Post by philknj on May 18, 2021 2:20:13 GMT
I took a leisurely pace down to Spring Lake GC in Spring Lake, NJ, arriving in the parking lot at 11:20 AM. The plan was to follow the marquis threesome that included Cheyenne Woods and Bianca Pagdanganan during the second round. The first rounds were still in progress, so I briefly checked out a few other players.
The driveway to the clubhouse went between the second green and third tee, near the parking lot. Top NJ amateur Megha Ganne was playing #2, so I walked downrange on the right side of the par-5 3rd hole (530 yards at the tee blocks) and waited for her threesome, which included Noelle Maertz and Anushka Sawant. Ganne hit the fairway with her drive. Sawant did the same, but was way shorter (I paced it off at 200 yards). Maertz did some leaning after her drive. My experience told me to put an arm over my head ... yep, the ball landed about a dozen yards short of me in the rough.
Sawant wore a South Brunswick HS jacket and a Wilson Duo cap and was the only player I saw playing a yellow golf ball (don’t know which brand). Maertz is now a career amateur ... I saw her in a 2012 USWO qualifier playing with Jeong Jang at Trump-Colts Neck. At the par-4 4th (337 yards), Maertz’ tee ball iron shot was longer than Sawant’s driver.
I cut over to the 7th fairway to see another familiar face, the Yale librarian Ami Gianchandani. A pro of advanced age was in her group, Christine Reuss, who hit a pitch so fat that the ball went about three yards. I followed this group to the par-5 9th (497 yards) where Ami drove it 257. The flag was tucked right behind a bunker on the front-right, a bunker that Ami found with her second shot. She splashed on and three-putted for bogey. She was gaming Mizuno MP-18 irons – the muscleback versions, I think.
This was my first visit to this place and it surprised me. Being less than one mile from the beach, I assumed it would be flat, but instead there were a lot of elevation changes. They’re really into shaved areas in front of greens ... at first, I thought I was looking at a double green at #3 (not!). The course is old and I saw a lot of old growth trees ... similar to Ridgewood or Echo Lake. It’s a cramped property that maxes out at 6552 yards (the qualifier was at 6273, give or take a few yards). There was rain in NJ the night before and into the early morning, but I saw no standing water or wet areas. Maybe the fairways ran slower than normal as a result, but I have no prior course knowledge to back that up.
The club is image-conscience. The garbage cans are buried underground and pull/push carts are forbidden. Major construction work was being done on the section of building that connects the clubhouse with the pro shop. The men’s locker room was quite plush.
On the other side of the main building was a temporary tent with translucent plastic sheeting as walls, where players had lunch. An old club caddy was nearby standing next to Bianca’s bag and held court with a few of us to discuss his player ... she shot 78 in the AM, due mostly to five three-putts (“I told her this putt was really quick and she knocked it four feet past the hole”) ... Cheyenne’s 73 included a two-stroke penalty for hitting the wrong ball at #7 (“When I’m working tournaments, I tell my players to always identify your ball”) ... Bianca chose this location because she could stay with relatives in Brooklyn ... she played practice rounds here the week before, but didn’t like the cold weather mornings in this area ... thought Bianca was good enough to shoot four-under 68 on this course ... said she hit the green at #9 with driver/six-iron in the first round (THAT I want to see!).
I took a walk to the range which has nine or ten stations, and, just like the player info sheet says, it’s only 170 yards long. They use only yellow Titleist Tour PRACTICE balls. Jean (The Dream) Bartholomew was hitting a series of casual and rapid-fire hybrid shots in between drags on a cigarette. Her body language gave off negative vibes, which she confirmed by muttering the words “170 yards” to a woman with her. Then she took out her driver ... uh oh, here comes trouble, but just at that moment some guy said, “Jean, your tee time is in two minutes,” so she put it away. My watch said 12:50 PM, but the tee sheet said her group was starting its second round at 1:11 PM. It seems everybody was playing faster than the required 4 hours and 30 minutes per round, so the second rounds were started sooner.
Cheyenne visited the range next. For someone who is #470 in the world, she looked quite proficient at her craft ... with perfect set-up and alignment over the ball, she hit tight draws with an iron repeatedly.
