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Post by tonyj500 on Jun 14, 2023 7:02:51 GMT
My field rating for this event is a mediocre 56.5 (down from 68% last year).
My breakdown is 64 % from the LPGA Priority List and 49% from the Rolex Rankings
The field will led by Rolex ranked top ten players:
Lydia Ko
Minjee Lee
HyoJoo Kim
Lexi Thompson
Brooke Henderson
Top ten players skipping the event:
Jin Young Ko
Nelly Korda
Lilia Vu
Atthya Thitikul
Georgia Hall
Past champions of this event that are teeing it up.
Jennifer Kupcho - 2022
Brooke Henderson - 2017 & 2019
So Yeon Ryu - 2018
Lexi Thompson - 2015
Sponsor Invitees: Brook Bierman (a), Paige Crawford, Rachel Kuehn (a)
Monday local qualifiers: Yunxuan Zhang & Teresa Toscano
Other Stuff:
Asheigh Buhai's win this past weekend was the 8th different country this year to have an LPGA winner (in just 12 events).
Attaya Thitikul registered her 7th top ten finish of the year. She leads the tour in that category.
Ashleigh Buhai recorded her 6th top ten, tying Nelly Korda for 2nd place.
There was not much movement inside the top 100 of the Rolex ranking among LPGA players this week:
Ashleigh Buhai made the most important move jumping from 16 to 12.
Nanna Koerstz Madsen moved from 78 to 68.
With the weak field at the ShopRite Classic, it gave many of the players outside the top 100 a chance to improve their ranking. We had some enormous moves there:
Yan Lui - 279 to 182
Su Oh - 247 to 228
Daniela Holmqvist - 453 to 301
Alexa Pano - 435 to 397
Marissa Steen - 486 to 443
Haru Nomura 728 to 478
Brianna Do - 577 to 486
Soo Bin Joo - 841 to 512
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Post by haneymademedoit on Jun 15, 2023 4:55:03 GMT
Welcome all to the Meijer LPGA for Simply Give at the Blythefield Country Club in Plainfield Charter Township, Belmont, MI 49306. It's about ten miles NE of downtown Grand Rapids. The announcers frequently say it's in Grand Rapids, which is true in the sense that last week's tournament in Galloway, NJ was in Atlantic City or the previous week in Jersey City, NJ was in New York City. (Isn't that where all the players and media stayed, in Manhattan, and commuted by ferry?) When people think of Michigan, most likely they think of Detroit but SW Michigan is across the state from Detroit and is equally close or slightly closer to Chicago than to Detroit. As the crow flies, across Lake Michigan we are closer yet to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but driving-wise, you are a bit over 2 hours from Chicago and about 4 hours from Milwaukee. Detroit is about 3 hours in the opposite direction. Local tv media news has been covering the preliminaries each day on the sports segment. It's a big deal around here, one of only two LPGA events in Michigan, the other being the Dow pairs event later in the summer which is on the other side of the state in Midland, about two hours north of Detroit and about three hours from here. Wednesday night they had a short segment where they interviewed Ash Buhai since she won last week and has had a lot of success in the last year. Earlier in the week they had a short segment with Kupcho as the defending champion. I don't recall that they've interviewed Brooke but they've shown some file footage of her. Brooke is very popular around here as the only two-time Meijer champion. Michigan may be the only place where Brooke is more popular than Lexi. You may recall my statement on another thread recently, "as strange as it may seem to Michiganders, in most parts of the USA, people treat Canada as if it were a foreign country or something!" Interestingly, this year in the leadup to the Meijer, Lexi has gotten no coverage on local media. Of course, the sisters have gotten no coverage either. I hope they 'kick some booty' this weekend and then the media will be forced to cover them!
I gotta add this anecdote, when Su Oh finished 2nd in the Meijer a year or two ago, the local tv broadcast misspelled her name. How can you misspell a name that has only four total letters in it, first name and surname!?! Their graphic showed the leaderboard including "Sue Oh." I guess she's 'a girl named Sue." Except it's SU!!!!!! At least they got Oh correct, they didn't botch her surname...
