Post by philknj on Jul 1, 2018 6:01:31 GMT
I drove up the long driveway of Echo Lake CC (Westfield, NJ) around 8:10 AM and found an extremely small parking lot in front of the clubhouse. All the spaces were taken, but then someone was pulling out...except it was a reserved space, ugh. A narrow service road went around the right side of the clubhouse...I couldn’t see behind the clubhouse so I decided not to try it. I drove off the course and parked at Echo Lake Park next door and walked onto the course.
The plan was to follow Erica Shepherd’s group (8:50 AM tee off at #1) for nine holes, then pick up the next group with Lucy Li for holes 10 thru 18. After that, I would try to find the boys group that had first round leaders Akshay Bhatia and Karl Vilips. Here are the World Amateur Golf Rankings for the players I would follow:
8:50 AM -
Lucy Li 9
Rachel Heck 17
Angelina Ye 103
9:00 AM -
Erica Shepherd 110
Amari Avery 272
Anne Chen 1201
10:50 AM -
Karl Vilips 56
Akshay Bhatia 142
Canon Claycomb 111
I did a little exploring early on and discovered a huge parking lot behind the clubhouse with empty spaces in the back! A swimming pool was next to this lot and behind it were paddle tennis courts with lights.
The driving range was not real wide, but it had four well-marked flag poles for various distances. They used white TaylorMade TP5x practice balls along with a few yellow Titleist NXT Tour-S practice balls.
They had a manual scoreboard and next to it was a Polo billboard that had pictures of the last two champions on one side (Youngin Chun and Karl Vilips) and a listing of all the winners going back to 1978 on the other side. The scoreboard also listed the various colleges scouting the event.
After entering the cramped pro shop, RL Polo had a multi-tier table of apparel set up directly in front of you. To the right were some clubs for sale, including one Callaway GBB Epic Star driver with a fixed 10.5 loft and a Mitsubishi Grand Bassara 39-gram shaft. It looks like a classic Asian poser club and the price confirms that...$699.99 (and no discount for club members). They also had the latest TaylorMade spider putter for $299.99 (and no discount for club members), which was a better price than what I saw at Galloway National three weeks earlier ($330).
The shop had a small couch with two embroidered pillows in front of a big TV screen. The pillows had the logo of the 2002 U.S. Girls Junior Championship. The hallway to the restrooms in the back of the shop had an autographed framed pin flag from the 2002 U.S. Girls Junior. The names that could be easily read were Jean Reynolds, Jane Park and In Bee Park(in Korean letters only).
Blonde and left-handed, Erica Shepherd was easy to spot on the practice green. She had a white polo shirt and white shorts and walked bowl-legged like Nasa Hataoka...but she’s bigger than Nasa and I think she has the potential to be just as good in the pros one day. At a minimum, I think she could be the first really good lefty woman pro. The rare lefties that I can think of (Christina Foster, Megan Osland, Angela Buzminski) are wannabes or washouts.
Shepherd has a wicked drop-down move to the inside with the driver and pounds high draws with it...and does it with a super-weird grip. Jordan Spieth might have a similar grip...I’m not sure. Her bottom (left) hand covers a lot of her top hand...so much so that the tip of her right thumb is visible between the ‘v’ formed by her left thumb and index finger. She plays a TaylorMade driver and Titleist AP1 irons. Avery had all PXG gear and Chen played TM Tour Preferred irons.
The 1st hole is a downhiller of 393 yards and Shepherd’s drive reached the flat area on the right side about 95 yards to the hole. She wedged it on and made birdie. Since the 1st green was near the course entrance, I decided to hustle out to my car and drive it into the rear parking lot of the club...leaving it at the park for hours would have worried me all day.
I returned to the green of the par-5 2nd hole where the Shepherd group was putting. Downrange I could see the Lucy Li group teeing off. Li and Ye drove it down the middle about the same distance. Heck slumped her body immediately after her drive...it landed in the right rough but was longer than the other two.
Southern Cal assistant coach Stewart Burke was checking out the Shepherd group. Since Shepherd and Chen both wore Duke U. headwear, his only interest had to be Avery (H.S. class of 2022, making her about 14 years old). Later on, he recorded Avery’s swing from behind the target line with his cell phone...she drove it well, except for a couple of hooks. We chatted a little:
Me: I assume you’re scouting today.
