Post by philknj on Jun 9, 2015 13:55:07 GMT
I arrived earlier than usual...the 7:22 AM group of Jane Rah, Marissa Steen, and Candie Kung was waiting to tee off at #1. I crossed the street to the main practice green and soon learned that a 45-minute fog delay had been announced. The four groups that started before 7:22 AM came off the course.
Two caddies discussed methods of how they would battle the bugs on the course:
“I’ll light a cigar, but I won’t smoke it...she doesn’t like it, but I’ll keep it away from her.”
“She told me I could light up as many cigarettes as I want.”
“The spray does not work.”
I applied bug spray to my cap before getting on the shuttle bus and had no problems.
In case you’re wondering about caddie lodging, I heard one of them say earlier in the week that he and four others were sharing the cost of one “condo”.
The fog delay was extended to one hour, which would be tacked on to everyone’s tee times, AM and PM.
Team Jutanugarn was seated at a round table on the porch outside the pro shop. Mama followed Ariya in Round One. Meaghan Francella (looper for Marina Alex), sitting in a golf cart, gave travel advice to another caddie: “My first choice would be White Plains, second would be LaGuardia.” The other caddie said, “I hate LaGuardia.” I assume they were discussing how to fly back for the KPMG in two weeks.
The early starters started filing back across the street, so I followed them. The second group that teed off at #10 at 7:11 AM looked interesting, as it had two players who shot 67 in Round One (Ryann O’Toole & Alena Sharp), along with Ayako Uehara (72). They resumed their last positions in the fairway and began playing after someone blew an air horn.
Sharpy littered the back nine with bogeys, but I wasn’t surprised...last year she followed a low round with a bad one. Ryann also struggled on her first nine...knocked it into the junk surrounding the green of the par-3 11th and made a double.
Unlike her playing partners, Uehara is a short hitter who plays point-to-point. At the end of her white undershirt sleeve is an attached pad over the back of the right (bottom) hand. It’s kept in place by slipping one or two fingers through elastic rings. That’s how you keep both hands looking the same after years in the sun. Young Kim does this, too.
Ayako was checking out the Cure Putter earlier in the week, but was that necessary? Except for making a double at the par-3 15th, her putting was stellar...had four birdies on the back nine.
I left this group and visited the swag tents. At 10:30 AM, it was a little early for lunch, but I had thoughts of yesterday’s bratwurst. The Shop-Rite Black Bear meat stand was in operation, but all they had were two types of franks; the better stuff was still cooking. Mi Hyang Lee’s group had already played the back nine and I wasn’t sure when I’d get back here, so I went for a skinless frank now.
Mi Hyang’s group was at the green of the par-5 3rd. Catriona Matthew made her birdie putt to make her -6. Ariya Jutanugarn made par and was +5. Mi Hyang made par and was +2. The scoreboards were projecting the cut at +1.
All three made pars at the par-4 4th. The fifth is a short straight par-4. Many players take less than driver here, but Mi Hyang did not and was rewarded with a short wedge and birdie to get to +1.
While waiting to hit at #6, MHL caddy Ivan Galdame chatted with Catriona and her caddy, a gentleman with a heavy Scottish or Irish accent. Ivan talked about how he was born in the mountains, but his dream is to live by the sea. He referred to Catriona and his caddy as being among “the Latins” of the British Isles. They knew what he meant. Ivan also mentioned his newbie days on the PGA European tour when he asked Paul Lawrie if he was English! Oops!
The turtles were active around the par-3 7th hole. The big pond is there and you could see them swimming. They were also coming out to lay eggs in the bunkers. After they did that, a volunteer would plant a small orange flag on that spot...obviously, you would get free relief if your ball landed there.
The par-4 8th hole is another short one that keeps the driver in the bag for many players, but not Mi Hyang. She stayed aggressive and made birdie to go to Even. Catriona stalled her engine with bogeys at #7 and #8 and finished the day at -4.
The ninth hole is the par-5 with the garbage dump crossing the fairway. It is not in play, unless you hit a bad second shot, which I saw a couple of times. Mi Hyang had no problem carrying it, but her ball squirted right and finished in high grass under a medium-low overhanging tree. After an extended conversation with Ivan, she took an unplayable and wedged her ball to a spot near the edge or just off the green. Two more strokes and she finished with a bogey-6 and a score of +1. Good move regarding the unplayable – prevent a big number on the scorecard. The cut was still +1 and moved to +3 by the end of the day.
Ariya bogeyed #9 and finished her week early at +8. I recall seeing her use a fairway wood or hybid at least once, along with her 2-iron, but not the driver. Catriona had three or four reporters surrounding her at the 9th green holding tiny electronic recording gadgets. The days of the Carl Kolchak mini-cassette recorder are long gone!
