Post by philknj on Jun 18, 2019 13:34:59 GMT
I arrived at the Seaview around 8:15 AM and was quite disappointed that the swag tents no longer had a station for ShopRite Black Bear meat samplers...there went my plans for a free lunch...which is probably why they dropped it.
Since Mi Hyang Lee skipped this event, my plans were completely open, although the pairing sheet was underwhelming. After a quick look-see of the practice areas, I settled on the last AM group starting at #10 at 9:16 AM - Paula Reto, Cydney Clanton and Robynn Ree.
While waiting to start at #10, a gentleman from The South was sitting in a lawn chair outside the ropes of the tee box. He noticed Clanton was wearing a white cap that had a blue logo w/ orange trim shaped like the state of Alabama. He yelled, “Roll Tide!” She replied, “Auburn Tigers!” The old guy said he graduated from Alabama in 1976, but his daughter went to Auburn, saying “it’s either one or the other down there!”
Robynn left the USC team 18 months ago, but she’s still wearing her school uniform. She could be a nice model for one of the Asian golf apparel brands if anyone cared about her. Reto is powerful but erratic...I saw her shoot 64 here in 2016 while playing with MHL.
I knew Ree and Reto were cup-of-coffee call-ups from AAA for this event. However, I was shocked to learn later that Clanton was in the same boat. I thought she was a regular on the LPGA this year, but she is not...but she sure played like one. This was my first look at her and she was impressive...drove the ball high, long and straight. The par-4 13th and 14th holes were used for drive measuring. They are parallel with #13 slightly uphill and #14 slightly downhill and had opposite cross winds. Clanton hit it about the same distance on both, averaging 274. Throw in a few laser-like irons and pinpoint putts and she posted -4 on her first nine holes. Ree and Reto were +2 and -2 respectively on their first nine holes.
While waiting to tee off at #14, Clanton asked Ree how she got into this tournament. Robynn’s back was to me so I couldn’t hear what she said...Clanton nodded her head, saying, “Okay, I get it...yeah...right...that’s because you didn’t play the Q-Series...I know I’m 101, I’m safe.” Then there was this amusing exchange:
Reto (to Ree): Do you have Symetra status?
Clanton: We all have Symetra status.
Reto: They make it so complicated.
As for Clanton’s “101”, I don’t know what she meant. It might have been her rank on the Symetra priority list at the start of 2019. She’s now 70th on that list because she won in Arkansas in April. Her current LPGA rank is 180.
While the Clanton group was putting out at #17, the scoreboard was flashing a crazy score for Muni He of -6 thru 15 holes. I bent down and looked through the trees to spot Muni hitting from the left rough at the par-4 16th. She finished short of green, but still made par. I joined her group at #17 where she made par (playing with Lindsey Weaver and Karine Icher). On the walk to #18, Weaver asked basic questions of Muni...I guess Lindsey doesn’t follow Muni on Instagram.
Playing downwind, the par-5 18th at 507 yards was more like a long par-4. While I viewed from the left rough, Muni reached the green with a wood...it was impossible to see what the ball did, but the grandstand exploded...later video showed the ball bouncing off the stick. I took a seat in the grandstand as she two-putted for birdie and 64 (-7). Celine Herbin was in the next group waiting to hit and her drive must have been crazy long. In the past, it was 340 yards to the first edge of the spectator cross walk and her ball had to be less than 40 yards away from it.
I dropped by the par-5 9th tee box where Mardi Lunn (looper for Xi Yu Lin) was saying, “It should be banned!” I have no idea what she was talking about, but I immediately re-positioned myself to the other side of the tee. By then the subject had changed. She was talking about a player (unknown) with Emma Talley. She opined that this player (about age 32), married to a guy named Jeff, should start a family NOW, especially since she is not playing well (“When you are struggling, it is no fun out here.”). My best guess on the player is Brittany Lang...the age is right and she is playing lousy, but I don’t know the name of that big dude she is married to. Then Mardi mentioned a player with some kind of birth control foul up that elicited laughs from Lin and Talley...I couldn’t hear the details on this...which might have been for the best.