SB: That’s right. Are you a member here?
Me: No, I’m a spectator...never been to an AJGA event before. I was surprised to hear about your head coach (Andrea Gaston) leaving.
SB: Yeah, hard to believe she’s going to the 40th ranked program (Texas A&M) in the country.
Me: Was this move expected?
SB: No, it wasn’t. We thought she would retire at USC.
Me: Maybe she wanted a challenge late in life.
He expressed some hope as a candidate for USC’s head coach vacancy and I wished him luck. The only other scout that was vaguely recognizable to me was Stanford head coach Anne Walker...an assistant was with her. Ye and Heck wore Stanford caps, so she didn’t have to worry about them.
Shepherd picked up another birdie at the 120-yard 3rd hole. It was fairways and greens with her...and her rare misses were no worse than marginal...she hit no wild shots on the front nine. She gave back her birdies via a couple of missed par-saving putts at 8 & 9. Regardless of the outcome later in the week, I’m convinced she was the best player in this field. Her 110 ranking on WAGR doesn’t look so hot...it’s a rolling average of 104 weeks...maybe she’s a late bloomer...she looks way better than 110. She finished the day with a 68, -3.
After Shepherd’s group teed off at #10, I waited for Lucy Li’s group to show up. Li, like all the other girls, was pushing her own bag...I assume no caddies were permitted, but the players could use laser rangefinders. I think her aunt followed her play...she looked like the lady who pushed Li’s electric cart with the 24-lb. battery and the mongo alligator clamps at Ridgewood CC for the 2016 U.S Girls Junior.
Li was playing a TM M3 driver with the two weights in the “factory neutral” positions. She had TM P-750 irons and TM wedges. She doesn’t wear an Edel visor anymore and I didn’t see that brand in her bag. Ye and Heck played Ping gear, both had i200 irons.
This was the third tournament I had seen Li in person and her performance was surprisingly pedestrian...finished at 75, +4. Based on what I had seen in 2016, I was waiting for her to squash a magically stiff three-quarter hybrid or fairway wood approach shot, but it never happened. Maybe the back nine was not receptive to such a shot...I don’t know. I distinctly recall her trying to reach a par-4 with probably her longest iron (5?) and coming up short...that was lame, but she saved par. More times than not, Li was the shortest driver of her group. Heck was the longest...she was ahead of Li by 10 yards on one hole and 17 yards on another hole.
This was my first visit to Echo Lake CC, and I had never seen it on TV before, so seeing each hole was a fresh discovery. No. 6 was the first one with a “wow” factor. For the girls it was 350 yards uphill...90-degree dogleg-left which had two bunkers guarding the elbow if you planned to cut the corner...the second shot was further uphill to a smallish bunker-guarded green. I later learned this was the #1 handicap hole, which was no surprise.
After the Li group finished at #18, I had no idea where to find the Bhatia group, so I decide to let them find me. Meanwhile, I hung out at the 10th tee to watch the guys mash their drivers. They hit the occasional straight ball and baby cut, while the gals hit a higher percentage of draws.
I noticed that a lot of the guys had identical patriotic red/white/blue Ping stand bags. I’m guessing these were giveaways from past junior tournaments...it didn’t matter if you had Ping equipment or not.
Then I went over to the nearby par-3 17th tee box and watched more groups pass through until Bhatia, Vilips and Claycomb showed up. The club’s head pro was following them in his golf cart. Bhatia was a lefty broomstick wearing a pale blue golf shirt...if he turned to the side you could lose him in the daylight. But, he could really golf his ball...put a lot of air under it. What I didn’t know was that he was in the process of shooting 64 and breaking the “competitive” course record. I think the course record is 61, per a framed scorecard in the pro shop.
As Vilips walked to the 17th tee, someone said to him, “Let’s finish birdie-birdie.” He had to settle for par-par, even though he annihilated his driver at #18...about 330 yards worth on a slightly downhill par-4 of 428 yards. Bhatia and Claycomb were thirty yards shorter, but also made pars. Erica Shepherd and a couple of other gals were sitting on the grass behind the green watching the action.
