Holding My Breath...

...on the latest handicap revision from GHIN!  For the first time in my adult life, my handicap index may rise high enough to disqualify me from even entering a qualifier for the New York State Golf Association's Mid-Amateur Championship.  Long story short, I hurt my lower back working out late last fall and even though I've worked really hard at healing and rehabbing it, it's still not quite right.  So I've been fiddling around with my swing and haven't been able to get everything synchronized.  My touch from 60 yards and in is finally starting to come back, so I've been scoring better of late, but my putting has ranged from horrific to mediocre for most of the season.

As you can see, I've been saving up excuses.  Will let you know in a few hours if I'm in or out!

[Update 1 (7/30/14, 10:50 am):  Wait, the next revision isn't till August 1st.  So I guess the question is should I play before I fly out to Austin?]

So Who Won the Super Bowl?

So I'm here in Albany for my union's delegate assembly and had to go to bed early because I'm driving across the state this morning to make it back for my university's senate meeting.  Got up early to finish writing a letter of recommendation for an awesome student for a system-wide award and just realized I don't even know who won the Super Bowl.  How awful is that?

When the Personal Meets the Professional Meets the National Meets the Global: Lydia Ko Edition

There are so many layers to the most recent twist in the Lydia Ko story that it's no surprise onions are a New Zealand export.  If the break-up only a few days before Christmas of an 11-year player-coach mentoring relationship--one often compared to sibling or parental dynamics to convey its depth and scope--isn't enough to bring you to tears of sadness, maybe the paucity of hard facts and the complicated agendas of those who best know them but aren't sharing them are enough to evoke tears of frustration.  I mean, we should be used to the eagerness of onlookers and outsiders to quip and judge on what amounts to a whim--it is the intertubes, after all--but when a teenager the media has helped build up seems to turn on her on a dime, handing stones to the stoners....  Well, let's just say, welcome to the big time, Lydia Ko!

For those interested in the truth, very little of what's been said publicly stands up to much scrutiny.

• Ko's emphasis on the logistical complications of her moving to the States and competing full-time on the LPGA while her life-long coach Guy Wilson remains in New Zealand begs the question of whether she asked him to go with her, belies the fact that they had made a quasi-long-distance relationship work quite well during her amazingly successful amateur and early professional career, and fuels speculation that her new representatives at IMG are really behind the switch to Sean Hogan and David Leadbetter.
• Wilson's generous and moving statement in response to his firing (reprinted in full by Golfweek) is frankly undermined if Steve Williams was acting as his surrogate when he was interviewed on Radio New Zealand.  Williams's "I don't think he had any inkling" of the decision can't possibly be right when ONE Sport mentioned, in an article posted on November 21, that Williams was "among those stunned Lydia Ko has yet to sort out her coaching and management team."  (Matt Richens confirms that neither Ko nor Wilson had been acting normally over the past month.)  Williams's claim that Wilson has "had no compensation for his time and effort" similarly stretches credulity (particularly when we don't know the terms of their relationship, much less what kind of Christmas gifts or New Year's bonus the Kos are planning for Wilson).
• Leadbetter's claim that Ko and her family initiated contact with him is also a little hard to believe, given his partnership with IMG:

David Leadbetter knew the sensitivities involved w/ leaving Guy Wilson: "But when someone of that ilk asks, you don't turn them down."
— Randall Mell (@RandallMellGC) December 23, 2013

At least Leadbetter understands the catch-22 he's in.  As he told Randall Mell, "If she plays well, it will be because she's a great player....  If she doesn't, we will be the bad guys."

Probably the truth is a little embarrassing for all the parties involved.  Like contract negotiations with Wilson broke down when IMG refused to offer him enough to move to the States or make his trans-hemispheric travel worthwhile....

Rather than go down that speculative road myself, however, I'd rather focus on what others' speculations reveal about the intersecting personal/professional/national/global relationships brought out by Lydia Ko's meteoric rise to the top 5 in the world of women's golf.

Randall Mell is on to something when he points out that nationalism has a lot to do with the intensity of the reaction to Ko's decision coming out of many in the New Zealand media and golfing establishment:

There’s more behind the emotional reaction to Ko’s decision than just coaching implications. For New Zealanders, it’s about her Kiwi connections and nationalistic pride. In fact, in presenting news of the coaching change, a Television New Zealand reporter asked if it might “signal a shift away from New Zealand Golf.” 

Ko is something of a national treasure in New Zealand, and her rise in fame has brought with it concerns over loyalties and how she plans to align herself in the future. During Ko’s first news conference after announcing she was turning pro in October, New Zealand media peppered her with questions about where she planned to establish her professional base and even what nationalistic affiliation she planned for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. 

Ko was born in South Korea but her family moved to New Zealand when she was 6. She became a New Zealand citizen when she was 12. That evolved partly out of her former coach’s push for citizenship so Ko would become eligible for national funding. In fact, New Zealand Golf has funded Ko’s world travels the last three years. There are questions back in New Zealand over whether Ko will re-establish her connection to South Korea, where women’s golf is immensely popular and more endorsement opportunities for women abound.

