First-Day Action at the Solheim Cup

Well, they're off! Thanks to the wonders of teh intertubes, you can follow the action from both a European and American webby perspective. In between watching numbers on these screens slowly change, you should definitely be checking out the Solheim Cup pages I link to on the TYBttC III main page--lots of interviews, photo galleries, videos, stats, news feeds, and more.

[Update 1 (5:15 am): With the weather as bad as it is, scores are fairly high in the morning foursomes matches. Playing alternate shots, the first match of Suzann Pettersen and Sophie Gustafson against Pat Hurst and Cristie Kerr has featured only three birdies in the first 12 holes. Each team is +2 through 12, but the Americans have a one-up lead (down from 2-up after 2 holes and from the 8th through the 10th). Sherri Steinhauer and Laura Diaz saw their 2-up lead on Annika Sorenstam and Catriona Matthew after 6 holes diminish to all square after 10, but a birdie on 11 (only their 2nd of the day against 4 bogeys) got them back to 1-up. The third match also has the Americans 1-up through the 11th hole, but Juli Inkster and Paula Creamer have matched Laura Davies and Becky Brewerton birdie for birdie--each team has made 3 thus far. By contrast, nobody has made a birdie in the Gwladys Nocera/Maria Hjorth vs. Natalie Gulbis/Morgan Pressel match; the Europeans are 2-up through 10, thanks to two fewer bogeys than the Americans' 3.]

[Update 2 (5:28 am): Stupid Mostly Harmless jinx! Right after praising Inkster and Creamer for their great play in tough conditions, they go and let Davies and Brewerton win the 12th with a bogey--back to all square. At least Steinhauer and Diaz are 2-up through 13 and Gulbis and Pressel are only 1-down through 11 now....]

[Update 3 (5:35 am): You didn't hear it here that Steinhauer and Diaz have birdied 3 of their last 4 holes.]

[Update 4 (6:05 am): Make that four of their last six. Destroying Sorenstam and Matthew 4 & 2 is a great start for the U.S.! But Hurst-Kerr and Inkster-Creamer giving up 2-up leads is not good. Still, they're all square with one left to play for the former and 3 for the latter. Gulbis and Pressel are 2-down with 4 to play, though....]

[Update 5 (6:30 am): OK, Inkster and Creamer got a great 2-up win in the end, thanks to solid play and a collapse by their English opponents over the final two holes. It's a bit disappointing that Hurst and Kerr could only tie their match, but heading into it they were big-time underdogs to Pettersen and Gustafson (what with Hurst playing terribly and Kerr having putting problems in the preceding month), so I'm not that down about it. Looks like Gulbis and Pressel are going to get waxed about as badly as Sorenstam and Matthew did--they're 3-down with 3 to play, but if they could pull out a half it would be a great start for the Americans. It'll be interesting to see who's playing in the 4-balls in the afternoon. Too bad I won't be able to not-quite-live-blog them.]

[Update 6 (7:12 pm): Here's Hound Dog's reactions to the morning matches and the afternoon pairings. Guess the weather wasn't as bad in the am as I expected--maybe someday I'll be able to afford cable and pay extra for the Golf Channel so I won't have to guess at these things. And here's Mulligan Stu on the morning and afternoon matches. I think it was a great day for the Americans. Although it could have been better (where was Brittany Lincicome's game?)--the Americans ended up with halves after building a few 2-up leads--most of those were in matches they were underdogs in on paper. Although Stanford and Prammanasudh must be disappointed to halve Sorenstam and Hjorth in the afternoon, stopping one of the world's best and one of the world's hottest golfers from getting a full point is a big deal. Same goes for the Hurst-Kerr half in the morning. The only one that really has to hurt is the Creamer-Pressel half with Johnson and Davies--as Mulligan Stu describes it, particularly. Looking ahead to the morning, the Inkster-Creamer vs. Petterson-Gustafson match looks great. If Castrale and Kerr can hold off Sorenstam and Matthew with at least a half, the Americans' chances for an even better Saturday are very high. I strongly disagree with Alfredsson's decision not to play Wessberg yet--as I've argued several times in my Super Soph rankings, she is a star in the making. And while I agree with benching Lincicome, I'm a little puzzled as to why Hurst gets the nod over Pressel in the morning. Against my emotions, I have to agree that Castrale played her way into the morning match. She was spectacular against Gustafson and Nocera in the afternoon.]

