I'm watching Golf Channel after walking 27 holes with Chie Arimura, Ayako Uehara, and Harukyo Nomura earlier today at the Wegmans LPGA Championship. (I got off the course just before rain arrived here at Monroe Golf Club.) My goal today was to follow Japanese golfers I haven't gotten to know as well as Ai Miyazato and Mika Miyazato; tomorrow, I want to follow Asian American golfers who are having great weeks like Tiffany Joh (-4), Jane Park (-4 through 12), Danielle Kang (-1), and Jennifer Song (E).
But it's time now to focus on the top of the leaderboard. Brittany Lincicome continues to play great golf this week, with birdies on 7, 9, and 12 to offset bogeys on 5 and 10. At -10, she leads Suzann Pettersen (-4 through 14 holes today) and Inbee Park (-2 through 12) by 2 shots. Julieta Granada is working on a 32-hole bogey-free streak and is only 3 off Lincicome's pace. Gerina Piller takes a 22-hole bogey-free run into the 18th hole and is tied with the fighting Lees, Meena and Mirim, at -6. And Anna Nordqvist's 69 has brought her to -5, tied right now with a struggling Lexi Thompson and a stuck-in-neutral-while-riding-a-roller-coaster Lydia Ko.
On to the not-quite-live blogging!
[Update 1 (5:49 pm): Meena Lee just birdied the par-5 14th to move to -7.]
[Update 2 (5:51 pm): Inbee jetted a birdie attempt well past the hole on 13 but I guess she saved par. Lexi went for 14 in 2 after a great drive but yanked it left into deep rough. Pettersen made her 4th birdie in her last 6 holes to move to -9. She's tied for the lead now as Lincicome missed her par save on 13.]
[Update 3 (5:56 pm): Lexi did birdie 14! Piller made a great 8-footer on 18 to keep her bogey-free run alive!]
[Update 4 (5:59 pm): Both Inbee and Brittany hit 14 in 2. Lincicome was 1 yard shorter than Kirby, apparently.]
[Update 5 (6:00 pm): Nice sand play from Pettersen as Golf Channel goes to commercial.]
[Update 6 (6:02 pm): I hope Golf Channel shows Mirim Lee's birdie on 17!]
[Update 7 (6:04 pm): Instead they show Brittany just miss an eagle on the low side and tap in for birdie to take the lead. Pettersen made her sandie and Inbee her birdie.]
[Update 8 (6:07 pm): Maybe I missed them showing Mirim's birdie on 17. Because they just showed her par on 18 for a 69 that puts her at -7 through 54 holes.]
[Update 9 (6:10 pm): In case anyone watching Golf Channel is wondering if Jane Park exists, she is still -5, playing with Lexi.]
[Update 10 (6:12 pm): Weak approaches from Lincicome and Park on 15 from barely over 100 yards out.]
[Update 11 (6:13 pm): Granada bogeyed 15 and 16 to end her bogey-free run at 32 holes and drop out of GC coverage.]
[Update 12 (6:15 pm): After doubling 13, Shanshan Feng battled back with 2 birdies in her last 5 holes to shoot a 71 and return to -5.]
[Update 13 (6:16 pm): Inbee made her 1st bogey of the day, catching the edge of the cup but on the low side. She returns to -8.]
[Update 14 (6:18 pm): BTW, Lexi bogeyed 15 to drop back to -5.]
[Update 15 (6:20 pm): Best rounds of the day include a 67 by Carlota Ciganda and 68s by Caroline Masson and Ashleigh Simon. And the latter 2 did it with a double and a bogey on 16, respectively.]
[Update 16 (6:21 pm): Nice 6-birdie 69 by Jenny Shin, too!]
[Update 17 (6:22 pm): Great birdie attempt from downtown Rochester by Jane Park hit the hole and spun out on 16.]
[Update 18 (6:23 pm): Great birdie by Ko on 17! Stuck it and made the 3-footer! She's now -6.]
[Update 19 (6:25 pm): Pettersen hits a great 7-iron or so in on 18 but it trickles into the gully away from the tucked pin.]
[Update 20 (6:26 pm): Ciganda, by the way, has eagled 14 2 rounds in a row now!]