Matt Richens is one of the New Zealanders raising such questions:

If this is a Ko decision, it seems an odd one. The pair have always seemed to get on well off the course and their success on it was first rate. 

Ko was the world's No 1 amateur as a 13-year old, a title she held until turning professional. She won four professional tournaments as an amateur and one as a professional and has never missed a cut in any of her 27 professional tournaments. 

She's brilliant and Wilson has played a huge part in that. It also continued while Ko was travelling and Wilson stayed in New Zealand. 

If it's not Ko's decision, but one from IMG, then there is more reason to worry for New Zealand. 

If IMG can persuade her to leave her longtime coach and someone with whom she shared more of a brother-sister relationship than a coach-player one, then what else can it do? 

In October, Ko said she would always play for New Zealand and wanted to represent this country at the 2016 Olympics. 

But should IMG start throwing its considerable weight around, what's to stop it working out it could get a far bigger bang for its buck in the Asian market if Ko played under the Korean flag and turned her back on New Zealand all together. 

If IMG is calling the shots, it could happen.

I can see why the worries are so intense that Ko might choose Kimchi Nation over Kiwi Nation as part of an IMG-led effort to turn her into a global brand, but it seems to me they're at least a bit overblown.  Let's face it, a huge part of what makes Ko so distinctive globally is precisely her New Zealand connection.  That video with her buddy from the All-Blacks in which she announced she's going pro?  Brilliant.  That accent and attitude?  Endearing.  Why would she reject her adopted country, her hyphenated identity, and national hero status to become one of at least a dozen world-class South Korean golfers?  Why would IMG think that's a more profitable path?  Yes, she's leaving the nest, moving to the U.S., and taking on the world via the LPGA.  But Ai Miyazato is no less Japanese for doing that.  Se Ri Pak is no less Korean.  Karrie Webb is no less Australian.  Suzann Pettersen is no less Norwegian.  Lorena Ochoa was no less Mexican.  Annika Sorenstam was no less Swedish.  And so on.

Admittedly, these players aren't perfect examples, as they lived in their home countries for a long time and are natural-born, not naturalized, citizens.  But who would be a good example?  Amy Yang didn't move to Australia until she was 15 and didn't stay Down Under long enough for a sense of pride in her accomplishments to turn into a widespread sense of betrayal or ingratitude at her departure.  Maybe the Wongluekiets/Songs?  Well, they chose their father's nationality when they turned pro instead of their mother's, while both Ko's parents are South Korean.  And therein lies the rub.  Already you can find in some corners of the intertubes the same criticisms of Ko's parents being floated and tried on for size as have been circulated ad nauseum about Michelle Wie's parents.  Greedy.  Controlling.  Clueless.

I guess personal and professional and national loyalty is a particularly touchy issue for immigrants-turned-citizens.  (And not just in New Zealand.)  It's almost as if someone who's chosen to become a citizen of another country has to keep making that choice whenever her circumstances change in the slightest.  Don't get me wrong:  this is a huge change.  And Ko's only been a New Zealand citizen for something like 4 years (or a quarter of her life), even though culturally she's been a Kiwi for almost 3 times that long.  Sure, the level of concern at possibly losing Ko helps outsiders understand how much she is valued and appreciated by her fellow citizens and how crucial her success is to building a new New Zealand identity.  But Kiwis who might be tempted to turn on Ko out of a feeling that she did one of their own wrong or who jump to conclusions about her parents' motivations or her future plans should understand that they run the risk of inflaming a backlash that could do more to drive her out of the country than anything else.

I think it's time for everyone involved to be their best selves and set an example for the rest of us.  The Kos ought to find as many ways as possible to thank the individuals and organizations who helped Lydia become the golfer and person she is, reassert her commitment to Kiwi Nation, and give back in tangible and intangible ways to golf in New Zealand.  Wilson ought to speak for himself, stick up for his former student, and encourage his mates to show a little more respect for Ko's decision.  Leadbetter and Hogan had better be praising Wilson effusively every time Ko does something good in 2014 (which should be quite often).

Let's face it:  what's done is done.  As much as onlookers, outsiders, and even insiders may wish New Zealand were closer to the places Ko will be competing, and that Ko could maintain an uncomplicated Kiwi identity for the rest of her life, that's not going to happen.  There will be complications no matter what she chooses.  For those who wish she had brought her entire New Zealand team with her to the States--bringing a little bit of home to her new base of operations in a time of transition--consider that her team would have been facing culture shock just as intensely as she would and would have had to be learning the ropes and putting down roots for themselves while allowing Ko to focus single-mindedly on golf.  For those who wish she had waited till after Christmas and New Year's to make her decision, consider that Wilson's holidays would have been ruined by stress, anxiety, and uncertainty as surely as they've been ruined by rejection and disappointment.  And given that the new LPGA season starts in January in the Bahamas, Ko couldn't have kept everyone on the hook for much longer.

