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Weblog
Thursday, October 08, 2009
What’s At Stake?
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By Rhonda Glenn, USGA
And the champion receives….
A gold medal and custody of the Mildred Gardiner Prunaret Trophy for the upcoming year. Prunaret was a two-time chairman of the USGA Women’s Committee.
Doesn’t have to go through qualifying for this championship for 10 years…can play in the next two U.S. Women’s Amateur Championships…can play in the next U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship.
More than that, they are a USGA champion forever. Don’t underestimate this honor. They’ll be remembered for however long golf is played by their name engraved on that trophy. They’ll be on a plaque at the USGA Museum at Golf House.
And, whenever there is a reunion of USGA champions (I’ve attended two in the last 15 years), they’ll wear that gold medal on a chain around their neck and join the elite company of all of the other champions. It is one of the most memorable occasions in golf. And, as Barbara Romack, the 1954 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion once said, “When you’re a USGA champion, you get a lot of free chicken dinners.”
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The Warm-Up
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By Rhonda Glenn, USGA
There they are, Martha Leach and Laura Coble, good friends, hitting practice balls about 15 feet from each other, stopping to chat and greet their friends
Martha, of course, is the sister of Hollis Stacy, the three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion. Did Martha and Hollis talk after Martha made it to this final?
“Three times,” said John Leach, Martha’s husband and caddie. “But what could Hollis say? It’s a championship, it’s a final, it is what it is.”
Tillie Stacy, the mother of this brood of 11 children, lives in Savannah, Ga., not too far away. Could she soon be a sort of golf mother of the year, if her second daughter wins a USGA national championship?
“She wanted to come, she really did,” said John, “but Martha wouldn’t let her. It’s going to be too hot, hotter than yesterday.”
Martha and John’s daughter, Madison, did all she could to get here. Headed for the airport, got stuck in traffic, missed a flight, returned home. Now stuck by the computer, anxiously waiting to follow the match on usga.org.
Two friends from Cincinnati, who play golf with Martha when she’s at home in Hebron, Ky., arrived. They grabbed the last two seats on the last flight and rolled in just 10 minutes ago. Big hugs, laughter.
Laura drifted over, to meet Martha’s friends, they laugh softly and all say hello. No awkwardness here. This is amateur golf. Laura’s daughter, 15, wanted to come to see her mother play in a national championship final for the first time. Laura said, no, you don’t want to miss that cheerleading event.
So, off they go. As soon as the fog clears.
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Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Ponderings On Carol Semple Thompson
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By Rhonda Glenn, USGA
Carol Semple Thompson, who is all-world in women’s amateur golf and in golf in general, was discouraged after losing her first-round match to Virginia Derby Grimes. They’re good friends, of course, Curtis Cup teammates and all that. But Thompson didn’t play well, in fact, hadn’t played well all week.
She stuck around for a couple of days. Monday night after her loss, she visited an old friend, a fellow USGA champion who had also been a friend of Thompson's late mother, the very fabulous Phyllis Semple. Thompson misses her mother.
And, she misses her own formerly pristine golf game. Pretty hard, once you’ve reached a peak of excellence, to stay there. So, Thompson and her old friend spent a couple of hours discussing Thompson's swing and her mental approach. Their exchange was inspiring.
Saw Thompson in the bleachers behind the 18th green the next day, yesterday, watching the conclusion of a third-round match.
“So, are you charged up?” I asked. “Ready to go?”
“Yes,” Thompson said. “I’ve decided I’m going to take two weeks off. Then I’m going to quit.”
Fortunately for all of us, she laughed.
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Championship Musings
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By Rhonda Glenn, USGA
As always, a championship becomes somewhat lonely for the competitors when we get around to the next to the last day.
On Sunday, we had 132 contestants vying for match-play spots in the stroke-play qualifying. Today, two and a half days later, we’re down to eight. This afternoon, the field will be just four semifinalists. By the end of the day, we’ll be down to two.
For those two, no more waiting for spots on the practice tee. No more trying to find space to putt on the practice green. And perhaps, even a bit of discomfort as they are the only two in the locker room, trying to appear as cool as a couple of gunfighters preparing to face off in a shoot-out duel. Just two players, and the entire golf course and locker room are all theirs.
The people-movers, electric golf carts that will hold six to eight people, are poised and ready to meet the matches at their conclusion. It’s a convenience for the players. If a match finishes out on the 15th green, it’s a long walk back to the clubhouse -- especially for a losing player. The people-movers bring them back in relative comfort.