[Update 21 (6:28 pm): This is the 3rd day in a row Lexi has made back-to-back bogeys in those last 4 holes on the back. She's now only -4.]
[Update 22 (6:31 pm): Pettersen's birdie putt on 18 died in the last 3 feet, so she has to settle for a 67 today, tied for low round of the day with Ciganda.]
[Update 23 (6:33 pm): You almost never see Inbee hit a 10-foot putt so badly she walks after it before it reaches the hole, but that's what happened on 16. Right after Lincicome made a great par save, that putt looked particularly ugly!]
[Update 24 (6:34 pm): Ko's approach on 18 trickles into the same gulch that Pettersen and so many others ended up in.]
[Update 25 (6:35 pm): Granada bogeys 18 for 3 in her last 4 holes. Her 72 leaves her at -4.]
[Update 26 (6:38 pm): Pettersen has made only 4 bogeys all week, only 2 in her last 37 holes, and none in her last 17. She's averaging 279 yards off the tee, has hit over 75% of her fairways, and has hit 42 of 54 greens in regulation. I'd say she's the favorite heading into Sunday, wouldn't you?]
[Update 27 (6:39 pm): Ko couldn't make the tough birdie putt, so her 71 leaves her at -6 through 54 holes.]
[Update 28 (6:40 pm): Ko will need to hit more greens Sunday to make a move on those ahead of her, though.]
[Update 29 (6:41 pm): Lincicome just didn't give her birdie putt on 17 enough oomph!]
[Update 30 (6:43 pm): Inbee birdies 18 to get back to -9. Meena Lee parred 17 and 18 to right the ship and shoot a 71 that ties her with Ko at -6.]
[Update 31 (6:44 pm): Suzann Pettersen is in the media center!]
[Update 32 (6:55 pm): Great interview! Be sure to go to LPGA.com soon to read it!]
[Update 33 (6:56 pm): Just saw Inbee make a 10-foot par save on 18. She's in at -9 with a 69.]
[Update 34 (7:00 pm): Think Inbee will be the next interview.... To sum up Suzann's interview, she's brimming with confidence and believes she's playing the best golf in her career. She's being very cautious with her workout schedule, doing only cardio to avoid reinjuring her back. She's trying to find other ways to work out her golf frustrations. (I can identify, having hurt my back last fall and still not being 100%. And on the frustration front.) I'm glad I picked her to be the #1 player in 2014--I think she's due for a big 2nd half of the season!]
[Update 35 (7:06 pm): Inbee's in the interview room!]
[Update 36 (7:12 pm): Inbee certainly buys into the bombers paradise narrative, although she doesn't sound intimidated by the advantage the longer hitters have on the par 5s. She just said she has to putt really well to beat them!]
[Update 37 (7:13 pm): Next in the chair is Brittany Lincicome!]
[Update 38 (7:22 pm): Brittany was very forthright about her nerves coming into the afternoon and persisting into the back 9 today. She hopes she's worked it out of her system. It shows up for her on the greens; she called her lack of aggressiveness with her putter today "wimpy." She doesn't plan to look at a leaderboard tomorrow. She just wants to make as many birdies as possible. She still sings together with her caddy on the course.]
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Wegmans LPGA Championship Special Report: On Chie Arimura, Ayako Uehara, and Harukyo Nomura
As I mentioned in my Friday Wegmans LPGA Championship post, I followed Chie Arimura for 9 holes yesterday and planned to follow her for 6 holes and Ayako Uehara for 6 holes today (after following Lizette Salas for the 1st 6 holes of the day). Instead, I decided for follow Arimura for the front 9, Uehara for the back 9, and Harukyo Nomura for the back 9 (it just turned out that she was making the turn as Uehara and Katy Harris were finishing their rounds). So with rain approaching Rochester and Golf Channel coverage in the media center, I decided to write this special report up while the leaders are out on the course. If it clears up in time for me to follow Jane Park and Lexi Thompson for the back 9, I will!