The bottom line is that things are going to get more complicated for Ko down the road, not less.  I don't know whether she's a dual citizen of New Zealand and South Korea, but let's assume for the moment that she is.  If New Zealand's and South Korea's citizenship laws are anything like the U.S.'s and Japan's, Ko has about 4 years before she has to decide which one to keep and which one to drop; if they're more liberal (and sensible), she could remain a dual citizen for the rest of her life.  It gives me a headache to even start thinking about what country's (or which countries') tax laws are going to apply to her in 2014, much less beyond!

But that's part of the deal these days when it comes to trying to make history on a global stage, as Ko is no doubt focused on doing.  What's exciting about the attempt is that no matter how many scripts she's trying to write or how many the rest of the world is trying to impose on her, none of us know which ones will end up being performed and enacted, or for how long before they get disrupted or replaced.  All that's certain is that Ko will need every ounce of resilience and persistence she's accumulated over her 1st 16 years to make the next 16 truly amazing!

[Update 1 (1:28 pm): Paul Lewis of the New Zealand Herald makes very good points about Ko's future challenges.]

The World Is a Big Place Files: Lydia Ko Edition

So it seems Lydia Ko has split with Guy Wilson, her coach of 11 years.  Alarm bells are ringing for Geoff Shackelford, who's already shaping up a story of how IMG and David Leadbetter are about to ruin another young phenom.  But what if this is just about what Ko told New Zealand TV this is about?

With Wilson remaining in New Zealand and unable to join her throughout the 2014 LPGA Tour, the decision was a logical one for Ko.

"I'm going to be away from home and I'm not a player that likes to (not) have my coach out at tournaments, so it doesn't really work, him being here and him coming on the weeks that I'm not playing a tournament," Ko told ONE Sport at the Gulf Ha[r]bour Country Club today.

"That means I'd only see him like 10 times a year and to me that kind of situation didn't work out so that's why I thought it might be better to have a coach based somewhere in the States."

I mean, as Ji-Yai Shin's and Momoko Ueda's recent decisions to focus on the JLPGA make clear, the world is a big place.  Here's how Ko put it to TVNZ:  "Playing on the LPGA Tour it's going to be hard coming back home. Obviously it's so far to get from here to anywhere apart from Australia."  So unless Wilson is willing to uproot himself and move halfway around the world to keep coaching Ko, how can their partnership continue?  Wilson himself sounds a lot more resigned and accepting (or at least diplomatic) in the New Zealand, Australian, and Canadian media than in the U.S. media (although Golfweek has Wilson's complete statement).

Kris Shannon looks at the decision from both sides, calling the split "inevitable" but questioning the timing and possible repercussions on Ko's swing and game: 

Set to spend next season on the LPGA Tour, Ko will be based overseas for much of the year, but she already had a hectic travel schedule during her unprecedented amateur career. 

"I'm sad to hear it because they can do most of the coaching over the phone, with all the videos and different stuff," Lister said. "If [Wilson] was to see her once every three or four months, it would be plenty. She doesn't need somebody every day. 

"I'd be very reluctant to be changing anything with Lydia. She's done pretty damn well with what she's doing, and if it ain't broke don't go and fix it."

Ko herself is well aware of possible pitfalls but hopes to avoid them:

 "It's going to be a huge change. Swing-wise obviously not every coach has the same swing technique but even my parents and I said we don't want huge changes, just little changes, that if someone else saw my swing they wouldn't know that anything's changed. 

"Golf isn't really all about having the perfect swing, it's about getting out there and scoring well as well." 

She remains undaunted by stories about players falling on hard times after changing coaches and insists such speculation does not apply to her situation with Wilson. 

"Not really. I've heard those rumours and Tweets where people say lots of people have left their coaches after they've succeeded and stuff, but to me it's not like I left him because he was a bad coach. 

"It was because that situation, we knew there was going to be a problem. I know it's a change but fingers crossed that nothing bad happens."

The fact is, you never know how changes like these are going to turn out.  I'm reminded of how the size of the planet played a role in Ji-Yai Shin's slow-motion split with her long-time caddie Dean Herden back in 2011.

Bottom line is that it's Ko's career and her decision.  If she's convinced a long-distance relationship won't work for her, better to act on that conviction than draw out the transition.  It seems to me that all outsiders and onlookers can do is wish both Ko and Wilson the best.

[Update 1 (8:57 am):  Stevie Williams, a friend of Wilson's, strongly criticizes Ko's decision.]

[Update 2 (9:09 am):  I can only hope Lydia and her parents each have great Christmas presents for Wilson and that IMG is ponying up serious severance pay for him!]

[Update 3 (9:31 am):  Ladies on Tour notes that Ko's mother was talking about finding a U.S.-based coach at the CME Titleholders.]

[Update 4 (9:51 am):  Brent Kelley has a good overview.  But is nobody else seeing that Lydia mentions Sean Hogan by name in that TVNZ story?]