There’s a downside to this. I once interviewed Glenna Collett Vare, the great champion who won the U.S. Women’s Amateur a record six times. We talked of her great rivalry with Joyce Wethered, the fine English golfer. Vare could never beat Wethered in the British Ladies Open Amateur, and Wethered never played in the U.S. Women’s Amateur. It remained a source of frustration to Vare.
Wethered, of course, was a great heroine to the people of Great Britain. She was revered. Vare and Wethered corresponded occasionally in their later years and Vare spoke of her with respect and even affection.
But there was one sore point: In match play, matches normally end long before the 18th hole. Matches may end on the 15th, the 16th, or the 17th. Needless to say, the faith of her fellow citizens was all on Wethered. This irked Vare a bit and when she spoke of Wethered she told me, “They used to have a car waiting for her on the 16th hole.”
Vare may have been speaking on behalf of all of Wethered’s opponents who, two holes down with three to play, may have had a sense of foreboding when they saw the car roll slowly to the 16th.
One wonders if the players here, trailing in a match, have the same feeling of impending doom when she’s three holes down and sees the people-movers roll into place.
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Golden Wins
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Wendy Golden of Bradenton, Fla., won the last third-round match this morning on the 20th hole. The match had been suspended by darkness on Tuesday. Golden defeated former champion Amber Marsh Elliott of Greensboro, N.C.
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Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Golden Hills Toughest And Easiest Holes
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By Rhonda Glenn, USGA
Always interesting to find which hole plays hardest in a national championship, and which hole is easiest.
At Golden Hills in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, the par-4 10th hole is by far the most difficult. At 374 yards, the field is average 5.0 on the hole. Even bogey. There have been only three birdies on the hole since the championship began on Saturday.
The hole has yielded 32 pars, 68 bogeys, 23 double bogeys and six of the dreaded “others.”
Number 10 looks easy enough, a gentle, tree-lined dogleg to the right but while the hole swings right, the fairway slopes to the left. A large fairway bunker on the right guards the bend in the dogleg.
Players are not strong enough to hit their tee shots over the dogleg, so they’re left with hitting the narrow opening of the fairway. Many tee shots are bounding down the slope into the left rough and into the trees. A good tee shot here is essential, but it has been hard to find.
The easiest hole for this field is the fifth, a 124-yard par 3. So far, most of the players have managed to steer clear of the pond that guards the green. This hole has a 3.068 stroke average. There have been 32 birdies, 69 pars, 23 bogeys, and only six double bogeys and two “others.”
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Monday, October 05, 2009
Packing For The Road
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By Rhonda Glenn, USGA
Here’s the dilemma. The player is flying to Florida on Thursday, and playing golf for an unknown number of days. She may win the championship, which would mean a total of 10 rounds of golf, including two practice rounds. Or, she may lose in the first round of match play, which means five rounds of golf. Or, she may miss the cut, which means she’s leaving after four rounds.
And then, there are the social events, the Welcome Party on Friday, the Players’ Dinner on Saturday. So the biggest problem of the whole experience is not how you hit your shots but how you pack your suitcases.
What do you pack? Well, golf clothes, of course. But how many outfits? And don’t forget the weather! In October, even in Florida, high temperatures can range from 62 to 90.
This is the problem faced by every contestant in the 2009 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, so we queried some of them on how to solve it. Let’s start at the top, because if anyone knows how to pack for a USGA championship, it’s Carol Semple Thompson, who has played in more than 100.
Like all of the other players, Thompson knows that this seemingly trivial pursuit of packing is getting more serious by the day, what with airline charges for baggage.
“I start out packing golf clothes first,” Thompson said. “I pick out eight shirts and eight pair of matching shorts. Then I do my evening wear, which is usually two pair of khaki slacks and two blouses or shirts. I’ll also pack something a little fancier for the Players’ Dinner.
“I keep my hair dryer and other things like make-up on a special shelf, and then I just move them from the shelf to the suitcase and back again when I return,” she said. “I take the minimum that I need.”
Hold it! What do you mean, “Make-up?”
“Well, that’s right, I don’t wear any,” Thompson laughed. “So, let’s say I pack my lipstick, for special occasions.”
Right. Special occasions. Like World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.
A couple of this week’s co-medalist chimed in.
Mina Hardin at 49 is a veteran competitor. She even played on the LPGA tour for awhile before regaining her amateur status. She too packs with authority, confidence and the will to win.
“I bring eight outfits,” Hardin said. Now, that’s a coincidence, because there are exactly eight rounds to play, excluding practice rounds, if you make it all the way to the final.