Regarding Claycomb, he seemed to have divided loyalties as I looked him over at the 17th tee. He wore a Duke U. cap, but he had red headcovers with a white script ‘A’ on them. Is that the U. of Alabama? The loyalty question was answered at the 18th green. After making his par putt, he walked over to Shepherd to shake her hand...and yanked her up on her feet. Yes, it’s so obvious...Duke Duke Duke for reasons beyond education and golf!
The plan was to follow Erica Shepherd’s group (8:50 AM tee off at #1) for nine holes, then pick up the next group with Lucy Li for holes 10 thru 18. After that, I would try to find the boys group that had first round leaders Akshay Bhatia and Karl Vilips. Here are the World Amateur Golf Rankings for the players I would follow:
8:50 AM -
Lucy Li 9
Rachel Heck 17
Angelina Ye 103
9:00 AM -
Erica Shepherd 110
Amari Avery 272
Anne Chen 1201
10:50 AM -
Karl Vilips 56
Akshay Bhatia 142
Canon Claycomb 111
I did a little exploring early on and discovered a huge parking lot behind the clubhouse with empty spaces in the back! A swimming pool was next to this lot and behind it were paddle tennis courts with lights.
The driving range was not real wide, but it had four well-marked flag poles for various distances. They used white TaylorMade TP5x practice balls along with a few yellow Titleist NXT Tour-S practice balls.
They had a manual scoreboard and next to it was a Polo billboard that had pictures of the last two champions on one side (Youngin Chun and Karl Vilips) and a listing of all the winners going back to 1978 on the other side. The scoreboard also listed the various colleges scouting the event.
After entering the cramped pro shop, RL Polo had a multi-tier table of apparel set up directly in front of you. To the right were some clubs for sale, including one Callaway GBB Epic Star driver with a fixed 10.5 loft and a Mitsubishi Grand Bassara 39-gram shaft. It looks like a classic Asian poser club and the price confirms that...$699.99 (and no discount for club members). They also had the latest TaylorMade spider putter for $299.99 (and no discount for club members), which was a better price than what I saw at Galloway National three weeks earlier ($330).
The shop had a small couch with two embroidered pillows in front of a big TV screen. The pillows had the logo of the 2002 U.S. Girls Junior Championship. The hallway to the restrooms in the back of the shop had an autographed framed pin flag from the 2002 U.S. Girls Junior. The names that could be easily read were Jean Reynolds, Jane Park and In Bee Park(in Korean letters only).
Blonde and left-handed, Erica Shepherd was easy to spot on the practice green. She had a white polo shirt and white shorts and walked bowl-legged like Nasa Hataoka...but she’s bigger than Nasa and I think she has the potential to be just as good in the pros one day. At a minimum, I think she could be the first really good lefty woman pro. The rare lefties that I can think of (Christina Foster, Megan Osland, Angela Buzminski) are wannabes or washouts.
Shepherd has a wicked drop-down move to the inside with the driver and pounds high draws with it...and does it with a super-weird grip. Jordan Spieth might have a similar grip...I’m not sure. Her bottom (left) hand covers a lot of her top hand...so much so that the tip of her right thumb is visible between the ‘v’ formed by her left thumb and index finger. She plays a TaylorMade driver and Titleist AP1 irons. Avery had all PXG gear and Chen played TM Tour Preferred irons.
The 1st hole is a downhiller of 393 yards and Shepherd’s drive reached the flat area on the right side about 95 yards to the hole. She wedged it on and made birdie. Since the 1st green was near the course entrance, I decided to hustle out to my car and drive it into the rear parking lot of the club...leaving it at the park for hours would have worried me all day.
I returned to the green of the par-5 2nd hole where the Shepherd group was putting. Downrange I could see the Lucy Li group teeing off. Li and Ye drove it down the middle about the same distance. Heck slumped her body immediately after her drive...it landed in the right rough but was longer than the other two.
Southern Cal assistant coach Stewart Burke was checking out the Shepherd group. Since Shepherd and Chen both wore Duke U. headwear, his only interest had to be Avery (H.S. class of 2022, making her about 14 years old). Later on, he recorded Avery’s swing from behind the target line with his cell phone...she drove it well, except for a couple of hooks. We chatted a little:
Me: I assume you’re scouting today.
SB: That’s right. Are you a member here?
Me: No, I’m a spectator...never been to an AJGA event before. I was surprised to hear about your head coach (Andrea Gaston) leaving.