For those of you who are wondering what Meijer is, first of all, please pronounce it like the name "Meyer" or like the hot dog Oscar Mayer, not "Major" or "My-jer." Meijer is a grocery store chain that began with a single market in Grand Rapids in the 1930s. When I first went to college in Michigan in the 70s, the chain had expanded to a number of major cities around the state. I believe that they currently have supermarkets in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, and Wisconsin. It is privately owned by the Meijer family, but they are mostly well regarded for their support of the community and the belief that they have fair prices and are not trying to rip off the customers. Similar to the Wegman's chain found in various cities in the Northeast US. Welcome all of you to West Michigan, and best wishes for success to the sisters! |
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Post by philknj on Jun 16, 2023 0:36:01 GMT
Being on the cut line (71, -1) should be okay, in theory ... MHL gets better greens with an early morning start on Friday.
***********
All that effort by Dumbo for a T-129 start.  |
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Post by fanofseri on Jun 16, 2023 3:09:26 GMT
Lurking
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Post by haneymademedoit on Jun 16, 2023 5:52:21 GMT
Day 1 of the Meijer. Golf Channel stuck like glue to Lexi (of course), Buhai, and Kupcho. This made sense since they were Lexi, last week's ShopRite winner, and the defending champion, and all were having success and being competitive for at least close to the lead with Jennifer finally getting there. They did switch to Furue on many holes when the featured group wasn't yet in action, frequently to Amy Yang (I think they liked her hat) and also to Kinhult on some occasions. They did show Patty T once or twice. None of the sisters other than Amy until the featured group finished, then they did manage to show Eun-Hee Ji but especially Hae Ran's disastrous final hole, suggesting that she was in position to tie for the lead at -6 but I believe she three-putted to end up at -4. Some of Maja Stark too, she's golden! We locals appreciated the love they kept expressing for the area on the GC broadcast, well, sort of... I'm sure they were sincere but after a while it started to come across as patronizing. My wife is more sensitive to this than I am; I'm a big city native (Chicago) and lived in Philly for seven years. I now choose to live in a small city where I can walk to work, there's no traffic, relaxed lifestyle. If some other people that live in 'more important places' want to laugh at me for living here in 'podunk,' honestly, go for it. To me it's almost parody. But my wife is a small town gal; she actually adapted well to the seven years we spent in Philly but other than that, she has lived in towns of 7,000, 23,000, 60,000, and now 30,000. It irritates her when people on the coasts call us 'flyover country' and act like there's nothing between the coasts except for Colorado. For example, is this the only tournament where the golfers stay with host families? I've never heard it mentioned on the GC broadcast of any other tournament but they talk about it every year at the Meijer. (If I knew what to do, my wife and I would offer to host Six... I even know a former coworker whose wife is Korean so that would help with the language barrier.) I should mention to Phil that THERE ARE NO TOLL ROADS IN MICHIGAN! The roads may be in terrible condition and always under construction but at least you don't have to pay for the 'privilege' of traveling on them. There are three toll bridges and one toll tunnel, all to Canada; after all, they tell me that it is a foreign country. There is one toll bridge internal to the state. If you look at a map of the US, Michigan actually has two separate pieces, the lower peninsula where most of us live and the sparsely populated upper peninsula that many people believe is a part of Wisconsin but it's not. There is a toll to cross that bridge. NO OTHER TOLL ROADS! Only toll bridges and a tunnel. Local media coverage was frequent but not always accurate. Here's a link to the most popular and best tv station in Grand Rapids, believe me, the others are worse. If you are interested, please make sure to click on the link within the page to play the video of the 6:00 news sports segment coverage of the tournament. It's just under three minutes long, and you will laugh and laugh and laugh at the blunders and errors. www.woodtv.com/sports/kupcho-high-on-leaderboard-after-first-round-of-meijer-lpga-classic/ (Paste in your browser if the link doesn't connect. Make sure to click on the video link on the page.) Here's a guide to the mishaps in this three minute segment. 0:55: The sports anchor states, "take a look at your leaderboard." Yes, let's take a look and a listen. The graphic shows the five golfers tied for the lead, including in his pronunciation, "Frida Kih-NULT" and then "Ay-ah-KEE FUR-ooh" At least Kinhult's name was only mispronounced but spelled correctly, Ayaka was both misspelled "Ayake" and also mispronounced "Ay-ah-KEE FUR-ooh!" FUR-ooh! We are truly so proud that the LPGA comes here each year for the Meijer, but our media can't even spend a few moments learning how to spell and say their names. But it gets worse... 