It's still a thrill to go to an LPGA event in person, and when the tournament is a major, it's even better. Today I drove alone to Pittsford to see who I could find at Locust Hill on a Wegmans LPGA Championship practice day--so no Constructivist family or onechan or imoto stories this time--and I only had 3 hours on the course, most of which I spent walking it, so more on that after the girls go to bed.
Because I was backtracking each side (for the most part), I didn't get to see more than a shot or two from any single player, but I sure got to see a lot of them. Watched Ya Ni Tseng on the driving range for a bit, then headed towards the clubhouse. Said hi to Jessica Korda as I left the tunnel connecting the driving range to the hill going up the 10th fairway, congratulated Karrie Webb on Sunday's win as we crossed by the 10th tee going in opposite directions, nodded to Lizette Salas as she left the 8th tee, saw Laura Davies on the 7th green and Lexi Thompson on the 6th, enjoyed the great view from the 6th tee, got my first really close look at the 5th green, watched Stacy Lewis stalk the 4th, enjoyed seeing So Yeon Ryu crack Inbee Park up on the 1st green (maybe the 1st time I've ever seen Inbee laugh on a golf course!), watched Tiffany Joh and Jane Park chip and putt around the 3rd, got out of Michelle Wie's way as she went to the 18th tee and I crossed Jefferson Road over toward the 17th green, watched Suzanne Pettersen and Meaghan Francella hit their approach shots on 16 and Karine Icher leave the 14th green and hit multiple shots off the 15th tee, followed Tseng and Irene Cho up the 13th and watched them drive on 14, walked back down the hill to catch Se Ri Pak and Beatriz Recari playing 15, made my way back to the other side of Jefferson Road without much sticking in my memory except another sight of Laura Davies (who seemed to be taking her practice round quite seriously!), the mind-blowing pants of Kayla Mortellaro and her caddie (taking a page from the Pornanong Phatlum handbook by way of John Daly), and Wendy Ward and Juli Inkster catching up off the 10th fairway. While waiting to chat with Mike Scanlan, I got a chance to listen in on a light-hearted conversation between Morgan Pressel, Meg Mallon, Dottie Pepper, and a few others by the putting green, but by then I had to head back home to Hamburg for onechan's skating lesson, so I could only take 10 minutes at the driving range watching Lewis practice and Chie Arimura, Vicky Hurst, and Haeji Kang warm up before a quick catch-up with my Mohawk Valley junior golf buddy Moira Dunn and a quick ride to the end of the driving range to my Versa (happily undented).
I didn't run into either of the Miyazatos today, so I'll have to follow them on Thursday to have a chance to interview them. Tomorrow's supposed to be such a nice day, I've got to get out and play myself and Friday I'm one of the chaperones for imoto's class trip to the aquarium, so I won't be spending as much time in Pittsford as in previous years. But I'll be there on the weekend as much as possible, not least because onechan wants to follow Paula Creamer on Sunday just like last year!
Tony Jesselli's preview is up, and well worth checking out, as he has some photos from the ShopRite. Ryan Ballengee is one of many passing along the news that Ariya Jutanugarn fell while jogging down a tee box in Monday's practice round and will WD because of the shoulder injury she sustained. For more from LPGA.com, check out today's notes and interviews page and their preview posts. I'll be back with an updated Locust Hill scouting report later tonight!
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