.
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I dropped by Trump National GC (Colts Neck, NJ) with a plan to follow the first group teeing off from # 1 at 7:30 AM (Seon Hwa Lee and Wendy Doolan) for nine holes. After that, I would improvise.
I love watching Lee’s ballet-like swing...unhurried, balanced, symmetrical, rhythmic...it looks like her arms and hands do no work...the big muscles pull them through the hitting zone. Doolan is the opposite...re-routes the club at the top, gets her hands involved on the downswing. The only similarity between these two was that they had identical white Taylor-Made staff bags. Doolan had Callaway irons with PROTOTYPE stamped on them.
In front of a crowd of one (me), the first hole (par-4) was typical: Doolan outdrove Lee by thirty yards. Lee missed the green right with a hybrid, but pitched it close for a par. Doolan two-putted for par.
Doolan cranked another long one past Lee on #2, but it didn’t matter as both players reached the elbow of this par-5. One-putt birdies for both. At #3 (par-3, 172 yards), Doolan rolled in a long one for birdie, while Lee made par.
The fourth hole is a par-4 of 311 yards with trees and junk down the right side of a bowling alley fairway. Doolan’s tee ball ended up against a clump of two-foot high grass next to the right edge of the cart path. While standing on the cart path, she gently hacked it back into the fairway, then hit a horrendous chunked pitch shot...the ball went about three yards! Her next pitch almost went in and she settled for bogey. Lee hit a perfect drive to about 75 yards, wedged it close, but missed a short birdie putt.
More trouble for Doolan at the par-4 6th. She got in trouble off the tee, but had what seemed like a routine mid or short iron for her third shot from the fairway. But, she hit it lousy...squirted right and landed in a bunker. I think she made a double on this hole and lost another stroke at the 7th. After nine holes, my casual count had Lee shooting 36 and Doolan 38. It was 9:25 AM and they took one hour and fifty-five minutes.
I backtracked the 18th hole in case I ran into Grace Park completing her first nine (which started at # 10), but I didn’t see her. I didn’t want to wait, so I picked a threesome that was putting out at the 10th hole (Ayaka Kaneko, Jennifer Song, and Yoo Kyeong Kim) and followed them thru the 18th hole. All three were about equal distance off the tee.
This was my first look at Kim, who hasn’t done much on the LPGA tour. She has a relaxed, easy backswing...her follow-through immediately reminded me of Colin Montgomerie. Also has a nice portrait at lpga.com, which I didn’t expect, based on her dour expression on the course. I assume it was Daddy toting her bag. She uses a Volvik yellow ball.
Kaneko’s another new one for me...has extremely high hands and arched back at the top. She wears Pearly Gates golf attire, but won’t be confused with Momoko Ueda. She dropped out after the morning round.
Song had the most conventional swing...kinda reminds me of Morgan Pressel or JY Shin. She’ll never be a bomber off the tee, so she has to be almost perfect everywhere else to be competitive.
Song is a fist bump queen. Whenever she made a good par save, she did a fist bump with her caddie. But, it had to be a GOOD par save. On one hole, she had a downhill slider putt from three feet and missed it...tapped in for par and NO fist bump. I don’t recall her making any birdies. Later in the day at the scoring HQ, her caddie introduced himself and thanked me for following Jennifer.
There had been light raindrops during the early AM, but then it started coming down heavy around 10:15 AM and stayed that way for 4-5 hours. During the PM rounds, they allowed the players to pick up their balls in the fairways, even though the course seemed to have good drainage. The sun came out around 3 PM.
I made quick pit stop at the scoring HQ, where Jeong Jang was devouring a hot dog with multiple fixings. Her hubby took care of her baby in a stroller.
It was decision time again...I chose to do the front nine with MJ Hur; JJ would be in the next group, so I could take a peak over there, too. MJ used a club caddie who wore galoshes (good idea). She marks her ball with HUR.
Even after MJ won in Portland a few years ago, she got bashed for her swing. Well, I got a good look at it from behind as she hit her second shot at the Par-5 2nd hole. It has definitely changed...used to be very flat or around her body at the top...now she’s at the standard position - over the shoulder. It looked like all her shots were low, boring straight balls, which probably helped her, considering the weather conditions. I don’t know if she can hit it any other way. I never heard of her playing partner, a pro named Jordan Lintz. Not a bad player...in contrast, she hit high, tight draws. Unfortunately, she made a bad swing at #6 and #8 to foul up her score.
Meanwhile, whenever I looked back to a preceding hole, JJ was getting outdriven by an unknown amateur, Noelle Maertz (ranked 533rd among girl players by Golfweek.com).
After MJ’s front nine, I decided to link up with Grace Park’s group somewhere on the back nine, where she would be finishing her day, but I never found her. I returned to the scoring HQ and saw she was a WD (had 77 in the AM).
The scoreboard had three 90+ rounds from the AM. One of them was by a girl who I recall shot in the 90s last year. Another girl was someone I noticed on the range in the AM...had a rubbery-armed buggy whip swing. She hit some good shots...but not always! I saw her once on the course, about 50 yards behind her two partners.