I hung out at the 9th tee to watch Amy Yang, NK Madsen and Lauren Stephenson hit. I followed the next group to the green – Ayaka Uehara, Charlotte Thomas and Sarah Schmelzel. The 9th was set six paces ahead of the 477 marker and since it ran in the same direction as #18, the same wind tunnel effect made it a total pushover. Schmelzel needed only a 6-iron to reach the green. However, Thomas had a one-handed finish on her drive as her ball peeled right and finished in front of the tee box at the 12th hole. A row of big trunk pines separated her from 9th fairway...all she could do was punch out between them and make a clumsy five. She has gone pretty far on the LPGA for someone who was rarely the best player on her team at U.-Wash.
Who do I follow next? The 1:43 PM group at #10 of Jane Park, Sakura Yokomine and Louise Ridderstrom looked good.
Despite winning on the Symetra tour in 2018, Ridderstrom showed me nothing...made no putts with her Sacks Parente mallet and was out-driven at holes 14, 16 and 18 by two 33-year-olds who never had the reputation for being long bombers. She finished +1 on her first nine.
Yokomine’s off-season divorce from the Dunlop empire has had a messy aftermath. She started winter camp with Ping G400 woods, Callaway Apex irons, and Axis Golf Z1 wedges. Then she switched to TaylorMade M3 irons...and then to TM M5 irons...and now she has Yonex EZONE CB 701 Forged irons. Plus, the Ping driver has been replaced by a Progress Golf BB4 driver (the headcover says Uncharted Territory)...it’s the only club made by Japan’s Progress Golf!
This was my first look at Sakura in person and she isn’t some Asian gearhead poser...she can really play. She saved par with two superb chips at the par-3 11th and 15th holes, but saved the best for the par-3 17th (playing about 115 yards). She ripped a huge divot with a wedge and hit one all over the flag. The handful of Waste Management wannabes on the top deck of the pavilion overlooking the green went nuts and for good cause. As I walked towards the green, the ball looked like it was glued to the base of the stick. I figured I’d see daylight from a different angle, but I never did...must have been a one-inch tap-in. I’ve never seen an ace in person, but that was the closest attempt. Too bad the golf lunatics of Japan never saw this, because the Golf Channel camera crews were long gone. She finished -2 on her first nine.
Jane Park bolted out of the gate with a short birdie putt at the par-4 10th. The she holed out a flop chip from off the 12th green for birdie, followed by another birdie at the par-4 13th hole. Her only hiccup was the par-3 15th hole. The flag was center-left and her tee ball finished short of the green on the far right. Yokomine was near that spot and chipped it to within a foot, but Park skulled it about 15 feet past the hole and couldn’t save par. Jane finished -2 on first nine. Her YTD stats indicate that she has picked up as much as 10 yards with the driver this season, and I can believe that from what I saw.
The scoreboards were flashing crazy low scores by Jeong Eun Lee 6, who started three groups ahead of Yokomine at #10. From the 18th green I hustled over to the par-5 3rd green, where I could see from a distance JEL 6 taking the club back and striking a heat seeking missile all over the stick...landed and rolled about two inches from glory...she tapped in for “only” an eagle to go -6. She was playing with Morgan Pressel and Carlotta Ciganda.
Ciganda is a savage ball striker (just listen to it), but her club choices are head-scratching. The par-4 5th was five yards in front of the 301 marker. Almost everyone takes less than driver, and with her power it’s a no-brainer. But, she hits driver and it’s a low nasty cut headed for trouble. She got lucky...the ball finished in playable rough about three yards short of the two-foot high garbage...pitches on and makes par. The par-4 6th is a toughie at 396 yards with a blind tee shot...the pin is on the far right of the back shelf. Driver seems the obvious call, but she lays back with a wood or hybrid to the right side of the fairway, leaving her the longest approach in her group. Again, she escaped trouble...her iron finished back left and she made a long putt for birdie. She’s got Annika’s old looper Terry McNamara on her bag and he doesn’t have much to say.