“Well, I always come with the intention of getting to the final,” Hardin said. “You have to look ahead, trust yourself and believe that anything is possible, that you’re going to be in the final. And don’t forget, you have to account for hot and cold weather, so this luggage is fairly full.”
Laura Ladden is a relative newcomer to competition, compared to Hardin and Thompson, and frankly, you can tell from the way she packs.
“I packed just seven outfits, so I may have to go to the laundry,” Ladden said.
Why just seven? That’s only enough for two practice rounds, two qualifying rounds, and the first three rounds of match play. What if you play well enough to get to, say, the semifinals or final? And Ladden, the co-medalist, is playing very well indeed.
“Mmm, you just don’t want to be presumptuous,” Ladden said. “It’s like booking flights. Do you book a flight to come home on Tuesday, or after the final, on Friday?
“As far as clothes, I’ve held two outfits out, just in case, and I’m wearing one tomorrow. If I make it to the final, I’ll definitely have to go to the Laundromat.”
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Playoff
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Five competitors played for the three remaining spots In match play in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur this morning at the 6,173-yard, par-72 Golden Hills Golf and Turf Club.
Annette Gaiotti of Holladay, Utah, Maggie Weder of Greenville, N.C., and Tama Caldabaugh of Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., advanced to match play in the playoff. Gaiotti, Weder and Caldabaugh scored pars on the 374-yard, par-4 10th hole to advance. Margaret Leef of Brookfield, Wis., who made a bogey-5 and Karen Garcia of Cool, Calif., who made a double-bogey-6, failed to advance.
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Sunday, October 04, 2009
Leach Dreaming Of Victory
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By Rhonda Glenn, USGA
In golf, Martha Leach, 47, of Hebron, Ky., has been around the block. In other words, she has been around this game for a long time, not only because she is six-time USGA titlist Hollis Stacy’s sister, but because she has played a lot of fine golf on her own.
This Women’s Mid-Amateur, in fact, is Leach’s 22nd. When she played in her first one, in 1988, she brought her 2-year-old daughter, Madison, to the course. Madison was recently married.
“Can you believe it?” Leach said, with expressiveness that seems to run in the family. “Madison even has a job!”
She loves the atmosphere of this championship for the 25-and-older set.
“We’re all passionate about the game but we have our priorities straight,” she said of the many wives, mothers and career women who play here.
Leach has been a semifinalist in this championship three times. She appears ready to perhaps win, having qualified at three-over-par, just one stroke out of medalist honors.
In 1988, she had a premonition in a dream.
“I dreamed that Martha L won the championship,” Leach said. “Of course, I thought it was me. Actually, Martha Lang won that year.”
So, for Martha Leach, winning this Women’s Mid-Amateur would be a dream come true. Finally.
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What Am I Going To Wear?
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By Rhonda Glenn, USGA
Golf fashions come and go but Bermuda shorts shall always be with us.
At least, that’s the feeling at the last two USGA women’s championships, the Senior Women’s Amateur and the Women’s Mid-Amateur.
This week it’s the Women’s Mid-Amateur, for women age 25 and older, and we’re in Ocala, Fla. Just as at the Women’s Senior in Hot Springs, Va., a couple of weeks ago, we see a lot of the longer, stretch-fabric Bermuda shorts. But there’s a slight difference in the players’ wardrobes at these two championships.
Perhaps influenced by the Florida locale, or the age group, a number of players are wearing golf skirts. They’re modest compared to the skirt length of young players at other events I’ve seen, seldom more than 12 inches above the knee, but they look trim and neat.
At least 25 percent of the field is wearing those mid-length duds that we can’t figure out what to call; are they long Bermudas? Short slacks? Pedal pushers? Capri pants? Anyway, there are a lot of them.
Since it’s Florida, perhaps, no one seems to know whether to dress for fall or late summer. Even in October, temperatures will climb into the high 80s. A number of players are wearing sleeveless golf shirts and the rest have on short-sleeved shirts.
Baseball caps are the norm and a few wear visors, especially the experienced players who know to save their skin from the sun by wearing the large-brimmed visors.
Colors are a mix of summer and fall shades. Saw a couple of bright floral-patterned golf skirts today, and, on the fall side, one terrific outfit of Bermudas and shirt in matching autumn brown with a cream-colored cap and tan-and-white saddle shoes. As always, there is a lot of black, which looks good in any season.
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That's Service
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By Ken Klavon, USGA
Now, here's something you don't see every day on the golf course: waitress service. Well, close enough on the course that it counts.
