Post by philknj on Jun 3, 2018 10:43:20 GMT
With no advance knowledge of the tee times, I arrived around 7:15 AM. I hadn’t seen the back nine yet, so I planned to hit it with Muni He’s group...aside from that, I would peruse a pairings sheet and improvise for the rest of the day.
Ex-LPGAer Kelly Tan (80 on Thursday), who had been posting some horrific scores since the start of the Symetra season, was starting at 7:44 AM...I had to find out what’s going on with her. Muni’s group teed off two groups ahead of Tan, which was okay...I could cut over from #7 to #9 and intercept her later.
Tan’s drive at the par-5 1st hole was an ugly low hook into the rough...bad memories of Angela Park at the 2009 USWO came rushing back to me. Tan played with Marta Sanz Barrio of Spain...she had a blue and gold Madrid Golf Federation stand bag with an Auburn Tiger headcover on her driver. The third in the group was of Meghan MacLaren of England. The good news is that Kelly hit a good recovery shot, a good wedge shot, and made the putt for birdie.
Tan must have the tee box yips. She used a FW on the short par-4 2nd and hit it low and lousy into the left rough. However, she hit another nice recovery shot and made par.
The 3rd hole is the longest par-3 on the course. During Round One it was about 175 yards to a far-right flag on a wide but shallow green over a water hazard. For Round Two, the tee was moved up to about 165, but the flag was on the far-left. Prudence would have dictated aiming at the center of the green, but Kelly went for that flag...unsuccessfully, about 30 yards left and short into the water...took a drop and made the bogey putt.
It got worse on the par-4 4th hole when Kelly’s drive went way left towards the water...as I walked closer to that area, I could see her laying a club down on the grass...ugh, a double-bogey.
Tan finally hit a quality drive at the par-5 7th...her ball came to rest on the right side of the fairway at the 240 hashmark. After her second shot, I broke from this group and headed for the 9th green. Kelly finished the tournament DFL, +19, 80-81. She needs to drop off this tour and get herself fixed...her caddy had the look of a tour looper, which is a waste of money at this stage.
The projected cut was Even as I stationed myself to the right of the 9th green. There were no standard bearers, but each group had a person in a cart charting the scores. After Muni’s group arrived, I looked at the scorer’s clipboard...good news for all. Muni was -3 on her first eight, while Hyemin Kim was -1 and Bertine Strauss was -2.
Muni wore a long sleeve top and tight pants combo again, but switched out the USC visor for a USC bucket hat. No Hazzy attire for Kim this day...instead she had a drab Munsingwear top with similar colored shapeless pants.
The back nine looks different from the front...more trees, creeks and elevation changes in play. Also, you could say that the 9th hole is a warm-up for the back nine. The cut remained constant at Even, so all Muni needed to do was avoid big numbers the rest of the way...mission accomplished, finished the day at -3 overall. Strauss started in a hopeless position (+8), but played much better on Friday to finish +7 overall.
Kim fixed her low hook ball problem from Thursday, but could not go low enough to play the weekend...finished at +4 overall. Forget about clubhouse facilities for the players...Kim changed her shoes and socks behind her car, wrote a check for Larry the Looper at her “mobile office,” and exchanged hugs. Although Kim picked up her first Symetra win last year, she just doesn’t have the horsepower to make it to the LPGA tour. Going back to last season, she has eight trunk slams in her last nine starts.
I killed some time milling around the practice areas. The most exotic clubs I saw belonged to Mia Piccio of the Philippines and U. of Florida, who had FG Believer irons (stamped Made in Japan). FG stands for Fujimoto Gikoh.
Next on the agenda was first round leader (-6, 65) Pajaree Anannarukarn, who had a 12:41 PM tee time with one-time LPGA winner Silvia Cavalleri and Casey Kennedy. Team Thailand is lacking in the “visuals” department, but Pajaree is the exception. I assume it was daddy pushing her bag, which contained RomaRo woods (which I’ve never seen before at a tournament I attended), Fourteen Golf FH-900 Forged irons, and Fourteen Golf FH Forged V1 wedges. J Lindeberg is her apparel brand and her nickname (Meaw) is on the back of her cap.
The caddie bibs are blue on this tour, except for the top-10 money list players...those are orange with a number on the front. The one on Pajaree’s daddy said ‘5’ because she is 5th on the money list (four starts and four top-10s coming in here). I don’t think her success is a fluke as she is young and powerful. On the other hand, Silvia C. is old and not so powerful...has a good fundamental vanilla swing, but this tour is her Dead End street.
“Meaw” birdied the opening par-5, but gave it back on the par-3 third...played mostly par golf. Here’s something I didn’t expect to see: while she is looking over her putts, daddy is gone...he pushes her bag to the next hole and is studying his yardage book...putting is all on her shoulders. After she teed off at #7, I veered off to the 9th green, which had a flat rock nearby to sit on for an extended break.