Mi Hyang went through her post round stuff...autographed balls for volunteers, scorecard signing, the autograph line for spectators. Four Korean fellows hanging out at the 9th green had a group selfie taken with her on a smart phone. I didn’t stick around as I already had my instructions from the other two days...Facebook her for a free grounds pass at the KPMG. I did it later when I got home and we’ll see what happens.
Who can I follow next who’s playing well and not being followed by a mob? That would be the 2:50 PM group starting at #10 which had two players at -3, Gerina Piller and Christel Boeljon. The third player, Maria Hernandez, was just punching the clock.
This was a long week...I was a walking zombie by this time...my eyes were tearing up from pollen and the constant wind would irritate them more. On top of that, following Piller and Boeljon on the back nine turned out to be a complete drag. Between them, they had one birdie and seventeen pars. I would have been better off napping under a tree in the shade.
There was time for one more group: Anna Nordqvist, Christina Kim, and Angela Stanford. They had completed the front nine and I caught up with them at the 12th green. I was shocked to see Anna miss a short par putt, which dropped her back to -3. Nevertheless, this seemed like a good golf course for her game; it’s short so she can knock down the flags with her approaches and her putting is good enough to tackle some of these tricky greens.
It was past 6 PM when this group teed off at #16, so GolfChannel was off the air, but they weren’t finished working. As the players reached their drives in the fairway, a cart carrying a cameraman and his assistant dropped them off near me and drove back to the 16th green. While the players got ready to hit, I could hear the cameraman talking somewhat loudly about ten yards away from me. It seems someone changed their mind and the cameraman need not be there. He had to hoof it back to the 16th green...as he walked in front of me, he muttered, “Fu***n’ communications business.”
Anna birdied #16 to reach -4, which put a spring in the step of her mom who was following the group. She carried the momentum into #17 and birdied that one, too...ditto at #18, so she finished at -6. Kim and Stanford finished at +2, but would play tomorrow. BTW, congrats to Stanford for taking a drop away from the enclosed grandstand behind the 18th green without having to waste time by calling in a rules official first.
There were four remaining groups that hadn’t finished the back nine holes, but when Anna made birdie at #18, the grandstand to the right of the green emptied out...and I was ready to go home, too.
Before getting on the shuttle, I went across the street to check out the scene at the practice green...only two or three players were there. Yani Tseng’s caddy was nearby discussing her round (75) with Yani: “130 was a really good number to the front of the green, but I couldn’t believe how the ball jumped out of that grass.” Then his voice lowered, “if the other girls out here had your round, 90% of them would say ‘Oh s**t’ and just quit, but you kept grinding.” Yani birdied #s 17 & 18 and made the cut on the nose.
Two caddies discussed methods of how they would battle the bugs on the course:
“I’ll light a cigar, but I won’t smoke it...she doesn’t like it, but I’ll keep it away from her.”
“She told me I could light up as many cigarettes as I want.”
“The spray does not work.”
I applied bug spray to my cap before getting on the shuttle bus and had no problems.
In case you’re wondering about caddie lodging, I heard one of them say earlier in the week that he and four others were sharing the cost of one “condo”.
The fog delay was extended to one hour, which would be tacked on to everyone’s tee times, AM and PM.
Team Jutanugarn was seated at a round table on the porch outside the pro shop. Mama followed Ariya in Round One. Meaghan Francella (looper for Marina Alex), sitting in a golf cart, gave travel advice to another caddie: “My first choice would be White Plains, second would be LaGuardia.” The other caddie said, “I hate LaGuardia.” I assume they were discussing how to fly back for the KPMG in two weeks.
The early starters started filing back across the street, so I followed them. The second group that teed off at #10 at 7:11 AM looked interesting, as it had two players who shot 67 in Round One (Ryann O’Toole & Alena Sharp), along with Ayako Uehara (72). They resumed their last positions in the fairway and began playing after someone blew an air horn.
Sharpy littered the back nine with bogeys, but I wasn’t surprised...last year she followed a low round with a bad one. Ryann also struggled on her first nine...knocked it into the junk surrounding the green of the par-3 11th and made a double.
Unlike her playing partners, Uehara is a short hitter who plays point-to-point. At the end of her white undershirt sleeve is an attached pad over the back of the right (bottom) hand. It’s kept in place by slipping one or two fingers through elastic rings. That’s how you keep both hands looking the same after years in the sun. Young Kim does this, too.
Ayako was checking out the Cure Putter earlier in the week, but was that necessary? Except for making a double at the par-3 15th, her putting was stellar...had four birdies on the back nine.
I left this group and visited the swag tents. At 10:30 AM, it was a little early for lunch, but I had thoughts of yesterday’s bratwurst. The Shop-Rite Black Bear meat stand was in operation, but all they had were two types of franks; the better stuff was still cooking. Mi Hyang Lee’s group had already played the back nine and I wasn’t sure when I’d get back here, so I went for a skinless frank now.