[Update 5 (11:16 am):  Randall Mell just tweeted:  "Just off phone w/ David Leadbetter, Lydia Ko will work w/ him & Sean Hogan of his staff. 'It's about guiding, not re-inventing the swing.'"]

[Update 6 (11:50 am):  Here's Emily Kay's Steve Williams-centered overview.]

[Update 7 (12:28 pm):  So much for this being a sudden decision.  There was even pre-decision blowback before Thanksgiving in the NZ media.]

[Update 8 (8:03 pm):  Randall Mell covers reaction from Kiwi Nation and statements from David Leadbetter.]

[Update 9 (8:07 pm):  And here's Stephanie Wei's recap.]

The Golf Gods, They Are Jealous Gods

I'm telling you, it seems like every time The Constructivist Family is about to take one of our patented road trips/pilgrimages to the site of a major international skating competition lately, my body betrays me.  This past spring, an awful stomach bug had me doubled over in pain and dazed for most of the World Figure Skating Championships.  And now this morning, I tweaked my back at the gym so bad that I had to shamble/shuffle/limp/grimace my way through the last day of work before the start of our fall break, which The Full Metal Archivist, onechan, imoto and I will be enjoying in scenic Detroit while we occupy Skate America.

All I can say is, thank you very much, golf gods.  It's not enough that you torment me on the course and deploy the Mostly Harmless jinx against my favorite golfers--no, now you also have to go and punish me for following Daisuke Takahashi and Mao Asada and the rest of the skaters there for a few days!  I get it:  the way the Skate America schedule works out, I'll probably be able to watch only the final round of this week's LPGA/KLPGA tournament, and probably only part of it at that--and that's only if the hotel we switch to on Sunday has Golf Channel.  So I guess I deserve this lower back pain and stiffness by some sick, twisted logic--you know, the kind you golf gods specialize in.

But hear this, o ye golf gods:  we splurged for all-access tickets and, by gum, we shall use them!  We're cutting through Canada early tomorrow morning and plan to be in the Joe Louis Arena by noon!  It's not like I've broken my back like American skater Max Aaron did a few years ago....

How Do You Make 4 Birdies and End Up with an 82?

Hey kids, here's a little golf tip from the Constructivist!  If you ever go a month without touching your clubs, head out to the course on a nice fall morning with no expectations, snag 3 birdies in 4 holes as you make the turn to fight back to +1 through 10 holes (one of your best starts of the year), face the toughest hole on the course (a 230-yard uphill par 3 with an elevated tee that's surrounded by trees with a creek and a mini-gorge all the way up the left), and happen to hit your 1st really bad shot of the day (yanking a 3-wood dead left off the tee), try to keep your temper.  Whatever you do, don't try to bang the ground with your club and miss, hitting your left leg a few inches above the ankle instead!  That's called adding injury to insult.

Somehow, I ended up salvaging a double, but it turned out to be the 1st of 4 on the back.  The weird thing is, I had just managed to play through my 2nd group of the day, I had the rest of the back open ahead of me, with scoring opportunities galore to boot, and the double on 11 with my Callaway ball actually brought the Titleist ball I was also playing back into the match, so I should have been able to shrug it off and enjoy the rest of the round.  But between the pain, the heat, my soreness from basketball the day before, my being out of golf shape (physically and mentally), and my lack of a snack, I lost my tempo and my temper quite a bit on the back 9.  It wasn't long before I went from limping along to stumbling home.  I was in such a fog by the end of the day that I couldn't even enjoy my birdie on the short par 5 17th, despite the fact that it's a very rare thing for me to make 4 of 'em in an 11-hole stretch.

Good news is, my leg is going to be fine and so is my game next year.  I've already gained some length from a month at the new gym and some tips from a trainer there who also works at a private club in the area, even though I was only sometimes able to swing like I was supposed to with the move from my 1st lessons in a decade that I thought I had grooved over the summer.  Despite the sorry shape of South Shore's greens, they were actually much improved from a month ago and I took only 28 putts, a rare departure from what's been my Achilles heel this summer.  If I can keep to my workout schedule and do a lot of indoor putting with onechan and imoto this winter, I'll be ready to make 2014 my best season ever.  At least, that's what I'm telling myself if this turns out to be my last round of 2013!

Evian Championship Friday: Mika Miyazato Leads, But 54-Hole Target Might Mean a Major Asterisk for Eventual Winner

I'll tell you, it sure seems that the LPGA has been cursed in the last half-dozen years or so.  Then-Commissioner Carolyn Bivens took an aggressive negotiating tack with sponsors and tournament organizers just as the economy started to crater, Michelle Wie didn't explode onto the global stage quite as anticipated, the rise of Asian stars hasn't coincided with a resurgence of Asian investments in U.S.-based tournaments, even Inbee Park's historic run at a 4th-straight major title in the same calendar year was diminished by silly debates over what to call the hypothetical achievement now that the LPGA has 5 majors, and the weather has affected nearly every major played this year--including its 5th and final major, The Evian Championship, which has just been demoted to a 54-hole event because the course redesign wasn't ready to handle the volume of actual and predicted rains.