2:00: After the anchor switches to the sports reporter live on the course, she spends close to a minute gushing about Kupcho and then switches to a recorded segment. Except it's not Kupcho! The graphic is labeled "Jennifer Kupcho co-leader" but it's Cheyenne Knight talking. But it gets worse... 2:22: Ok, they made a mistake, now they switch to video of another golfer, this time it is Kupcho, right? No, the graphic says it's Cheyenne Knight, didn't we just see her? Wow, her hair has gotten a lot more blonde in the last few seconds... oh, now it's Lindsey Weaver-Wright but she's labeled as Cheyenne Knight. 2:43: Back to the sports reporter (Marlee Wierda) live. I credit her or her producer who may have yelled in her earpiece that the videos had been totally mislabeled and screwed up, she says in apparent recognition, "We'll hear from Kupcho at 11..." They did get it mostly right at 11, five hours later, although the anchor still said "Ay-ah-KEE FUR-ooh" with her name still misspelled on the graphic. Remember, this is the station that misspelled Su Oh's name a year or two ago. HOW CAN YOU MISSPELL A FIRST NAME THAT HAS ONLY TWO LETTERS! In serious news, Michigan State Spartans la Colombiana Valery Plata and Brooke Biermann (a) are in position to compete to make the cut on Saturday. GO GREEN! GO WHITE! |
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Post by philknj on Jun 16, 2023 8:06:48 GMT
For example, is this the only tournament where the golfers stay with host families? I've never heard it mentioned on the GC broadcast of any other tournament but they talk about it every year at the Meijer. (If I knew what to do, my wife and I would offer to host Six... I even know a former coworker whose wife is Korean so that would help with the language barrier.) If you look at a map of the US, Michigan actually has two separate pieces, the lower peninsula when most of us live and the sparsely populated upper peninsula that many people believe is a part of Wisconsin but it's not. They did get it mostly right at 11, five hours later, although the anchor still said "Ay-ah-KEE FUR-ooh" with her name still misspelled on the graphic. Remember, this is the station that misspelled Su Oh's name a year or two ago. HOW CAN YOU MISSPELL A FIRST NAME THAT HAS ONLY TWO LETTERS!
"Host families" have been quite common on the LPGA for years, but I don't know exactly which events have it more frequently. This topic is a well-guarded secret as I see no reference to it on the LPGA website ... I would send them an email expressing interest.
The film 'Anatomy of a Murder' put Marquette, MI on the map ... however, Marquette U. is in Milwaukee. I remember the men's tour (seniors?) played in Traverse City or Gaylord about 30 years ago.
For the record, the full name is Su Hyun Oh, but no one calls her that.
Ay-ah-KEE FUR-ooh on Wednesday ... she can take over the CME points lead with a win this week.
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Post by haneymademedoit on Jun 16, 2023 8:49:12 GMT
And one thing about Ayaka, no matter what she wears, Viva Heart is clearly her sponsor, she almost always selects a clothing item that includes that very bright, almost fluorescent, shade of yellow. As soon as I see Ayaka anywhere on the course, I know it's her.
Please don't inform WOOD-TV 8 that Oh's full name has 8 letters when the middle name is included. They couldn't get 2 letters right for Su! I will be surprised if they correct their graphics for Furue if she is still on the leaderboard on Sunday...
Yes, Marquette University which has sometimes been a relatively successful basketball school in March Madness is indeed just west of downtown Milwaukee. Northern Michigan University is in Marquette, MI, which is the largest population city in the Upper Peninsula (call it the U.P. to sound like a real Michigander) thus Marquette is sometimes referred to as the "Detroit of the U.P."
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Post by philknj on Jun 16, 2023 14:01:50 GMT
MHL got it to -4 on her first nine this AM ... 
... and is grouped with the original Kangster, now at -2.
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Post by philknj on Jun 16, 2023 14:27:51 GMT
In case you missed the news, Valentina Rossi bombed out of the medal qualifying for the R&A Women's Amateur Championship this week.
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Post by philknj on Jun 16, 2023 16:46:58 GMT
Caddie list is out ... Brittany Altomare (4 straight trunk slams) now keeping her diminishing funds in the family with Thomas Altomare on her bag. The Pink One is off, so Holly Clyburn went with Laura Wearn ... Gemma Dryburgh is off, so Paul Heselden went with Manon De Roey. Manbun is working Ciganda's bag, don't know if that will be permanent ... and a blast from the past, Mick Seaborn (longtime ex of Ai Miyazato) is going with Minami Katsu.
Lastly, am Rachel Kuehn has WF squeeze Alex Fitzpatrick (bro of Matt at USO) on her bag. As a precaution against getting laughed at, the LPGA added Kuehn's portrait to the online scoreboard. 