Karen Chung was four groups behind Meaw, so I didn’t want to miss her. I went down to the par-4 8th green where the flag was on the far right. WHACK! Karen hit the stick on the fly and was lucky that the ball didn’t roll far away. She had an uphill putt of about seven feet...and missed it. She was playing with Justine Dreher of France and Margarita Ramos of Mexico.
Karen picked up a birdie on the par-4 9th and was -3 overall. She was wearing a grayish Nike racerback top and skirt combo...still had the same sticks I saw at the NJ USWO qualifier three weeks earlier, including Titleist AP1 irons. The big red boxing glove headcover on her driver is the perfect metaphor for her on-course game and personality. Her brother(?) was not around this time, so she carried her own black USC stand bag...I don’t see how any player on this tour can afford a pro caddy.
At the par-5 10th Karen wedged it close for a short birdie putt attempt...and missed it. She was talking to herself after that one. There is no doubt in my mind that she is going back to the LPGA tour in 2019...she can do what her fellow USC Trojan Muni He cannot do on the full swing and that is CRACK THE WHIP! She really shallows the shaft on the downswing, which is what many of the swing gurus harp about. Her clubhead goes through the hitting zone with malevolent depravity. The only question is if Karen’s putter will send her back to the Symetra tour in 2020.
Chung dodged a land mine at the short par-4 dogleg-right 11th hole. The landing area with your FW or hybrid is wide on the left and funnels down to a narrow area on the right...left is safer, but it gives you a much longer approach to a green guarded by a creek. I don’t know if she fouled up her yardage or picked the wrong club or was more amped up more than usual...she hit a high bomb that disappeared after taking one huge bounce.
Karen’s ball was resting on the middle of a wooden bridge with a railing six to eight inches high. She called for a ruling...either she could hit from there or take the ball back to her nearest relief, which was high downslope grass. She chose option one...there was an opening under some tree branches...she clunked that bridge loudly and her ball finished near the green...escaped with a bogey. A spectator was there taking a video with his smartphone of the recovery shot, but I haven’t found it on Youtube or Instagram (if it’s there).
I stayed with Chung’s group thru the short downhill par-3 14th hole over a creek. This was a logjam area where two or three groups would be waiting at the tee. Although the hole is short, it has a long roundabout walk to the green.
Erica Popson, who had a cup of coffee on the LPGA tour, put a really good-looking swing on her tee ball at #14...too bad it was at least 1 ½ clubs short and into the hazard...she made a double bogey and blew herself out of the tournament. It says E POP on her yardage book cover.
Symetra money leader Jenny Haglund was in the next group. From long distance, I saw her driver swing from behind a few holes back and it looked really good. Now I had a chance to see it up close with a short iron from directly behind the target line. Wow, from handle to clubhead it looked like the edge of a sword going up and down the same plane...and she’s gaming the bulky Callaway Apex irons. No doubt, she’ll make it to the LPGA in 2019 and I think she’ll do some damage when she gets there. More good news: she was pushing her own bag, so she didn’t have to share her loot with a looper.
After Klara Spilkova played #14, I followed her for the next couple of holes and confirmed that she still has a Czech flag painting or decal on the crown of her driver, which makes for a good alignment aid, too.
Drama at the short par-3 17th hole: Patricia Sanz Barrio, sister of Marta, drained a birdie putt to hit the cut line of Even...Marta and a lady (mom?) were whooping it up at the green. Calgary’s Jennifer Ha and another Spaniard, Fatima Fernandez Cano, were in this group. I’m guessing daddy was on Ha’s bag. Cano’s yardage book cover said TROJANS...I don’t recall this name playing for USC. After further research, she played for the Troy U. Trojans of Alabama, which would explain the Shoal Creek Sunday bag she carried...it was a beauty of green leather with blue piping and the Shoal Creek logo...she had three Shoal Creek clubhead covers. Her LinkedIn profile says she was “sales associate” at Shoal Creek.
Most players teed off with fairway woods at the dogleg-right par-4 18th hole. I made a detour to this hole earlier in the PM when husky Chinese player Huize Lian (77 on Thursday) played it...her FW tee ball sounded rotten. I saw nothing in the air, but then noticed a worm burner cutting through the rough and barely reaching the fairway. Here’s one takeaway I learned from my first Symetra tournament: you will see a lot of crappy golf shots. Lian played with Kim Welch...still chasing the dream and she made the cut by one shot.
I followed the two Spaniards and Ha (75-75, MC) to the 18th green...six groups were behind them, but I had seen enough. Afterward, daddy had Ha practicing pitch and chip shots to the practice green for 20-30 minutes. They departed in a car with Alberta license plates...that is REALLY chasing the dream.