It was time for Round Two starting at the 1st hole with Cheyenne and Bianca. The third player in the group was Jessie Kweon, a junior at St. John’s U. who brought some nice visuals to this event. On the gear front, Bianca is all Ping with i210 irons. Cheyenne is all Callaway with one of the Apex model irons. Kweon was bagging Titleist T300 irons.
I planned to log how long Bianca really was, based upon yardage markers and pacing I did between them. An article at lpga.com said she was hitting it 286, 288, 301, 303 and 313 in Georgia last October. That did NOT happen here, no way José. At the par-4 1st, she hit it 269, leaving herself 116 ... she was about 40 paces ahead of Cheyenne, which was a fluke ... Cheyenne hits it noticeably shorter, but not by that much.
Okay, here’s the start of that theoretical 4-under round for Bianca ... except she missed the green from 116, putting it into the back left bunker ... splashed out and two-putted for bogey. While the green was one of the smallest I’ve ever seen (jammed up against the fence next to Route 71), how does women’s golf’s Next Big Thing miss it from 116?
Bianca teed off with less than driver at #2 (370 yards) and had the shortest shot into the green, 131 from the left fairway fringe ... and air-mailed it, another bogey. On the way to #3, two women were behind me and one asked the other, “Did you get the free lunch?” The other snapped, “There is NOTHING free at this club!”
At the par-5 3rd, I stood behind the tee. Bianca aimed a little to the left and that’s exactly where the ball went, the left rough, but she made par. She hit less than driver at #4 (337 yards). From 100 yards, she hit a grassy incline behind the green, but luckily it rolled back down to about a foot from the hole ... ugh, lip out, only made par.
The 7th hole is a sharp dogleg-right of 325 yards. There are high trees at the right corner and with less than driver Bianca bent it like Beckham right around those trees ... a real beauty, that was her best pure golf shot in the afternoon. What happened after that was NOT beautiful. Her shortish approach shot missed the green left. I was on the opposite side and couldn’t see her lie, but she was taking short, quick practice jabs into the turf with a wedge, then applied that technique to her ball ... which advanced it no more than a couple of feet. She clunked her ball three more times for a double bogey.
The 8th hole is a downhill par-3 of 132 yards. The green was pitched down from back to front and the flag was maybe one-third of the way into the green. Bianca’s tee ball hit the grass against the back collar and stayed there ... made bogey.
Do you see a pattern? Bianca never figured out these greens, but what really shocked me was the dreadful distance control of her short irons and wedges. How did she manage to get a T-9 at last year’s KPMG major?
At the par-5 9th, there was no repeat of Driver/Six-iron into the green because she missed the fairway left. She has tremendous power out of the rough and almost reached the green ... made par.
On to #10, a par-3 of 152 yards which has a narrow uphill path to the green between two bunkers, so you better carry your ball all the way. Bianca was short of the green and made bogey. I finally saw her hit a good short iron (80 yards) into the par-4 11th green where she made par.
The 12th and 13th holes are back-to-back par-fives. Bianca got a baby cut to work at #12, hitting it 265, made par. Her third shot wedge into #13 had too much spin and zipped off the green, but still made par.
Bianca birdied the par-4 14th. While waiting to hit at the par-4 15th (419 yards), someone mentioned to her that she had the honor of the first shot, which made her smile and say, “Oh my gosh, what a joke!” In a temporary good frame of mind, she hammered her best baby cut of the afternoon, 282 yards right down the middle and made par. That appeared to be her go-to shot with the driver ... I assume her drives that missed left were double-crosses.
Bianca bogeyed the last three holes and finished with an 80. Her total score (158) was three shots behind Kweon, which is absurd. Maybe she is rusty from playing only twice on the LPGA tour in 2021. Or maybe the golf course broke her spirit from the get-go: it was too short, she hit only eight drivers in the afternoon (which was probably two too many), the range was too short, the greens were too small and tricky, the weather wasn’t hot, Spring Lake Heights is only 23 feet over sea level so the ball went nowhere, etc.
Meanwhile, without being flashy, Cheyenne dissected the course with a 69 in the afternoon. She’s not particularly long, but she had her irons dialed in. I think she had only one three-putt ... if she missed a birdie putt, her par-saver was usually not far from the hole. On a side note, the name ‘Woods’ really sells. Her group easily had the most spectators with at least 30 people following during the last few holes.