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Post by jamywinehouse on Jun 16, 2023 17:10:48 GMT
Caddie list is out ... Brittany Altomare (4 straight trunk slams) now keeping her diminishing funds in the family with Thomas Altomare on her bag. The Pink One is off, so Holly Clyburn went with Laura Wearn ... Gemma Dryburgh is off, so Paul Heselden went with Manon De Roey. Manbun is working Ciganda's bag, don't know if that will be permanent ... and a blast from the past, Mick Seaborn (longtime ex of Ai Miyazato) is going with Minami Katsu.
Lastly, am Rachel Kuehn has WF squeeze Alex Fitzpatrick (bro of Matt at USO) on her bag. As a precaution against getting laughed at, the LPGA added Kuehn's portrait to the online scoreboard.
It looks like they took the anonymous Rose Zhang picture criticism to heart with all the non-members, including amateurs, all having pictures now. Ayaka has been knocking on the door for weeks, but am I so happy to see Amy Yang playing well. Seeing her win in the US would be incredible. She’s been my WANT to win the US Open for over a decade now, but just seeing her win again would be so incredible. |
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Post by HappyFan on Jun 16, 2023 17:40:05 GMT
For example, is this the only tournament where the golfers stay with host families? I've never heard it mentioned on the GC broadcast of any other tournament but they talk about it every year at the Meijer. (If I knew what to do, my wife and I would offer to host Six... I even know a former coworker whose wife is Korean so that would help with the language barrier.) I know that Hee Young Park used to stay with the same host family in Portland every year. She would post photos of her hanging out on a boat in a lake with them. I'd imagine it didn't help her prep to contend there. LOL. Here's a guide to the mishaps in this three minute segment. I used to work for a small town TV station in New England decades ago. Occasionally I would do videography for some major league type event like the Red Sox/Celtics or a pro golf or tennis tournament (I remember filming interviews with Robert Parish and Boris Becker among others; since I could speak German at the time I even said a few words to him in his mother tongue. Becker, not Parish LOL). Anyways, the sports reporter at our station was definitely a guy who you would peg as a sports reporter if you know what I mean. But I was impressed with how diligently he made sure he got the small facts like spelling/pronunciation right. Even for things like high school girls' lacrosse, he'd make sure everything was correct. So it does not speak well of these bums that they are making dumb mistakes like this. Sheesh. |
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Post by verdantgarden on Jun 16, 2023 18:26:05 GMT
Karen Stupples made the dubious claim yesterday that most courses played by the LPGA are not set up for long hitters but did admit this course was. Hey, maybe that's why Pedersen and De Roey are near the top. Manon and Man Bun working well together.
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Post by philknj on Jun 16, 2023 19:12:51 GMT
Karen Stupples made the dubious claim yesterday that most courses played by the LPGA are not set up for long hitters but did admit this course was. Hey, maybe that's why Pedersen and De Roey are near the top. Manon and Man Bun working well together. No, Man Bun is with Ciganda ... unless there's been a last-minute trade I don't know about.
Stupples uttering golf platitudes that don't apply to the LPGA ... how does she explain Ay-ah-KEE FUR-ooh coming in here at 142nd in driving distance? Plus, she's "only" 41st in GIR ... so how is she doing it? Maybe Stupples should ask her if her 3-yard gap goal between wedges has been achieved. Distance is meaningful on this tour ... until it isn't! L W-W is #113 and Buhai is #114 ... Chella Choi (#149) is still a walking ATM.
Meanwhile, Dr. Noh (8th in driving distance) is fortunate that no one can bump her out of the 156th field spot next week.
*******
Didn't know Charley Hull was into vaping ... never saw her with traditional smokes before ... only the loopers smoke these days ... I think J. Concolino was the last tobacco player I saw, along with teaching pro Jean "The Dream" Bartholomew.
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Post by haneymademedoit on Jun 16, 2023 19:26:59 GMT
In case you missed the news, Valentina Rossi bombed out of the medal qualifying for the R&A Women's Amateur Championship this week.
Bummer about Rossi, but thanks for the heads up, Phil. Despite my enthusiasm yesterday, Plata and Biermann look like they'll be making the one hour drive back to East Lansing. They may already be on I-96 as I write. I didn't realize women's golf at State had such a South American connection. In addition to Plata and Rossi, I see Nina Rissi is from Brazil.
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