Despite all of this, the ladies of the LPGA continue to play golf at a very high level and the 1st-round leaderboard is packed--although perhaps not with everyone who was expected to contend this week.  Moriya Jutanugarn (78), Carlota Ciganda (78), Jodi Ewart Shadoff (77), Cristie Kerr (76), Ai Miyazato (75), Ya Ni Tseng (75), Jessica Korda (75), Inbee Park (74), Caroline Hedwall (74), Anna Nordqvist (74), Ji-Yai Shin (73), and Catriona Matthew (73) will all have to keep an eye on the cut line tomorrow as they try to fight their way into shouting distance of the leaders.  So you know the course was playing tough at par 71.

Which makes Mika Miyazato's 7-birdie 65, Suzann Pettersen's 7-birdie 66, Se Ri Pak's 6-birdie 66, and Sandra Gal's bogey-free 66 that much more impressive.  To go into the mid-60s this week is a big deal, particularly when temperatures may not even reach that high all week!  Pettersen's performance was of course well in line with how well she's been playing this season, but even she doesn't have that great a record at Evian.  With Mikan's and Gal's putting problems this year and Pak's shoulder injury making every start a huge question mark, there are plenty of surprises at the very top of the leaderboard.

And they don't stop there.  I mean, sure, Karrie Webb is a perennial threat to win this thing, and she's right there again, with a 5-birdie 68, but who would have expected both Lindsey Wright and Lydia Ko to join her at T6?  Or for Christina Kim to open with a 6-birdie 67 and Michelle Wie with a 5-birdie 68?  How about Danah Bordner, Hee-Won Han, and Ji Young Oh joining Stacy Lewis, Na Yeon Choi, In-Kyung Kim, Angela Stanford, Beatriz Recari, Lee-Anne Pace, and Ayako Uehara at 69?  Hee Kyung Seo, Momoko Ueda, Azahara Munoz, and Mariajo Uribe haven't been playing that great lately, but they matched Paula Creamer's, Morgan Pressel's, Caroline Masson's, Lizette Salas's, Chella Choi's, Ilhee Lee's, and Jennifer Johnson's 70s.  And who would have expected Helen Alfredsson and Sophie Gustafson to tie So Yeon Ryu at E?

There's just something about Evian that I believe is going to transcend the difficulties of its transition to becoming the LPGA's 5th major.  For Pak, Webb, or Ko to win this would be history-making.  For Park to come back from a 9-shot deficit in 36 holes or Miyazato or Tseng from 10 would be breathtaking.  For Pettersen, Lewis, Choi, Inky, Stanford, or Creamer to take the title would be career-affirming.  For Mikan, Wie, Recari, Munoz, Pressel, Seo, Ueda a win here would be a huge turning point in their careers.  For Uehara or Masson to take the title would make her the favorite to win the Rookie of the Year race.  And there are plenty of Cinderellas and dark horses who could put their mark on this major before all is said and done.

[Update 1 (9:07 pm):  Now I'm reading that Helen Alfredsson, Stacy Prammanasudh, and Amy Hung will be stepping away from the LPGA, as well. Wow!]

Catching Up, Again

Well, since I last posted here, Team Euro spanked Team USA 18-10 to take the Solheim Cup for the 2nd time in a row and the 1st time ever on U.S. soil behind Caroline Hedwall's 5-0 record, 20-year-old Chiba native Misuzu Narita caught Esther Lee by going 65-65 over the weekend in the NEC Karuizawa 72 and beat her in a playoff for her 2nd career JLPGA victory, Christine Song won the Eagle Classic to become the 1st 2-time winner on the Symetra Tour in 2013 and leap to 2nd on the money list with only 2 events left on the schedule (in the last 2 weeks of September), and Hideki Matsuyama and Ryo Ishikawa finished 6 and 9 shots, respectively, out of the amazing playoff between Patrick Reed and Jordan Spieth at the Wyndham Championship.  I actually got to watch a lot of the Solheim Cup's 1st 2 days and was impressed with so many aspects of Team Euro's play:  Hedwall's fire, Pettersen's and Matthew's leadership, Ciganda's comeback, Hull's boldness, Recari's steadiness, Icher's and Masson's putting, and better-than-expected play from just about everybody else.  Most of the matches were much closer than they looked on paper; it always seemed like the Americans had trouble sinking the pressure putts and the Europeans made the most of their opportunities.

Meanwhile, the Constructivist family spent Saturday at an awesome beach with the CT Constructivists; then, instead of driving home that day, we stayed an extra night so the cousins could spend a little more time together, left late Sunday morning, stayed for a few hours in Fort Lee, NJ, made it to Williamsport, PA, just in time to watch the Tokyo (Japan)-Taoyuan (Taiwan) game in the Little League World Series (which Japan won in a nailbiter 3-2), and got home to Hamburg after 1 am.  The girls were fascinated watching boys only a few years older than they are playing baseball at such a high level and they enjoyed cheering for Japan.