Mi Hyang’s group was at the green of the par-5 3rd. Catriona Matthew made her birdie putt to make her -6. Ariya Jutanugarn made par and was +5. Mi Hyang made par and was +2. The scoreboards were projecting the cut at +1.
All three made pars at the par-4 4th. The fifth is a short straight par-4. Many players take less than driver here, but Mi Hyang did not and was rewarded with a short wedge and birdie to get to +1.
While waiting to hit at #6, MHL caddy Ivan Galdame chatted with Catriona and her caddy, a gentleman with a heavy Scottish or Irish accent. Ivan talked about how he was born in the mountains, but his dream is to live by the sea. He referred to Catriona and his caddy as being among “the Latins” of the British Isles. They knew what he meant. Ivan also mentioned his newbie days on the PGA European tour when he asked Paul Lawrie if he was English! Oops!
The turtles were active around the par-3 7th hole. The big pond is there and you could see them swimming. They were also coming out to lay eggs in the bunkers. After they did that, a volunteer would plant a small orange flag on that spot...obviously, you would get free relief if your ball landed there.
The par-4 8th hole is another short one that keeps the driver in the bag for many players, but not Mi Hyang. She stayed aggressive and made birdie to go to Even. Catriona stalled her engine with bogeys at #7 and #8 and finished the day at -4.
The ninth hole is the par-5 with the garbage dump crossing the fairway. It is not in play, unless you hit a bad second shot, which I saw a couple of times. Mi Hyang had no problem carrying it, but her ball squirted right and finished in high grass under a medium-low overhanging tree. After an extended conversation with Ivan, she took an unplayable and wedged her ball to a spot near the edge or just off the green. Two more strokes and she finished with a bogey-6 and a score of +1. Good move regarding the unplayable – prevent a big number on the scorecard. The cut was still +1 and moved to +3 by the end of the day.
Ariya bogeyed #9 and finished her week early at +8. I recall seeing her use a fairway wood or hybid at least once, along with her 2-iron, but not the driver. Catriona had three or four reporters surrounding her at the 9th green holding tiny electronic recording gadgets. The days of the Carl Kolchak mini-cassette recorder are long gone!
Mi Hyang went through her post round stuff...autographed balls for volunteers, scorecard signing, the autograph line for spectators. Four Korean fellows hanging out at the 9th green had a group selfie taken with her on a smart phone. I didn’t stick around as I already had my instructions from the other two days...Facebook her for a free grounds pass at the KPMG. I did it later when I got home and we’ll see what happens.
Who can I follow next who’s playing well and not being followed by a mob? That would be the 2:50 PM group starting at #10 which had two players at -3, Gerina Piller and Christel Boeljon. The third player, Maria Hernandez, was just punching the clock.
This was a long week...I was a walking zombie by this time...my eyes were tearing up from pollen and the constant wind would irritate them more. On top of that, following Piller and Boeljon on the back nine turned out to be a complete drag. Between them, they had one birdie and seventeen pars. I would have been better off napping under a tree in the shade.
There was time for one more group: Anna Nordqvist, Christina Kim, and Angela Stanford. They had completed the front nine and I caught up with them at the 12th green. I was shocked to see Anna miss a short par putt, which dropped her back to -3. Nevertheless, this seemed like a good golf course for her game; it’s short so she can knock down the flags with her approaches and her putting is good enough to tackle some of these tricky greens.
It was past 6 PM when this group teed off at #16, so GolfChannel was off the air, but they weren’t finished working. As the players reached their drives in the fairway, a cart carrying a cameraman and his assistant dropped them off near me and drove back to the 16th green. While the players got ready to hit, I could hear the cameraman talking somewhat loudly about ten yards away from me. It seems someone changed their mind and the cameraman need not be there. He had to hoof it back to the 16th green...as he walked in front of me, he muttered, “Fu***n’ communications business.”
Anna birdied #16 to reach -4, which put a spring in the step of her mom who was following the group. She carried the momentum into #17 and birdied that one, too...ditto at #18, so she finished at -6. Kim and Stanford finished at +2, but would play tomorrow. BTW, congrats to Stanford for taking a drop away from the enclosed grandstand behind the 18th green without having to waste time by calling in a rules official first.
There were four remaining groups that hadn’t finished the back nine holes, but when Anna made birdie at #18, the grandstand to the right of the green emptied out...and I was ready to go home, too.
Before getting on the shuttle, I went across the street to check out the scene at the practice green...only two or three players were there. Yani Tseng’s caddy was nearby discussing her round (75) with Yani: “130 was a really good number to the front of the green, but I couldn’t believe how the ball jumped out of that grass.” Then his voice lowered, “if the other girls out here had your round, 90% of them would say ‘Oh s**t’ and just quit, but you kept grinding.” Yani birdied #s 17 & 18 and made the cut on the nose.