Ex-LPGAer Kelly Tan (80 on Thursday), who had been posting some horrific scores since the start of the Symetra season, was starting at 7:44 AM...I had to find out what’s going on with her. Muni’s group teed off two groups ahead of Tan, which was okay...I could cut over from #7 to #9 and intercept her later.
Tan’s drive at the par-5 1st hole was an ugly low hook into the rough...bad memories of Angela Park at the 2009 USWO came rushing back to me. Tan played with Marta Sanz Barrio of Spain...she had a blue and gold Madrid Golf Federation stand bag with an Auburn Tiger headcover on her driver. The third in the group was of Meghan MacLaren of England. The good news is that Kelly hit a good recovery shot, a good wedge shot, and made the putt for birdie.
Tan must have the tee box yips. She used a FW on the short par-4 2nd and hit it low and lousy into the left rough. However, she hit another nice recovery shot and made par.
The 3rd hole is the longest par-3 on the course. During Round One it was about 175 yards to a far-right flag on a wide but shallow green over a water hazard. For Round Two, the tee was moved up to about 165, but the flag was on the far-left. Prudence would have dictated aiming at the center of the green, but Kelly went for that flag...unsuccessfully, about 30 yards left and short into the water...took a drop and made the bogey putt.
It got worse on the par-4 4th hole when Kelly’s drive went way left towards the water...as I walked closer to that area, I could see her laying a club down on the grass...ugh, a double-bogey.
After making par at the par-4 5th hole, Kelly advanced to the par-3 6th hole, playing about 152 yards with the flag in the front-left...it’s a nothing, pushover hole. I stationed myself behind the tee...yuk, Kelly hits it dead right and misses the green...ugh, a two-way miss? She made bogey.
BTW, this guy was manning the scoreboard at the 8th green...the last pic in the collection is Kelly Tan:
The projected cut was Even as I stationed myself to the right of the 9th green. There were no standard bearers, but each group had a person in a cart charting the scores. After Muni’s group arrived, I looked at the scorer’s clipboard...good news for all. Muni was -3 on her first eight, while Hyemin Kim was -1 and Bertine Strauss was -2.
Muni wore a long sleeve top and tight pants combo again, but switched out the USC visor for a USC bucket hat. No Hazzy attire for Kim this day...instead she had a drab Munsingwear top with similar colored shapeless pants.
The back nine looks different from the front...more trees, creeks and elevation changes in play. Also, you could say that the 9th hole is a warm-up for the back nine. The cut remained constant at Even, so all Muni needed to do was avoid big numbers the rest of the way...mission accomplished, finished the day at -3 overall. Strauss started in a hopeless position (+8), but played much better on Friday to finish +7 overall.
Kim fixed her low hook ball problem from Thursday, but could not go low enough to play the weekend...finished at +4 overall. Forget about clubhouse facilities for the players...Kim changed her shoes and socks behind her car, wrote a check for Larry the Looper at her “mobile office,” and exchanged hugs. Although Kim picked up her first Symetra win last year, she just doesn’t have the horsepower to make it to the LPGA tour. Going back to last season, she has eight trunk slams in her last nine starts.
I killed some time milling around the practice areas. The most exotic clubs I saw belonged to Mia Piccio of the Philippines and U. of Florida, who had FG Believer irons (stamped Made in Japan). FG stands for Fujimoto Gikoh.
Next on the agenda was first round leader (-6, 65) Pajaree Anannarukarn, who had a 12:41 PM tee time with one-time LPGA winner Silvia Cavalleri and Casey Kennedy. Team Thailand is lacking in the “visuals” department, but Pajaree is the exception. I assume it was daddy pushing her bag, which contained RomaRo woods (which I’ve never seen before at a tournament I attended), Fourteen Golf FH-900 Forged irons, and Fourteen Golf FH Forged V1 wedges. J Lindeberg is her apparel brand and her nickname (Meaw) is on the back of her cap.
The caddie bibs are blue on this tour, except for the top-10 money list players...those are orange with a number on the front. The one on Pajaree’s daddy said ‘5’ because she is 5th on the money list (four starts and four top-10s coming in here). I don’t think her success is a fluke as she is young and powerful. On the other hand, Silvia C. is old and not so powerful...has a good fundamental vanilla swing, but this tour is her Dead End street.
“Meaw” birdied the opening par-5, but gave it back on the par-3 third...played mostly par golf. Here’s something I didn’t expect to see: while she is looking over her putts, daddy is gone...he pushes her bag to the next hole and is studying his yardage book...putting is all on her shoulders. After she teed off at #7, I veered off to the 9th green, which had a flat rock nearby to sit on for an extended break.