While Ellen Port bore down over a putt on the practice green this morning, she suddenly was interrupted by a waitress. Yes, you read that right. On the practice green. It was quite comical as she placed an order with a huge smile on her face.
Could this be a new trend?
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Saturday, October 03, 2009
Quotes And More
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By Rhonda Glenn, USGA
Nearly all of the leaders think there are low scores just waiting for the players at Golden Hills Golf and Turf Club. This belies the predictions of some who thought this course, with all of its elevations, would play much longer than the 6,173 yards (par 72) on the official scorecards.
“I think a score in the 60s is out there,” said Laura Coble of Augusta, Ga., who shot 74 in the opening round of stroke play. “I think if you hit the ball solid and on the right level of the greens, there are some birdies out there.
“It’s the kind of golf course I like,” Coble said. “It’s a position course. You want to know where the flagstick is when you stand on the tee.”
Lisa McGill of Philadelphia, Pa., had a 73 in the first round. McGill, who plays mostly on bentgrass in her hometown, likes the Florida variety of grass on this course. “I like the bermuda grass,” McGill said. “The ball sits up nicely on it.”
Jennifer Lucas of Knoxville, Tenn., said she loves the course. “It’s in great shape. There are a lot of scoring opportunities out there and also some holes that jump out and grab you.”
Wendi Golden of Sarasota, Fla., was pleased with her round of 1-under-par 71, but believed it could have been better. “I feel like I left about three shots out there. It could have been a 67 or 68, but then it could have been a 74 or 75, as well.”
Jennifer Lucas Sticks To Her Task
Jennifer Lucas, 28, fired a 73, one over par, in the first stroke-play round but it has been quite a week for the industrial tape specialist from Knoxville.
Wait a second. Industrial tape specialist? Duct tape? Well, yes, duct tape and a lot of other tape for the 3M Company, her employer. Lucas deals in packing tape, masking tape, duct tape and just about any other industrial tape you can think of. “With a can of WD-40 or a roll of duct tape, you can fix just about anything,” Lucas laughed.
Four generations of the Lucas family are on hand for the Women’s Mid-Amateur in Ocala. Her 81-year-old grandmother walked the entire round today, not an easy assignment with all of the hills here. Husband Ryan is her caddie. Her mother is staying in the home the family rented for the week taking care of Rylie, 3, and 4-month-old Kennedy. The children and Ryan have had the flu, but Ryan has recovered enough to carry Jennifer’s bag.
Lucas gave them plenty of thrills today, beginning with a triple-bogey on the 10th hole, her first hole of the day, but four birdies helped her to a very respectable score.
Was she worried about catching the flu from her husband and children? “No,” Lucas said, “there is more Lysol in that house than you even want to know about.”
Higgins Finesses Her Way To 74
Joan Higgins has never been a long hitter, but she is a golfer of extraordinary talent, one of the few who can play well enough to capture a national championship, like she did in winning last year’s U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur.
The key to Higgins’ round today, she said, was solid play around the greens. She managed to get up and down three times to save par and, therefore, save her round.
Beginning on the back nine, she faced a long approach shot to the 374-yard, par-4 10th hole and, from 190 yards, chose to lay up. A clever sand wedge shot from 60 yards and a 12-foot putt saved par.
Just two holes later, Higgins found herself in a greenside bunker, but she got it up and down and had a tap-in to save another par.
Finally, on the troublesome back nine, she was 15 feet short of the green on the 352-yard, par-4 18th hole. Her chip with a sand wedge nearly went in the hole and she tapped in for another par save.
While she made three birdies, Higgins felt that it was her work around the greens and the pars she saved that most helped her round.
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Notable Caddie
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Jessie Lederhausen, 43, of Hinsdale, Ill., was born in Sweden and this week her fellow country-woman, noted professional Helen Alfredsson, is her caddie.
Lederhausen was the Junior European champion in 1981. She is a reinstated amateur who was given her amateur status in 2003. Lederhausen and Alfredsson have been friends for 32 years and played together on the Swedish National Team.
At the end of a long day, Alfredsson was still carrying the clubs. “I was going to Spain this week,” she said, “but I called Jessie when I found the Mid-Am was this week. When she said she was playing I told her I would be here.”
For Alfredsson it was just a one-day gig. She’ll soon head back out to playing the LPGA tour.
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They Called Her, “Babe”
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By Rhonda Glenn, USGA
A framed photo in the Golden Hills women’s locker room features four of the greatest players of the last century; Patty Berg, Louise Suggs, Betty Jameson and Babe Zaharias. The photo was taken in 1948 near Los Angeles. Three of these players, Berg, Suggs and Zaharias, are among the greatest women golfers of all time. Today, only Suggs survives.