Who’s next? A TV monitor next to the pro shop was flashing real-time scores. Cindy Ha and Nuria Iturrioz were two recognizable names who were doing well and were in the same group, so I hustled out to meet them as they arrived at the par-3 16th hole (180 yards).
Both players had just made bogey at #15 and the slide continued. Two bunkers flank the 16th green and Ha missed everything way left ... pitched on and two-putted for bogey. Nuria knocked it into the right bunker, but splashed it out to about a foot. I was waiting near the 17th tee as her putt started moving, then made an abrupt turn for a lip-out ... bogey. The third player in this group was an unknown pro, Carina Capobianco, who was in over her head ... hit it thin and short from the tee, made bogey.
With no caddy and carrying not a stand bag, but a Sunday bag, the diminutive Iturrioz did not look the part of a three-time winner on the Ladies European Tour. If it weren’t for the obscure Euro logos on her windshirt, she could have passed for a sad sack junior looking for her group lesson at The First Tee program.
The par-4 17th hole (392 yards) presents a visually challenging tee shot ... there’s a massive bunker down the left side and the fairway narrows downs to a tight landing area on the right side. Ha hit a good drive into the narrow space. Nuria has good pop with the driver, but she went left into the bunker area. I couldn’t see her lie as I walked behind a hill around the hole’s left side ... also encountered numerous practice balls from the short game practice area wedged between the 17th and 18th fairways.
I heard clapping after Nuria’s second shot and for good reason ... was on the green about ten feet for birdie. Meanwhile, Ha’s approach landed on the shaved area in front of the green, but still made par. As for Nuria, yikes: putt, missed it ... putt, missed it ... putt, missed it ... putt, made it.
The par-4 18th hole (381 yards) has a downhill tee shot, followed by an approach to the right over water to a green slanted down from back to front. Ha made bogey. Nuria had an impossible birdie putt ... from above the hole with a 90-degree turn to the right. She got it close enough to make par, but it was academic. I felt so bad for her ... I wanted to give her a hug! She was alone with no one there to watch her. While she signed her card, I looked down at her bag on the ground and saw a Wilson Staff Model CB Steel Iron. She doesn’t use a Wilson driver (Who does?).
Cheyenne whupped everyone by five strokes or more. Three players tied for second place, forcing a playoff. Two of them were amateurs, Ganne and Leigha Devine (Rutgers U., NOT a golf powerhouse). The other was fitness guru Savannah Vilaubi, who had a collection of bulbous Titleist sticks in her bag. I haven’t kept up with the Titleist offerings lately, but I think she was gaming the CP-02 CNCPT irons, as well as obese two and four-irons, probably U-510s.
The order of playoff holes would be 10-11-12-17-18. All three made pars at #10. Vilaubi pulled out that fugly 2-UT, so I focused my eyes on the impact area ... P.U., she mis-hit it low, short and right. She was quite far back in the rough for her second shot, which hit short of the green and kept running into the back bunker. Meanwhile, Devine drove it into the left trees, followed up by a cool choke-down hooking low runner that almost reached the green. Both players made bogey, while Ganne was there in regulation and two-putted to win the second qualifier spot.
Now it was a battle for the first alternate spot. Vilaubi pulled out a white crown driver with a silvery sole at #12 and hit it 267. Devine drove it 235, but it didn’t matter as no one was going for this green in two, which had water in front of it. I asked Vilaubi’s looper about that driver. He wasn’t sure himself, removed the headcover and read the sole: Nakashima NTech. Both players made par.
Vilaubi missed a three-footer at #17 and it was over. Kudos to the Rutgers soph Devine, a shocker as she averages 80+ at school. However, she shot 70 in the afternoon, plus the playoff, wow, maybe the greatest golf day of her life.
Back at the clubhouse area, Cheyenne congratulated Ganne and noted that their paths have crossed before ... asked the high school junior what college she’ll go to and Stanford was the reply.
While walking to my car, I heard some happy chatter at some distance behind me. I looked back and it was Vilaubi walking hand-in-hand with her significant other. I can think of a few LPGA pros who would NOT be so cheery about getting a lousy second alternate.