I returned to the back nine to find JJ. I don’t know what happened, but she was about 60 yards behind Maertz on one of the holes. The young amateur was stocky blonde dressed in all black...had a high, past-parallel backswing and generated some wicked speed and power through the hitting zone. Yet, JJ outplayed her in the AM, 74 to 84. I got a hint of how this happened at # 17.
The 17th is a 369-yard straight par-4, slightly uphill (I was up on a hill in the right rough). JJ hits first into the left rough, near the fairway (uses orange Volvik ball and orange tee). Maertz busts one down the right side, which comes to rest two yards behind the 109 marker. Using a hybrid, JJ slashes out a worm-killing grounder down the left fairway, but short of the green. With probably a wedge, Maertz belts her approach twenty feet over the flag. JJ pitches it to a kick-in range for par. Maertz three-putted. NOW I get it! Still, I was impressed by the girl...she’s got game and stayed positive (shot 78 in PM).
After this pair continued to # 18, I went down to the 17th tee box to watch Elisa Serramia and Liz Wendt. Serramia’s caddie remembered me from earlier in the day and Elisa asked if I wanted a ball, so I said okay. She signed a #8 Titleist Pro-V1, which had purple lines drawn over the Titleist names. After that, I MUST follow her to the end of her round.
Elisa seemed to be a good driver of the ball. Her yellow bag with black trim advertised ‘Dark Dog’, a ten-hour energy drink. I think she hit the ten-hour mark just before her third shot at the par-5 18th hole. It came up short in the bunker. Her sand shot sounded clicky, as the ball one-hopped off the green. She chipped on and two-putted for a seven. That was brutal, especially since it dropped her into a tie for the first alternate position, which meant a sudden-death playoff with Ayada Hiroko.
I stayed to watch the last stragglers finish up at the ninth hole, but it didn’t change the results of a K-sweep of qualifiers: JJ, SH Lee, Hur, Jennie Lee, J. Song, and Amateur Annie Park, the low medalist at 78-65-143.
The very last straggler was Sarah Brown. As she crossed the bridge to the scoring HQ, her caddie said “38 putts.” She laughed and said, “Maybe more!” Later, the caddie talked to someone about her ball position being way too forward, but he didn’t notice it because he was asked to line up her putts only from behind. As I headed to the parking lot, Brown and caddie were working on the practice green.
As for the playoff, I just couldn’t stick around for that. My feet were soaked and there’s only so much support I can give for a free golf ball. My car passed the returning player’s golf carts on the way out and Hiroko looked quite happy. Oh well...
I love watching Lee’s ballet-like swing...unhurried, balanced, symmetrical, rhythmic...it looks like her arms and hands do no work...the big muscles pull them through the hitting zone. Doolan is the opposite...re-routes the club at the top, gets her hands involved on the downswing. The only similarity between these two was that they had identical white Taylor-Made staff bags. Doolan had Callaway irons with PROTOTYPE stamped on them.
In front of a crowd of one (me), the first hole (par-4) was typical: Doolan outdrove Lee by thirty yards. Lee missed the green right with a hybrid, but pitched it close for a par. Doolan two-putted for par.
Doolan cranked another long one past Lee on #2, but it didn’t matter as both players reached the elbow of this par-5. One-putt birdies for both. At #3 (par-3, 172 yards), Doolan rolled in a long one for birdie, while Lee made par.
The fourth hole is a par-4 of 311 yards with trees and junk down the right side of a bowling alley fairway. Doolan’s tee ball ended up against a clump of two-foot high grass next to the right edge of the cart path. While standing on the cart path, she gently hacked it back into the fairway, then hit a horrendous chunked pitch shot...the ball went about three yards! Her next pitch almost went in and she settled for bogey. Lee hit a perfect drive to about 75 yards, wedged it close, but missed a short birdie putt.
More trouble for Doolan at the par-4 6th. She got in trouble off the tee, but had what seemed like a routine mid or short iron for her third shot from the fairway. But, she hit it lousy...squirted right and landed in a bunker. I think she made a double on this hole and lost another stroke at the 7th. After nine holes, my casual count had Lee shooting 36 and Doolan 38. It was 9:25 AM and they took one hour and fifty-five minutes.
I backtracked the 18th hole in case I ran into Grace Park completing her first nine (which started at # 10), but I didn’t see her. I didn’t want to wait, so I picked a threesome that was putting out at the 10th hole (Ayaka Kaneko, Jennifer Song, and Yoo Kyeong Kim) and followed them thru the 18th hole. All three were about equal distance off the tee.
This was my first look at Kim, who hasn’t done much on the LPGA tour. She has a relaxed, easy backswing...her follow-through immediately reminded me of Colin Montgomerie. Also has a nice portrait at lpga.com, which I didn’t expect, based on her dour expression on the course. I assume it was Daddy toting her bag. She uses a Volvik yellow ball.