[Update 7 (9/15/07, 1:11 am): Only thing I can figure with playing Hurst in the first three in a row (besides proven-veteran syndrome) is that King is hoping to build a big enough lead Saturday morning to rest her in the afternoon. We'll see how the ball bounces.... Well, not me for a while. I probably won't be checking back in until the evening.]

Solheim Link-Fest

No time to do my own Solheim Cup blogging yet, but that doesn't stop me from linking to the following quality posts:

• Hound Dog on goodies at the LPGA.com Solheim Cup site (9/12);
  
• Mulligan Stu on Annika's health (9/12);
  
• Hound Dog's Solheim Cup preview (9/12) [also featured on the main TYBttC III page];
  
• Mulligan Stu on the history of controversies in/over the Solheim Cup (9/11);
  
• Neil Sagebiel's interview with Paula Creamer for Down the Middle (9/11);
  
• Lag Putter on who was left off each team (9/10);
  
• The GolfChick on the U.S. team (8/27);
  
• Mulligan Stu on the U.S. team (8/26).
  

Happy reading!

[Update 1 (9/14/07, 5:30 am): Looks like the Golf for Women blog finally starting getting in the act after I posted this on Wednesday. And it's worth the wait. Go there now and read Stina Sternberg's posts!]

Meet Carrie Mi

Yet another immortal addition to the pantheon of imaginary people in onechan's and my lives. Her origin story? Basically, she's my strategy for dealing with onechan's desire to be picked up and carried, which manifests itself all too often with cries of "Carry me!" Instead of ignoring her, telling her no for the millionth time, or getting frustrated that she's asking me again, I simply reply, "Carrie Mi? Where is she?! I want to get her autograph!" Usually onechan gets the joke and plays along, as in "Over there, inside that building!" For cases when she doesn't, the tsuma invented Karrie Yoo and Keri Hu. Now onechan has a trio of friends, one Taiwanese, one Korean, and one mainland Chinese, to distract her from wanting to be carried. And for me to use for other purposes. Right now, the three are really good kid golfers, but they could become good artists, or math students, or whatever I need at the right time....

Onechan on Time, Rain, Teasing, and Joking

Somehow when I blog about the family at Citizen of Somewhere Else it's been very dark and tortured (for the me that is now, at least). But it's not like there hasn't been cuteness in Dunkirk. Here are some of the things onechan's been saying lately that have cracked the tsuma and I up.

• "I was teasing you, dad!" [Where did she learn that verb? We never taught it to her!]
  
• "I'm joking, dad!" [Not always after an attempt at humor, but still....]
  
• "I can't go to sleep! I'm afraid of the rain!" [This after seeing a weather forecast with thunderstorms in our immediate future. This actually wasn't that funny, as it's probably residue of typhoon trauma, but hearing me trying to explain 40% probability probably was.]
  
• What was it like when you first met dad, mom?" [This inspired by a trip to my barbershop; while we were waiting for my turn on the chair, she saw a very old photo of downtown Fredonia and pictures of the current barber cutting the hair of a toddler nephew in the same pose as an older photo as his dad cutting his hair. Somehow the discussion we've had many times before--"before Maya was born? before I was born? before you were born? before grandpa was born?"--sunk in this time. Quite a jump from "I want to be a baby again!" and "I want a big sister!"
  

R.I.P. Luciano Pavarotti

The man could sang:



"Listen" to him "sing" into the silence at the end.