Final scores:
www.golfgenius.com/pages/2919477
Photo gallery:
www.flickr.com/photos/80065765@N06/albums/72157719143253999
The driveway to the clubhouse went between the second green and third tee, near the parking lot. Top NJ amateur Megha Ganne was playing #2, so I walked downrange on the right side of the par-5 3rd hole (530 yards at the tee blocks) and waited for her threesome, which included Noelle Maertz and Anushka Sawant. Ganne hit the fairway with her drive. Sawant did the same, but was way shorter (I paced it off at 200 yards). Maertz did some leaning after her drive. My experience told me to put an arm over my head ... yep, the ball landed about a dozen yards short of me in the rough.
Sawant wore a South Brunswick HS jacket and a Wilson Duo cap and was the only player I saw playing a yellow golf ball (don’t know which brand). Maertz is now a career amateur ... I saw her in a 2012 USWO qualifier playing with Jeong Jang at Trump-Colts Neck. At the par-4 4th (337 yards), Maertz’ tee ball iron shot was longer than Sawant’s driver.
I cut over to the 7th fairway to see another familiar face, the Yale librarian Ami Gianchandani. A pro of advanced age was in her group, Christine Reuss, who hit a pitch so fat that the ball went about three yards. I followed this group to the par-5 9th (497 yards) where Ami drove it 257. The flag was tucked right behind a bunker on the front-right, a bunker that Ami found with her second shot. She splashed on and three-putted for bogey. She was gaming Mizuno MP-18 irons – the muscleback versions, I think.
This was my first visit to this place and it surprised me. Being less than one mile from the beach, I assumed it would be flat, but instead there were a lot of elevation changes. They’re really into shaved areas in front of greens ... at first, I thought I was looking at a double green at #3 (not!). The course is old and I saw a lot of old growth trees ... similar to Ridgewood or Echo Lake. It’s a cramped property that maxes out at 6552 yards (the qualifier was at 6273, give or take a few yards). There was rain in NJ the night before and into the early morning, but I saw no standing water or wet areas. Maybe the fairways ran slower than normal as a result, but I have no prior course knowledge to back that up.
The club is image-conscience. The garbage cans are buried underground and pull/push carts are forbidden. Major construction work was being done on the section of building that connects the clubhouse with the pro shop. The men’s locker room was quite plush.
On the other side of the main building was a temporary tent with translucent plastic sheeting as walls, where players had lunch. An old club caddy was nearby standing next to Bianca’s bag and held court with a few of us to discuss his player ... she shot 78 in the AM, due mostly to five three-putts (“I told her this putt was really quick and she knocked it four feet past the hole”) ... Cheyenne’s 73 included a two-stroke penalty for hitting the wrong ball at #7 (“When I’m working tournaments, I tell my players to always identify your ball”) ... Bianca chose this location because she could stay with relatives in Brooklyn ... she played practice rounds here the week before, but didn’t like the cold weather mornings in this area ... thought Bianca was good enough to shoot four-under 68 on this course ... said she hit the green at #9 with driver/six-iron in the first round (THAT I want to see!).
I took a walk to the range which has nine or ten stations, and, just like the player info sheet says, it’s only 170 yards long. They use only yellow Titleist Tour PRACTICE balls. Jean (The Dream) Bartholomew was hitting a series of casual and rapid-fire hybrid shots in between drags on a cigarette. Her body language gave off negative vibes, which she confirmed by muttering the words “170 yards” to a woman with her. Then she took out her driver ... uh oh, here comes trouble, but just at that moment some guy said, “Jean, your tee time is in two minutes,” so she put it away. My watch said 12:50 PM, but the tee sheet said her group was starting its second round at 1:11 PM. It seems everybody was playing faster than the required 4 hours and 30 minutes per round, so the second rounds were started sooner.
Cheyenne visited the range next. For someone who is #470 in the world, she looked quite proficient at her craft ... with perfect set-up and alignment over the ball, she hit tight draws with an iron repeatedly.
It was time for Round Two starting at the 1st hole with Cheyenne and Bianca. The third player in the group was Jessie Kweon, a junior at St. John’s U. who brought some nice visuals to this event. On the gear front, Bianca is all Ping with i210 irons. Cheyenne is all Callaway with one of the Apex model irons. Kweon was bagging Titleist T300 irons.