Me, I turned around and fired my worst round of the season today in the Buffalo district qualifier for the NYSGA's Mid-Amateur Championship.  I now have even more more sympathy for Stacy Lewis and others who had trouble adjusting to Colorado Golf Club's fast, undulating greens this past week, as I was befuddled all day on and around Gowanda Country Club's tiny, hard, slick, usually extremely-elevated, and often inverted-bowl-shaped greens.  I just couldn't break the habit of popping my chips and putts that I gained over a season of playing at South Shore Country Club's incredibly slow and bumpy greens this summer.  Sure, touching my clubs only at 2 driving ranges in the past week (once with my brother's 3 boys and once with imoto)--not to mention being tired from our last-gasp-of-summer child-care/vacation visit and closing whirlwind tour of 3 states--played a role, but I actually was only a little bit off with my ball-striking (I had only 4 really bad full swings; the rest were very close to the fairways and greens if not on them).  Unfortunately, I don't think any amount of playing or rest last week would have helped prepare me for Gowanda's mental challenges:   trying to anticipate how my drives would run out on its usually-tilted fairways, clubbing myself and judging what kind of approach shot to hit, dealing with the thick rough around the greens that played havoc with my pitches and chips, and reading and executing my putts.  About the only thing I did well was stick to my game plan of playing the short, tight, tree-lined course aggressively, but that aggressiveness into and around the greens turned birdie opportunities into par saves, pars into bogeys, and bogeys into doubles or worse.  What's worse, I don't think I sank a putt longer than 3 feet all day.  Long story short:  it's a good thing I don't play golf for a living!

Speaking of which, it's back to a full-time work schedule for me the rest of the week, what with my fall semester starting up next Monday and all :).  But I'm still getting psyched up for the CN Canadian Women's Open, where teenagers Lydia Ko, Charley Hull, and Brooke Henderson will be among the golfers joining the best of the LPGA in Edmonton.  It's the next-to-last event in North America before the tour heads overseas for 6 straight events; the 2013 season then ends back on this continent in the middle of November.  I'm curious to see over these last 10 events whether Stacy Lewis will be able to challenge Inbee Park for Player of the Year and the money list title, whether anyone else will be able to step it up and try to keep pace with them, what will happen in the season's 5th major, what effect the Solheim Cup will have on those who competed in it, how long Paula Creamer, Na Yeon Choi, and Ai Miyazato can go winless, and whether Moriya Jutanugarn will be able to hold off Chie Arimura, Ayako Uehara, and Caroline Masson in the race for Rookie of the Year.  I'll try to avoid going on last fall and winter's extended sabbatical from blogging, but I'm not making any promises!  We've got a busy and exciting academic year shaping up at SUNY Fredonia and I've got a lot on my plate.

HSBC Women's Champions: Another Showdown in Singapore!

A word about spoilers and spoiler alerts: I'm of two minds, like most of us.  On the one hand, I love watching sports live because of the drama and the uncertainty and the suspense.  When I had Golf Channel, and I wasn't able to watch a tournament live, I would often avoid the internet and any other potential spoiler source.  My parents knew not to tell me anything about what they had just watched except in the most general and spoiler-avoiding terms.  So I get what Tony is talking about in his tournament previews when he warns people who hate spoilers to stay away from the internet when the LPGA is in Asia.  And I get his "no spoilers" pledge.

But I also believe that writing about a really cool development in a tournament can actually draw people to watch something they ordinarily wouldn't watch.  And I believe that if you're going to be blogging about women's golf, you'd better be able to provide something that neither mainstream golf journalism nor television typically provides.  Maybe it's a personal perspective, maybe it's a focus on players outside those contending to win the tournament, maybe it's humor, maybe it's in-depth analysis of who's on a run and who's struggling, maybe it's a historical perspective.  Whatever it is, I think it's ok for posts like that to include a few spoilers.  Or do what Happy Fan does and track interesting patterns in recent events (as he just did!).

And let's face it, if you're here, now, reading this, you're the kind of reader who doesn't mind spoilers.  Among the very tiny subset of the world population who care enough about the LPGA to know that U.S. tv coverage of the HSBC Women's Champions doesn't begin till this evening, how many of them haven't already gone to the LPGA's live leaderboard?  How many of them don't understand that the final round of the tournament will be starting during the airing of the third round in the U.S.?

Spoiler alert:  all of this is a long-winded way of justifying what I'm about to do--write about the third round!  Bottom line: doing so fits my schedule, and, more important, my family's schedule.  If I don't do it now, I won't have time this weekend to do it at all.  As you saw with my teaser post for last Sunday's final round in Thailand, I have my limits as to what I'll spoil.  But if you read the comments, or simply visited the site before the U.S. tv coverage began, you'll have seen that the big story--Ariya Jutanugarn's fall from the thrill of a hole in one on her closing back 9 to the agony of hacking away a historic win by tripling the final hole and handing Inbee Park a big victory--had already been revealed.  Why should I have been trying to keep that a secret?