Karen Chung was four groups behind Meaw, so I didn’t want to miss her. I went down to the par-4 8th green where the flag was on the far right. WHACK! Karen hit the stick on the fly and was lucky that the ball didn’t roll far away. She had an uphill putt of about seven feet...and missed it. She was playing with Justine Dreher of France and Margarita Ramos of Mexico.
Karen picked up a birdie on the par-4 9th and was -3 overall. She was wearing a grayish Nike racerback top and skirt combo...still had the same sticks I saw at the NJ USWO qualifier three weeks earlier, including Titleist AP1 irons. The big red boxing glove headcover on her driver is the perfect metaphor for her on-course game and personality. Her brother(?) was not around this time, so she carried her own black USC stand bag...I don’t see how any player on this tour can afford a pro caddy.
At the par-5 10th Karen wedged it close for a short birdie putt attempt...and missed it. She was talking to herself after that one. There is no doubt in my mind that she is going back to the LPGA tour in 2019...she can do what her fellow USC Trojan Muni He cannot do on the full swing and that is CRACK THE WHIP! She really shallows the shaft on the downswing, which is what many of the swing gurus harp about. Her clubhead goes through the hitting zone with malevolent depravity. The only question is if Karen’s putter will send her back to the Symetra tour in 2020.
Chung dodged a land mine at the short par-4 dogleg-right 11th hole. The landing area with your FW or hybrid is wide on the left and funnels down to a narrow area on the right...left is safer, but it gives you a much longer approach to a green guarded by a creek. I don’t know if she fouled up her yardage or picked the wrong club or was more amped up more than usual...she hit a high bomb that disappeared after taking one huge bounce.
Karen’s ball was resting on the middle of a wooden bridge with a railing six to eight inches high. She called for a ruling...either she could hit from there or take the ball back to her nearest relief, which was high downslope grass. She chose option one...there was an opening under some tree branches...she clunked that bridge loudly and her ball finished near the green...escaped with a bogey. A spectator was there taking a video with his smartphone of the recovery shot, but I haven’t found it on Youtube or Instagram (if it’s there).
I stayed with Chung’s group thru the short downhill par-3 14th hole over a creek. This was a logjam area where two or three groups would be waiting at the tee. Although the hole is short, it has a long roundabout walk to the green.
Erica Popson, who had a cup of coffee on the LPGA tour, put a really good-looking swing on her tee ball at #14...too bad it was at least 1 ½ clubs short and into the hazard...she made a double bogey and blew herself out of the tournament. It says E POP on her yardage book cover.
Symetra money leader Jenny Haglund was in the next group. From long distance, I saw her driver swing from behind a few holes back and it looked really good. Now I had a chance to see it up close with a short iron from directly behind the target line. Wow, from handle to clubhead it looked like the edge of a sword going up and down the same plane...and she’s gaming the bulky Callaway Apex irons. No doubt, she’ll make it to the LPGA in 2019 and I think she’ll do some damage when she gets there. More good news: she was pushing her own bag, so she didn’t have to share her loot with a looper.
After Klara Spilkova played #14, I followed her for the next couple of holes and confirmed that she still has a Czech flag painting or decal on the crown of her driver, which makes for a good alignment aid, too.
Drama at the short par-3 17th hole: Patricia Sanz Barrio, sister of Marta, drained a birdie putt to hit the cut line of Even...Marta and a lady (mom?) were whooping it up at the green. Calgary’s Jennifer Ha and another Spaniard, Fatima Fernandez Cano, were in this group. I’m guessing daddy was on Ha’s bag. Cano’s yardage book cover said TROJANS...I don’t recall this name playing for USC. After further research, she played for the Troy U. Trojans of Alabama, which would explain the Shoal Creek Sunday bag she carried...it was a beauty of green leather with blue piping and the Shoal Creek logo...she had three Shoal Creek clubhead covers. Her LinkedIn profile says she was “sales associate” at Shoal Creek.
Most players teed off with fairway woods at the dogleg-right par-4 18th hole. I made a detour to this hole earlier in the PM when husky Chinese player Huize Lian (77 on Thursday) played it...her FW tee ball sounded rotten. I saw nothing in the air, but then noticed a worm burner cutting through the rough and barely reaching the fairway. Here’s one takeaway I learned from my first Symetra tournament: you will see a lot of crappy golf shots. Lian played with Kim Welch...still chasing the dream and she made the cut by one shot.
I followed the two Spaniards and Ha (75-75, MC) to the 18th green...six groups were behind them, but I had seen enough. Afterward, daddy had Ha practicing pitch and chip shots to the practice green for 20-30 minutes. They departed in a car with Alberta license plates...that is REALLY chasing the dream.