SB: Yeah, hard to believe she’s going to the 40th ranked program (Texas A&M) in the country.
Me: Was this move expected?
SB: No, it wasn’t. We thought she would retire at USC.
Me: Maybe she wanted a challenge late in life.
He expressed some hope as a candidate for USC’s head coach vacancy and I wished him luck. The only other scout that was vaguely recognizable to me was Stanford head coach Anne Walker...an assistant was with her. Ye and Heck wore Stanford caps, so she didn’t have to worry about them.
Shepherd picked up another birdie at the 120-yard 3rd hole. It was fairways and greens with her...and her rare misses were no worse than marginal...she hit no wild shots on the front nine. She gave back her birdies via a couple of missed par-saving putts at 8 & 9. Regardless of the outcome later in the week, I’m convinced she was the best player in this field. Her 110 ranking on WAGR doesn’t look so hot...it’s a rolling average of 104 weeks...maybe she’s a late bloomer...she looks way better than 110. She finished the day with a 68, -3.
After Shepherd’s group teed off at #10, I waited for Lucy Li’s group to show up. Li, like all the other girls, was pushing her own bag...I assume no caddies were permitted, but the players could use laser rangefinders. I think her aunt followed her play...she looked like the lady who pushed Li’s electric cart with the 24-lb. battery and the mongo alligator clamps at Ridgewood CC for the 2016 U.S Girls Junior.
Li was playing a TM M3 driver with the two weights in the “factory neutral” positions. She had TM P-750 irons and TM wedges. She doesn’t wear an Edel visor anymore and I didn’t see that brand in her bag. Ye and Heck played Ping gear, both had i200 irons.
This was the third tournament I had seen Li in person and her performance was surprisingly pedestrian...finished at 75, +4. Based on what I had seen in 2016, I was waiting for her to squash a magically stiff three-quarter hybrid or fairway wood approach shot, but it never happened. Maybe the back nine was not receptive to such a shot...I don’t know. I distinctly recall her trying to reach a par-4 with probably her longest iron (5?) and coming up short...that was lame, but she saved par. More times than not, Li was the shortest driver of her group. Heck was the longest...she was ahead of Li by 10 yards on one hole and 17 yards on another hole.
This was my first visit to Echo Lake CC, and I had never seen it on TV before, so seeing each hole was a fresh discovery. No. 6 was the first one with a “wow” factor. For the girls it was 350 yards uphill...90-degree dogleg-left which had two bunkers guarding the elbow if you planned to cut the corner...the second shot was further uphill to a smallish bunker-guarded green. I later learned this was the #1 handicap hole, which was no surprise.
After the Li group finished at #18, I had no idea where to find the Bhatia group, so I decide to let them find me. Meanwhile, I hung out at the 10th tee to watch the guys mash their drivers. They hit the occasional straight ball and baby cut, while the gals hit a higher percentage of draws.
I noticed that a lot of the guys had identical patriotic red/white/blue Ping stand bags. I’m guessing these were giveaways from past junior tournaments...it didn’t matter if you had Ping equipment or not.
Then I went over to the nearby par-3 17th tee box and watched more groups pass through until Bhatia, Vilips and Claycomb showed up. The club’s head pro was following them in his golf cart. Bhatia was a lefty broomstick wearing a pale blue golf shirt...if he turned to the side you could lose him in the daylight. But, he could really golf his ball...put a lot of air under it. What I didn’t know was that he was in the process of shooting 64 and breaking the “competitive” course record. I think the course record is 61, per a framed scorecard in the pro shop.
As Vilips walked to the 17th tee, someone said to him, “Let’s finish birdie-birdie.” He had to settle for par-par, even though he annihilated his driver at #18...about 330 yards worth on a slightly downhill par-4 of 428 yards. Bhatia and Claycomb were thirty yards shorter, but also made pars. Erica Shepherd and a couple of other gals were sitting on the grass behind the green watching the action.
Regarding Claycomb, he seemed to have divided loyalties as I looked him over at the 17th tee. He wore a Duke U. cap, but he had red headcovers with a white script ‘A’ on them. Is that the U. of Alabama? The loyalty question was answered at the 18th green. After making his par putt, he walked over to Shepherd to shake her hand...and yanked her up on her feet. Yes, it’s so obvious...Duke Duke Duke for reasons beyond education and golf!