I planned to log how long Bianca really was, based upon yardage markers and pacing I did between them. An article at lpga.com said she was hitting it 286, 288, 301, 303 and 313 in Georgia last October. That did NOT happen here, no way José. At the par-4 1st, she hit it 269, leaving herself 116 ... she was about 40 paces ahead of Cheyenne, which was a fluke ... Cheyenne hits it noticeably shorter, but not by that much.
Okay, here’s the start of that theoretical 4-under round for Bianca ... except she missed the green from 116, putting it into the back left bunker ... splashed out and two-putted for bogey. While the green was one of the smallest I’ve ever seen (jammed up against the fence next to Route 71), how does women’s golf’s Next Big Thing miss it from 116?
Bianca teed off with less than driver at #2 (370 yards) and had the shortest shot into the green, 131 from the left fairway fringe ... and air-mailed it, another bogey. On the way to #3, two women were behind me and one asked the other, “Did you get the free lunch?” The other snapped, “There is NOTHING free at this club!”
At the par-5 3rd, I stood behind the tee. Bianca aimed a little to the left and that’s exactly where the ball went, the left rough, but she made par. She hit less than driver at #4 (337 yards). From 100 yards, she hit a grassy incline behind the green, but luckily it rolled back down to about a foot from the hole ... ugh, lip out, only made par.
The 7th hole is a sharp dogleg-right of 325 yards. There are high trees at the right corner and with less than driver Bianca bent it like Beckham right around those trees ... a real beauty, that was her best pure golf shot in the afternoon. What happened after that was NOT beautiful. Her shortish approach shot missed the green left. I was on the opposite side and couldn’t see her lie, but she was taking short, quick practice jabs into the turf with a wedge, then applied that technique to her ball ... which advanced it no more than a couple of feet. She clunked her ball three more times for a double bogey.
The 8th hole is a downhill par-3 of 132 yards. The green was pitched down from back to front and the flag was maybe one-third of the way into the green. Bianca’s tee ball hit the grass against the back collar and stayed there ... made bogey.
Do you see a pattern? Bianca never figured out these greens, but what really shocked me was the dreadful distance control of her short irons and wedges. How did she manage to get a T-9 at last year’s KPMG major?
At the par-5 9th, there was no repeat of Driver/Six-iron into the green because she missed the fairway left. She has tremendous power out of the rough and almost reached the green ... made par.
On to #10, a par-3 of 152 yards which has a narrow uphill path to the green between two bunkers, so you better carry your ball all the way. Bianca was short of the green and made bogey. I finally saw her hit a good short iron (80 yards) into the par-4 11th green where she made par.
The 12th and 13th holes are back-to-back par-fives. Bianca got a baby cut to work at #12, hitting it 265, made par. Her third shot wedge into #13 had too much spin and zipped off the green, but still made par.
Bianca birdied the par-4 14th. While waiting to hit at the par-4 15th (419 yards), someone mentioned to her that she had the honor of the first shot, which made her smile and say, “Oh my gosh, what a joke!” In a temporary good frame of mind, she hammered her best baby cut of the afternoon, 282 yards right down the middle and made par. That appeared to be her go-to shot with the driver ... I assume her drives that missed left were double-crosses.
Bianca bogeyed the last three holes and finished with an 80. Her total score (158) was three shots behind Kweon, which is absurd. Maybe she is rusty from playing only twice on the LPGA tour in 2021. Or maybe the golf course broke her spirit from the get-go: it was too short, she hit only eight drivers in the afternoon (which was probably two too many), the range was too short, the greens were too small and tricky, the weather wasn’t hot, Spring Lake Heights is only 23 feet over sea level so the ball went nowhere, etc.
Meanwhile, without being flashy, Cheyenne dissected the course with a 69 in the afternoon. She’s not particularly long, but she had her irons dialed in. I think she had only one three-putt ... if she missed a birdie putt, her par-saver was usually not far from the hole. On a side note, the name ‘Woods’ really sells. Her group easily had the most spectators with at least 30 people following during the last few holes.