Pressel looks pretty good these days. She made only one bad swing...let out a scream at her tee ball at the par-3 7th. It was a pull that finished in the junk surrounding the left bunker...made bogey.
JEL 6 made par at the par-4 4th. She took out an iron for her tee shot at #5...she went through her pre-shot routine of a partial backswing, then full backswing. It made me think about Johnny Miller’s comments on Angela Park’s swing at the 2007 USWO (“Ben Hogan” and “it looks like it’s been worked on for 20 years”). What would he say about Lucky 6? There are no yardage markers along the left ropes but she hit that iron LONG. She wedged it on past the flag about 12 feet and made the putt to go -7.
JEL 6 lost a stroke at #6 but got it back at the par-4 8th. She was on the green in two at #9, but left her putt an inch short and settled for 63, -8. Typical Ciganda at #9...had too much juice on her second shot, chipped it off the front of the green for her third, knocked on to the putting surface for #4 and two-putted for a bogey six.
There was still time to catch up with the final group finishing on the front nine – Becky Morgan, Lori Beth Adams and Karen Chung. I intercepted them while they were hitting their tee balls at the par-3 7th...all three made bogeys. Karen had her parents and brother(?) following along. While waiting at the spectator crossing, the volunteer manning the rope received a quick bio on Karen from Mama Chung...I heard part of it, she said Karen started in regular school, but they took her out to be home schooled so she could devote more time to golf. She concluded by saying, “she’s a really good player...and a good girl!”
Becky hit three lousy shots to get into a greenside bunker at #8, then splashed it out and into the hole for a par! Karen made birdie, while Adams ping-ponged her ball all over the green for a double (finished +9, 80). Becky’s flirtation with PXG that I saw on the Seaview range a couple of years ago is history...she now has a Yonex bag and all Yonex gear, except for a TaylorMade spider putter. Karen picked up another birdie at #9 and finished -3, 68.
Took a quick look around the practice green before hopping on the shuttle. One of the volunteers involved with transportation said she used to feed the shuttle drivers with freebie Black Bear meat samplers, but they weren’t available this year. Yeah, I feel their pain.
Since Mi Hyang Lee skipped this event, my plans were completely open, although the pairing sheet was underwhelming. After a quick look-see of the practice areas, I settled on the last AM group starting at #10 at 9:16 AM - Paula Reto, Cydney Clanton and Robynn Ree.
While waiting to start at #10, a gentleman from The South was sitting in a lawn chair outside the ropes of the tee box. He noticed Clanton was wearing a white cap that had a blue logo w/ orange trim shaped like the state of Alabama. He yelled, “Roll Tide!” She replied, “Auburn Tigers!” The old guy said he graduated from Alabama in 1976, but his daughter went to Auburn, saying “it’s either one or the other down there!”
Robynn left the USC team 18 months ago, but she’s still wearing her school uniform. She could be a nice model for one of the Asian golf apparel brands if anyone cared about her. Reto is powerful but erratic...I saw her shoot 64 here in 2016 while playing with MHL.
I knew Ree and Reto were cup-of-coffee call-ups from AAA for this event. However, I was shocked to learn later that Clanton was in the same boat. I thought she was a regular on the LPGA this year, but she is not...but she sure played like one. This was my first look at her and she was impressive...drove the ball high, long and straight. The par-4 13th and 14th holes were used for drive measuring. They are parallel with #13 slightly uphill and #14 slightly downhill and had opposite cross winds. Clanton hit it about the same distance on both, averaging 274. Throw in a few laser-like irons and pinpoint putts and she posted -4 on her first nine holes. Ree and Reto were +2 and -2 respectively on their first nine holes.
While waiting to tee off at #14, Clanton asked Ree how she got into this tournament. Robynn’s back was to me so I couldn’t hear what she said...Clanton nodded her head, saying, “Okay, I get it...yeah...right...that’s because you didn’t play the Q-Series...I know I’m 101, I’m safe.” Then there was this amusing exchange:
Reto (to Ree): Do you have Symetra status?