Kaneko’s another new one for me...has extremely high hands and arched back at the top. She wears Pearly Gates golf attire, but won’t be confused with Momoko Ueda. She dropped out after the morning round.
Song had the most conventional swing...kinda reminds me of Morgan Pressel or JY Shin. She’ll never be a bomber off the tee, so she has to be almost perfect everywhere else to be competitive.
Song is a fist bump queen. Whenever she made a good par save, she did a fist bump with her caddie. But, it had to be a GOOD par save. On one hole, she had a downhill slider putt from three feet and missed it...tapped in for par and NO fist bump. I don’t recall her making any birdies. Later in the day at the scoring HQ, her caddie introduced himself and thanked me for following Jennifer.
There had been light raindrops during the early AM, but then it started coming down heavy around 10:15 AM and stayed that way for 4-5 hours. During the PM rounds, they allowed the players to pick up their balls in the fairways, even though the course seemed to have good drainage. The sun came out around 3 PM.
I made quick pit stop at the scoring HQ, where Jeong Jang was devouring a hot dog with multiple fixings. Her hubby took care of her baby in a stroller.
It was decision time again...I chose to do the front nine with MJ Hur; JJ would be in the next group, so I could take a peak over there, too. MJ used a club caddie who wore galoshes (good idea). She marks her ball with HUR.
Even after MJ won in Portland a few years ago, she got bashed for her swing. Well, I got a good look at it from behind as she hit her second shot at the Par-5 2nd hole. It has definitely changed...used to be very flat or around her body at the top...now she’s at the standard position - over the shoulder. It looked like all her shots were low, boring straight balls, which probably helped her, considering the weather conditions. I don’t know if she can hit it any other way. I never heard of her playing partner, a pro named Jordan Lintz. Not a bad player...in contrast, she hit high, tight draws. Unfortunately, she made a bad swing at #6 and #8 to foul up her score.
Meanwhile, whenever I looked back to a preceding hole, JJ was getting outdriven by an unknown amateur, Noelle Maertz (ranked 533rd among girl players by Golfweek.com).
After MJ’s front nine, I decided to link up with Grace Park’s group somewhere on the back nine, where she would be finishing her day, but I never found her. I returned to the scoring HQ and saw she was a WD (had 77 in the AM).
The scoreboard had three 90+ rounds from the AM. One of them was by a girl who I recall shot in the 90s last year. Another girl was someone I noticed on the range in the AM...had a rubbery-armed buggy whip swing. She hit some good shots...but not always! I saw her once on the course, about 50 yards behind her two partners.
I returned to the back nine to find JJ. I don’t know what happened, but she was about 60 yards behind Maertz on one of the holes. The young amateur was stocky blonde dressed in all black...had a high, past-parallel backswing and generated some wicked speed and power through the hitting zone. Yet, JJ outplayed her in the AM, 74 to 84. I got a hint of how this happened at # 17.
The 17th is a 369-yard straight par-4, slightly uphill (I was up on a hill in the right rough). JJ hits first into the left rough, near the fairway (uses orange Volvik ball and orange tee). Maertz busts one down the right side, which comes to rest two yards behind the 109 marker. Using a hybrid, JJ slashes out a worm-killing grounder down the left fairway, but short of the green. With probably a wedge, Maertz belts her approach twenty feet over the flag. JJ pitches it to a kick-in range for par. Maertz three-putted. NOW I get it! Still, I was impressed by the girl...she’s got game and stayed positive (shot 78 in PM).
After this pair continued to # 18, I went down to the 17th tee box to watch Elisa Serramia and Liz Wendt. Serramia’s caddie remembered me from earlier in the day and Elisa asked if I wanted a ball, so I said okay. She signed a #8 Titleist Pro-V1, which had purple lines drawn over the Titleist names. After that, I MUST follow her to the end of her round.
Elisa seemed to be a good driver of the ball. Her yellow bag with black trim advertised ‘Dark Dog’, a ten-hour energy drink. I think she hit the ten-hour mark just before her third shot at the par-5 18th hole. It came up short in the bunker. Her sand shot sounded clicky, as the ball one-hopped off the green. She chipped on and two-putted for a seven. That was brutal, especially since it dropped her into a tie for the first alternate position, which meant a sudden-death playoff with Ayada Hiroko.
I stayed to watch the last stragglers finish up at the ninth hole, but it didn’t change the results of a K-sweep of qualifiers: JJ, SH Lee, Hur, Jennie Lee, J. Song, and Amateur Annie Park, the low medalist at 78-65-143.
The very last straggler was Sarah Brown. As she crossed the bridge to the scoring HQ, her caddie said “38 putts.” She laughed and said, “Maybe more!” Later, the caddie talked to someone about her ball position being way too forward, but he didn’t notice it because he was asked to line up her putts only from behind. As I headed to the parking lot, Brown and caddie were working on the practice green.
As for the playoff, I just couldn’t stick around for that. My feet were soaked and there’s only so much support I can give for a free golf ball. My car passed the returning player’s golf carts on the way out and Hiroko looked quite happy. Oh well...