OK, I've gone on long enough for those who don't like spoilers to stop reading.  So let's get into it!

We've got a showdown between the Na Yeon Choi and Stacy Lewis, #2 and #4 players in the Rolex Rankings, brewing in Singapore!  At -14 and hitting loads of greens in regulation, they're going to be hard to catch.  But Paula Creamer (-12 despite walking away from a 5-car accident right before the tournament), Ariya Jutanugarn, Sun Young Yoo, Azahara Munoz, and Danielle Kang (all at -9) are in position to, uh, crash the party if they can find a way to heat up their putters tomorrow.  Wouldn't it be amazing if Jutanugarn found redemption this Sunday for last Sunday's epic fail?  Or if Yoo and Munoz put a big win on their resumes that their development as professionals suggest they're quite ready for?  Or if Kang delivered on the promise of her back-to-back U.S. Women's Open victories way sooner than anyone expected?

Assuming it's really a 3-player race, though, the storylines are still super-intriguing.  Can Creamer break the U.S. Open jinx and win for the first time since her amazing triumph at Oakmont, putting her name besides the likes of Lorena Ochoa, Ji-Yai Shin, Ai Miyazato, Karrie Webb, and Angela Stanford?  Watch out for Creamer when she's coming back from injuries in a big tournament!  Can Stacy Lewis prove yet again she's the top American on tour and put down a huge marker in her bid to repeat as Player of the Year?  Can NYC beat fellow '08er Ya Ni Tseng to a HSBC Women's Champions title and close the gap between her and the #1 player in the world?  (For that matter, can Tseng put together another magical weekend round and move from the middle of the pack to the top?)

So even if you just focus on the top few players, there's lots of interest in today's--and tomorrow's rounds.  But check out the following tidbits:

• Morgan Pressel is having her first good tournament in what must feel like years!
• Nicole Castrale is rocking Tanah Merah!
• It's not just the veteran Americans who are finding their games in the far east--Lexi Thompson and Jessica Korda are playing good golf this week.
• Unfortunately, the same can't be said for defending champion Angela Stanford and Cristie Kerr, who are all kinds of rusty.
• Chie Arimura and Karrie Webb, who had such a thrilling showdown two years ago, are going off at the same time tomorrow on opposite 9s, both smack dab in the middle of the pack.
• Inbee Park and Ji-Yai Shin are doing just fine this week and could still stay at or near the top of the 2013 money list if they can pour it on tomorrow.
• Beatriz Recari, Catriona Matthew, Lizette Salas, and Moriya Jutanugarn are continuing their nice and solid starts to the season.
• Amy Yang and Anna Nordqvist have been kind of hanging around this season, with flashes of good play, and they're doing it again this week.
• Nice to see vets like Candie Kung and Karine Icher near the top of the leaderboard, while up-and-comers like Chella Choi and Pornanong Phatlum are also in position to make some noise tomorrow.
• Mika Miyazato and Momoko Ueda are off to very slow starts this season and their struggles continue thus far this week.
• I was hoping Mina Harigae would get off to a better start this season.  There is a learning curve to playing in Asia in the spring (just ask Tiffany Joh!), but this is much worse than I was hoping for.

I wonder how long I can hold out before I shell out the extra money for Golf Channel?  The way work is going, it won't be until June!

Quick Thoughts on the Sybase Match Play Championship

Wow, so much to respond to from last week's Sybase Match Play Championship--and so little time.  Work hasn't slowed down even though I've gotten my grades in, plus I've got all kinds of non-bloggy writing planned for the summer.  Solution?  A few bullet points!