Clanton: We all have Symetra status.
Reto: They make it so complicated.
As for Clanton’s “101”, I don’t know what she meant. It might have been her rank on the Symetra priority list at the start of 2019. She’s now 70th on that list because she won in Arkansas in April. Her current LPGA rank is 180.
While the Clanton group was putting out at #17, the scoreboard was flashing a crazy score for Muni He of -6 thru 15 holes. I bent down and looked through the trees to spot Muni hitting from the left rough at the par-4 16th. She finished short of green, but still made par. I joined her group at #17 where she made par (playing with Lindsey Weaver and Karine Icher). On the walk to #18, Weaver asked basic questions of Muni...I guess Lindsey doesn’t follow Muni on Instagram.
Playing downwind, the par-5 18th at 507 yards was more like a long par-4. While I viewed from the left rough, Muni reached the green with a wood...it was impossible to see what the ball did, but the grandstand exploded...later video showed the ball bouncing off the stick. I took a seat in the grandstand as she two-putted for birdie and 64 (-7). Celine Herbin was in the next group waiting to hit and her drive must have been crazy long. In the past, it was 340 yards to the first edge of the spectator cross walk and her ball had to be less than 40 yards away from it.
I dropped by the par-5 9th tee box where Mardi Lunn (looper for Xi Yu Lin) was saying, “It should be banned!” I have no idea what she was talking about, but I immediately re-positioned myself to the other side of the tee. By then the subject had changed. She was talking about a player (unknown) with Emma Talley. She opined that this player (about age 32), married to a guy named Jeff, should start a family NOW, especially since she is not playing well (“When you are struggling, it is no fun out here.”). My best guess on the player is Brittany Lang...the age is right and she is playing lousy, but I don’t know the name of that big dude she is married to. Then Mardi mentioned a player with some kind of birth control foul up that elicited laughs from Lin and Talley...I couldn’t hear the details on this...which might have been for the best.
I hung out at the 9th tee to watch Amy Yang, NK Madsen and Lauren Stephenson hit. I followed the next group to the green – Ayaka Uehara, Charlotte Thomas and Sarah Schmelzel. The 9th was set six paces ahead of the 477 marker and since it ran in the same direction as #18, the same wind tunnel effect made it a total pushover. Schmelzel needed only a 6-iron to reach the green. However, Thomas had a one-handed finish on her drive as her ball peeled right and finished in front of the tee box at the 12th hole. A row of big trunk pines separated her from 9th fairway...all she could do was punch out between them and make a clumsy five. She has gone pretty far on the LPGA for someone who was rarely the best player on her team at U.-Wash.
Who do I follow next? The 1:43 PM group at #10 of Jane Park, Sakura Yokomine and Louise Ridderstrom looked good.
Despite winning on the Symetra tour in 2018, Ridderstrom showed me nothing...made no putts with her Sacks Parente mallet and was out-driven at holes 14, 16 and 18 by two 33-year-olds who never had the reputation for being long bombers. She finished +1 on her first nine.
Yokomine’s off-season divorce from the Dunlop empire has had a messy aftermath. She started winter camp with Ping G400 woods, Callaway Apex irons, and Axis Golf Z1 wedges. Then she switched to TaylorMade M3 irons...and then to TM M5 irons...and now she has Yonex EZONE CB 701 Forged irons. Plus, the Ping driver has been replaced by a Progress Golf BB4 driver (the headcover says Uncharted Territory)...it’s the only club made by Japan’s Progress Golf!
This was my first look at Sakura in person and she isn’t some Asian gearhead poser...she can really play. She saved par with two superb chips at the par-3 11th and 15th holes, but saved the best for the par-3 17th (playing about 115 yards). She ripped a huge divot with a wedge and hit one all over the flag. The handful of Waste Management wannabes on the top deck of the pavilion overlooking the green went nuts and for good cause. As I walked towards the green, the ball looked like it was glued to the base of the stick. I figured I’d see daylight from a different angle, but I never did...must have been a one-inch tap-in. I’ve never seen an ace in person, but that was the closest attempt. Too bad the golf lunatics of Japan never saw this, because the Golf Channel camera crews were long gone. She finished -2 on her first nine.