Who’s next? A TV monitor next to the pro shop was flashing real-time scores. Cindy Ha and Nuria Iturrioz were two recognizable names who were doing well and were in the same group, so I hustled out to meet them as they arrived at the par-3 16th hole (180 yards).
Both players had just made bogey at #15 and the slide continued. Two bunkers flank the 16th green and Ha missed everything way left ... pitched on and two-putted for bogey. Nuria knocked it into the right bunker, but splashed it out to about a foot. I was waiting near the 17th tee as her putt started moving, then made an abrupt turn for a lip-out ... bogey. The third player in this group was an unknown pro, Carina Capobianco, who was in over her head ... hit it thin and short from the tee, made bogey.
With no caddy and carrying not a stand bag, but a Sunday bag, the diminutive Iturrioz did not look the part of a three-time winner on the Ladies European Tour. If it weren’t for the obscure Euro logos on her windshirt, she could have passed for a sad sack junior looking for her group lesson at The First Tee program.
The par-4 17th hole (392 yards) presents a visually challenging tee shot ... there’s a massive bunker down the left side and the fairway narrows downs to a tight landing area on the right side. Ha hit a good drive into the narrow space. Nuria has good pop with the driver, but she went left into the bunker area. I couldn’t see her lie as I walked behind a hill around the hole’s left side ... also encountered numerous practice balls from the short game practice area wedged between the 17th and 18th fairways.
I heard clapping after Nuria’s second shot and for good reason ... was on the green about ten feet for birdie. Meanwhile, Ha’s approach landed on the shaved area in front of the green, but still made par. As for Nuria, yikes: putt, missed it ... putt, missed it ... putt, missed it ... putt, made it.
The par-4 18th hole (381 yards) has a downhill tee shot, followed by an approach to the right over water to a green slanted down from back to front. Ha made bogey. Nuria had an impossible birdie putt ... from above the hole with a 90-degree turn to the right. She got it close enough to make par, but it was academic. I felt so bad for her ... I wanted to give her a hug! She was alone with no one there to watch her. While she signed her card, I looked down at her bag on the ground and saw a Wilson Staff Model CB Steel Iron. She doesn’t use a Wilson driver (Who does?).
Cheyenne whupped everyone by five strokes or more. Three players tied for second place, forcing a playoff. Two of them were amateurs, Ganne and Leigha Devine (Rutgers U., NOT a golf powerhouse). The other was fitness guru Savannah Vilaubi, who had a collection of bulbous Titleist sticks in her bag. I haven’t kept up with the Titleist offerings lately, but I think she was gaming the CP-02 CNCPT irons, as well as obese two and four-irons, probably U-510s.
The order of playoff holes would be 10-11-12-17-18. All three made pars at #10. Vilaubi pulled out that fugly 2-UT, so I focused my eyes on the impact area ... P.U., she mis-hit it low, short and right. She was quite far back in the rough for her second shot, which hit short of the green and kept running into the back bunker. Meanwhile, Devine drove it into the left trees, followed up by a cool choke-down hooking low runner that almost reached the green. Both players made bogey, while Ganne was there in regulation and two-putted to win the second qualifier spot.
Now it was a battle for the first alternate spot. Vilaubi pulled out a white crown driver with a silvery sole at #12 and hit it 267. Devine drove it 235, but it didn’t matter as no one was going for this green in two, which had water in front of it. I asked Vilaubi’s looper about that driver. He wasn’t sure himself, removed the headcover and read the sole: Nakashima NTech. Both players made par.
Vilaubi missed a three-footer at #17 and it was over. Kudos to the Rutgers soph Devine, a shocker as she averages 80+ at school. However, she shot 70 in the afternoon, plus the playoff, wow, maybe the greatest golf day of her life.
Back at the clubhouse area, Cheyenne congratulated Ganne and noted that their paths have crossed before ... asked the high school junior what college she’ll go to and Stanford was the reply.
While walking to my car, I heard some happy chatter at some distance behind me. I looked back and it was Vilaubi walking hand-in-hand with her significant other. I can think of a few LPGA pros who would NOT be so cheery about getting a lousy second alternate.
Final scores:
www.golfgenius.com/pages/2919477
Photo gallery:
www.flickr.com/photos/80065765@N06/albums/72157719143253999