Just had the very great pleasure of reading a soon-to-be-published book about Babe Zaharias. It’s by Don Van Natta Jr., an investigative correspondent for The New York Times. Release is scheduled for next year by Little Brown and Company.
More than 50 years after her death, Zaharias remains such a vivid figure in American history that Van Natta was inspired to write about her life. Brash, cocky, bold, even rude, at times, Babe could back it up with her athleticism, Her larger-than-life personality attracted friends, fans and admirers, and many of those friends were wealthy society women in Fort Worth, Texas.
I knew some of those women and never tired of hearing their stories about their friend, the greatest female athlete of all time. As a result, I believe I’ve read ever book written about Babe Zaharias. That’s why Van Natta’s book, with the working title of “Wonder Girl,” is special. His research, conducted over a five-year period, is painstaking and he is dedicated to accuracy. Just as important, Van Natta is virtually a poet, a lyrical writer who brings that era to life.
Refreshingly, he checked and double-checked all of the supposed quotes attributed to Zaharias. In my extensive reading on this subject, at least half of the Zaharias quotes that supposedly came from her are fiction, made up by someone looking for a better-than-life tale, and even by the very few journalists who wouldn’t let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Keep posted for the release of this Babe Zaharias biography. If you’re a golfer or just a sports fan, you won’t be able to put it down.
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A Welcome To All
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By Rhonda Glenn, USGA
When the first players teed off at 8 a.m., spectators had already gathered in the bleachers around the first tee. Other bleachers dot the course at the 10th tee and the ninth and 18th greens.
There’s plenty of room for spectators to enjoy a close, personal look at some of America’s outstanding women amateurs. And spectators – lured by this gorgeous course, the great golf, free admission and free parking – are turning out.
E.B. Gee, the co-chairman of this championship, has worked at many USGA championships and played in more than a few. He’s a 20-year member of the USGA Senior Amateur Committee, so he has a frame of reference.
Looking at the people lining the bleachers to watch play, Gee said, “I have never seen so many spectators on the first day of an amateur championship. They were here at 8 o’clock this morning.”
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Golden Hills Wildlife
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Scene-Set
By Rhonda Glenn, USGA
Play started at 8 a.m. and six contestants in this national championship hit the first tee shots from the first and 10th tees.
Kim Briele of New Bern, N.C., and Laura Coble of Augusta, Ga., no doubt found themselves in somewhat familiar surroundings here at Golden Hills Golf and Turf Club.
Diana Wyman of Washington, D.C., Cheryl Jones-Knight of Fountain Hills, Ariz., Ellen Port of St. Louis, Mo., and Rebecca Halpern of Chicago, Ill., were in stranger territory.
This is north-central Florida, the homeplace of the late Pulitzer-Prize winning author, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, who wrote about this part of our country in The Yearling.
It was lovely here when play started this morning. Slightly cool with clear blue skies. Wisps of ground fog hovered in the valleys and around the creeks that flow through this course. Golden Hills is what our friend, Steve Trivett, ace golf writer for The Village Sun, calls, “a hidden gem.”
Only a few scattered houses stand near the course, and they’re mostly hidden by wooded areas and sprawling live oak trees that trail beards of grey moss.
As a Florida native, I offer this terrain as the best our state has to offer. Some Floridians like our vast beaches, and they are lovely, but I prefer Florida’s woods and wildlife, no doubt a lingering affection first forged as a child when Papa, my grandfather, took me quail hunting near Lake City, which is not far from here.
This is rolling countryside and the elevations on this course can cause a golfer to go up two or more clubs to carry their shots to elevated greens. But it’s the terrain away from the “closely mown area” that has the charm.
Woods and creeks here teem with wildlife. Red-tail hawks lazily circle the practice tee and the woods hide wild turkeys, squirrels and rabbits. An occasional white-tailed deer peeks out from the underbrush. Golden Hills shelters nearly every variety of bird to inhabit this part of the south; mockingbirds (the state bird that offers its beautiful repertoire of songs throughout the day), swallows, dove, a rare quail, hummingbirds, ibis and the prehistoric majesty of the great blue heron. Flights of butterflies give lightness and color to this part of our green earth.
It’s so beautiful here that one hopes the golfers will take time to observe and soak it in. If Majorie Kinnan Rawlings had been a golfer, no doubt she would have chosen to play here.
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