Hound Dog gives you the rundown on Helen Alfredsson's shocking 62 that set the pace in the opening round of the Sybase Classic, but puts it in the context of other such amazing rounds as Brittany Lincicome's walkoff-eagle-aided 64, Suzann Pettersen's 9-birdie 65, and Ji Young Oh's same-side-par-4-eagle/hole-in-one-fueled 66. What's worth adding is that Alfredsson not only broke the tournament record but also went 6 shots lower than her previous best round in 2009. In fact, as LPGA.com points out, she even outdid her previous career-low round, the 2nd-round 63 at the Evian Masters that propelled her to her 1st of 2 wins in 2008. And as Alfredsson herself notes in her post-round interview, she had her opportunities to go even lower.
Tom Canavan focuses so much on Ochoa's need for a comeback from 9 back and on getting quotes from the 3 leaders that he even misses the key details on Oh's round. So forget about him mentioning that the other hottest golfers on the LPGA also have loads of grounds to make up in the next 54 holes: #1 Cristie Kerr is 10 back and #3 Angela Stanford is 11 back, while Ji-Yai Shin is 7 back, Ya Ni Tseng is 9 back, and Karrie Webb is 8 back. He also misses some of the more interesting rounds out there, like Michelle Wie's 7-birdie, 5-bogey roller coaster, Brittany Lang's 4 consecutive birdies near the end of her day to secure her 68, and Ashleigh Simon's 39-32 comeback as she's coming back from her back troubles (speaking of which, Jane Park's kept her from starting this week).
More important, though, only 12 golfers broke 70 yesterday, so the 4 who broke into the mid-60s (or better) have a huge advantage heading into today's round. We'll see if the bombers can keep it straight enough for their distance to make a difference, or whether (as I predicted) the precision players will yet have their day!
No comments:
Post a Comment