• Day 1: "Any given round," indeed!  So happy for Mina Harigae and Mariajo Uribe for their big wins (even though Mariajo's was at the expense of my favorite golfer).  Pretty impressed by how they and Jodi Ewart, Jennifer Johnson, Ryann O'Toole, Jenny Shin, and Jessica Korda took out some of the biggest names in women's golf.  Seemed like the only youngster who had a good chance to win but didn't was Mika Miyazato, but it took some real heroics from Natalie Gulbis to take her down.  Looks like her game is coming around for the summer.  Favorite match: Julieta Granada beats Brittany Lang in the showdown between the slump-prone '06ers.
• Day 2: And the big names continue to fall!  Ji-Yai Shin started rocketing her putts under pressure from fellow '09er Anna Nordqvist.  Cristie Kerr absolutely handed a win to Vicky Hurst.  Tseng and Choi the only super-elite players left, but Stacy Lewis, So Yeon Ryu, Sun Young Yoo, Azahara Munoz, Amy Yang, and Morgan Pressel looking good.  Guess jet lag got to Inbee Park in her match against Morgan.  Biggest surprises in the sweet 16:  Karine Icher, Vicky Hurst, and Julieta Granada
• Day 3 morning: Maybe match play favors relatively experienced but either up-and-coming or on-the-comeback-trail players who have something to prove and don't mind playing 6 rounds in 4 days to do it?  How else to explain Candie Kung taking down Ya Ni Tseng, Morgan Pressel eliminating Na Yeon Choi, Vicky Hurst advancing past Angela Stanford, and Julieta Granada beating Karine Icher?  Among the relatively expected winners, probably Stacy Lewis's defeat of fellow KNC champion Sun Young Yoo was the toughest and So Yeon Ryu's defeat of Katherine Hull the easiest.
• Day 3 afternoon: Simply great match-ups!  Pressel over Nordqvist and Munoz over Lewis was straight out of the Solheim Cup.  Hurst over Ryu was a shocker, while Kung's experience and drive proved too much for Granada.
• Day 4 morning:  It's "ironic" (in an Alanis kinda way) that slow play in the European Tour's match-play event lead to me missing the Pressel-Munoz slow-play controversy.  The way I see it, the rules officials had to enforce the rule, even if Pressel was particularly unlucky to be the one to take the penalty (especially given that she was the faster player of the 2 and one of the fastest on tour).  I'm sure it was pretty equally shocking to both players, but Munoz was the one who didn't let it affect her putting over the last 6 holes.  Morgan kept her composure well when it came to her demeanor and willingness to be interviewed soon after losing a match that had seemed to be going her way, but it certainly affected her golf more than it did Munoz's.  Kung's victory over Hurst was completely overshadowed.
• Day 4 afternoon: I don't know how Munoz and Pressel did it, but they both won their afternoon matches.  Again, Munoz's putter was her best club, as she made pressure putt after pressure putt, keeping the pressure squarely on Kung's shoulders.  In the end, she did it for her grandmother and came through with her 1st LPGA victory.  Impressive!

For much more, see Mike's posts over at Ruthless Golf!  I'm hoping to get back in the bloggy swing of things later this week, but given that I've got to get my actual swing in the swing of things in time for the Buffalo District qualifier for the NYSGA's Men's Amateur in T-minus 10 days, that may remain just a hope....

Kristie Smith and a Host of Other Notables Miss the Cut at LPGA Q-School's Final Qualifying Tournament

I have to admit that I'm shocked that Kristie Smith missed the cut at LPGA Q-School's Final Qualifying Tournament.  The only other player in the field I was more confident would make the top 20 this week than Smith was long-time LPGAer Minea Blomqvist, on whom more in another post.  But at #17 on the LET money list and a long-time stand-out on the ALPG, Smith, I figured, was due to break through onto the LPGA.  Instead, she opened with an 80 on the challenging Legends course at LPGA International and failed to break 73 over each of her next 3 rounds.  Just like that, she missed the cut by 2 shots.

But Smith was by no means alone.  Jennifer Gleason, Hanna Kang, and Tzu-Chi Lin, who were looking to improve their 2012 LPGA status from finishing in the top 10 on the 2011 Futures Tour money list, all missed the cut; Gleason missed it by 4 shots and couldn't break 74, Kang missed it by 5 shots and never broke 74, and Lin missed it by 12 shots, failing to break 75.  LPGAers Sara Brown (+20), Sarah Brown (+21), Nicole Hage (+20), Allison Hanna (+17), Jimin Jeong (+13), Kimberly Kim (+37), Stephanie Kim (WD), Junko Nakada (+23), Libby Smith (+46), Alison Whitaker (+17), and Adrienne White (+24) played their way off the tour for 2012, except for Hage, who finished 121st on the 2011 LPGA money list and will have some kind of nominal status for 2012.  No such luck for developmental tour winners this season (like Smith, Lin, Hage, and Stephanie Kim) Jasi Acharya (+14), Alejandra Llaneza (+15), and Benedikte Grotvedt (+16).  Or former can't-miss prospects like Esther Choe (+13), Mallory Blackwelder (+13), and Natalie Sheary (+15).  At least Brianna Do (+18) has her senior year at UCLA to look forward to.

So Gleason, Kang, Lin and Hage have very limited status on the LPGA in 2012.  Odds are they'll be spending most of their time with everyone else who missed the cut on the Futures Tour--sorry, Symetra Tour--in 2012.

What a week to not even have your B-game.  Yup, Q-School is cruel!

Bad Timing Department: T-Joh Gets a Little Love from the LPGA

Why oh why did the LPGA decide to air their new profile of Tiffany Joh today?!  Right when anyone who wants to see how she's doing this week will find her DFL in Malaysia after 2 rounds?!  The Asian swing is almost never kind to players who aren't used to travelling halfway around the world and is often pretty unkind even to those accustomed to it.  Hopefully those new to the T-Joh will put that aside and realize that she's #2 in the Rookie of the Year race for a reason!  Her struggles this week are just part of that process she talks about of "making the leap from LPGA fan to player."  So what if she is in danger of batting for the over-par cycle this week, right?