Jane Park bolted out of the gate with a short birdie putt at the par-4 10th. The she holed out a flop chip from off the 12th green for birdie, followed by another birdie at the par-4 13th hole. Her only hiccup was the par-3 15th hole. The flag was center-left and her tee ball finished short of the green on the far right. Yokomine was near that spot and chipped it to within a foot, but Park skulled it about 15 feet past the hole and couldn’t save par. Jane finished -2 on first nine. Her YTD stats indicate that she has picked up as much as 10 yards with the driver this season, and I can believe that from what I saw.
The scoreboards were flashing crazy low scores by Jeong Eun Lee 6, who started three groups ahead of Yokomine at #10. From the 18th green I hustled over to the par-5 3rd green, where I could see from a distance JEL 6 taking the club back and striking a heat seeking missile all over the stick...landed and rolled about two inches from glory...she tapped in for “only” an eagle to go -6. She was playing with Morgan Pressel and Carlotta Ciganda.
Ciganda is a savage ball striker (just listen to it), but her club choices are head-scratching. The par-4 5th was five yards in front of the 301 marker. Almost everyone takes less than driver, and with her power it’s a no-brainer. But, she hits driver and it’s a low nasty cut headed for trouble. She got lucky...the ball finished in playable rough about three yards short of the two-foot high garbage...pitches on and makes par. The par-4 6th is a toughie at 396 yards with a blind tee shot...the pin is on the far right of the back shelf. Driver seems the obvious call, but she lays back with a wood or hybrid to the right side of the fairway, leaving her the longest approach in her group. Again, she escaped trouble...her iron finished back left and she made a long putt for birdie. She’s got Annika’s old looper Terry McNamara on her bag and he doesn’t have much to say.
Pressel looks pretty good these days. She made only one bad swing...let out a scream at her tee ball at the par-3 7th. It was a pull that finished in the junk surrounding the left bunker...made bogey.
JEL 6 made par at the par-4 4th. She took out an iron for her tee shot at #5...she went through her pre-shot routine of a partial backswing, then full backswing. It made me think about Johnny Miller’s comments on Angela Park’s swing at the 2007 USWO (“Ben Hogan” and “it looks like it’s been worked on for 20 years”). What would he say about Lucky 6? There are no yardage markers along the left ropes but she hit that iron LONG. She wedged it on past the flag about 12 feet and made the putt to go -7.
JEL 6 lost a stroke at #6 but got it back at the par-4 8th. She was on the green in two at #9, but left her putt an inch short and settled for 63, -8. Typical Ciganda at #9...had too much juice on her second shot, chipped it off the front of the green for her third, knocked on to the putting surface for #4 and two-putted for a bogey six.
There was still time to catch up with the final group finishing on the front nine – Becky Morgan, Lori Beth Adams and Karen Chung. I intercepted them while they were hitting their tee balls at the par-3 7th...all three made bogeys. Karen had her parents and brother(?) following along. While waiting at the spectator crossing, the volunteer manning the rope received a quick bio on Karen from Mama Chung...I heard part of it, she said Karen started in regular school, but they took her out to be home schooled so she could devote more time to golf. She concluded by saying, “she’s a really good player...and a good girl!”
Becky hit three lousy shots to get into a greenside bunker at #8, then splashed it out and into the hole for a par! Karen made birdie, while Adams ping-ponged her ball all over the green for a double (finished +9, 80). Becky’s flirtation with PXG that I saw on the Seaview range a couple of years ago is history...she now has a Yonex bag and all Yonex gear, except for a TaylorMade spider putter. Karen picked up another birdie at #9 and finished -3, 68.
Took a quick look around the practice green before hopping on the shuttle. One of the volunteers involved with transportation said she used to feed the shuttle drivers with freebie Black Bear meat samplers, but they weren’t available this year. Yeah, I feel their pain.