Let me start with brief bios of each player. Arimura is clearly the most accomplished of the bunch, having won on the JLPGA 13 times and getting her 1st major title in 2012 at the Konica Minolta Cup. She finished 3rd on the JLPGA money list 3 times between 2009 and 2012 (and 6th the other time), but has struggled on the LPGA with consistency, although she does have 3 career top 10s so far. Uehara doesn't have quite the resume of Arimura despite having joined the JLPGA back in 2003. Although she has only 3 career victories there, she finished in the top 26 on the tour's money list for 6-straight seasons before she decided to try to qualify for the LPGA in 2012 Q-School--where she finished 1 shot behind Moriya Jutanugarn and Rebecca Lee-Bentham and 4 shots ahead of Arimura. And even though she has only 1 LPGA top 10, she's missed the cut only 5 times in her 33 starts as an LPGA member. Nomura, meanwhile, won on the JLPGA as a non-member in 2011 (the same year she debuted on the LPGA) and finished 29th on the 2013 JLPGA money list but was 1 of 2 golfers in a 4-way playoff at 2013 Q-School to make it onto the LPGA with full status, so she has decided to make it her home tour again this year after not exactly setting it on fire in 2011 or 2012. 2014 has been much better to her, however, as she's just outside the top 30 on the money list, 20th in driving distance, and 3rd in putts per green in regulation. As a result, she's #12 on my list of the 22 best female golfers in the world under age 22.
Next I'll make some general observations about their games, based on what I saw yesterday and today.
Arimura is a very efficient player in every aspect of her game, from the way she moves around the course to her pre-shot routine to her swing to her putting stroke. She's short but powerfully built, and she takes advantage of her strength and flexibility with a wide stance that you'd think would make it hard for her to make a complete turn, but she does so with ease. Picture a wider triangle formed by her legs and a narrower inverted triangle formed by her shoulders and arms that she maintains pretty much throughout her swing. When I watched her play, she went into lockdown mode after a crazy double on the par-3 13th put her right on the cut line. And she executed it beautifully, hitting fairway after fairway and green after green. Her putting was very conservative both days I watched her. I think she got a 1st putt past the hole maybe twice. I don't know if she was respecting the speed of the greens too much or if it was a conscious strategy to make her pars as stress-free as possible, but either way she never took a real run at a birdie putt in the 18 holes I watched. Where she was aggressive with was her chipping and pitching, which didn't always serve her well. At the same time, she seemed to have the most creativity with her approach shots of all the players I've followed this week. She and her caddy have definitely done their homework, as she used the contours and backstops to her advantage several times. That helps explains why she's hit 38 greens to Nomura's 36 and Uehara's 30 thus far today.
Uehara is a much more aggressive and high-energy player. She walks as fast as anyone I've ever followed on either tour, swinging her arms in textbook fashion as she zooms along. Her swing's tempo is faster than Arimura's, too; in fact, she takes such a big cut at the ball that her right knee is in danger of buckling outwards when her hands reach their apex. If Arimura has more of an Ai Miyazato-type swing, then Uehara's is closer to Sakura Yokomine's (although she doesn't go nearly as far past parallel as Sakura does!). And yet she's not nearly as long as Arimura off the tee (once again, the holes they measure understate the difference in driving distance, both this week and for the season; Arimura was more like 10 yards longer off the tee than her, not the 3.3 their stats say). As a result, she was often hitting fairway woods when Arimura was hitting hybrids. On the other hand, she's a much more aggressive putter than Arimura, which sometimes got her in trouble on Monroe Golf Club's slick greens.
Nomura is a totally different type of golfer than Arimura and Uehara, who are both definitely precision players (Uehara was #11 in driving accuracy coming into this week), hitting 88% of their fairways off the tee thus far this week. Even though Nomura's even smaller than they are, she has a much more powerful game. She's got the potential to be a straight-up bomber like Ya Ni Tseng was back when she was dominating women's golf. In fact, you might call her "Mini-Ya Ni" if you watched her play! She doesn't rely for her power as much on upper-body rotation as on upper-body strength. She has a very armsy backswing, but once she bends her knees to start her downswing and pushes her body up as she hits the ball, her club falls right in the slot and the ball just explodes off the club. The move depends on timing, so she's not as consistently excellent a ball-striker as Arimura in particular. But she hit the longest drive I saw on the par-5 14th all 3 days of walking the course I've done so far (although not the longest of the day: a spotter told me Jennifer Kirby hit it to 153 yards away from the 1st group this morning, while Nomura was about 175). Her weakness today, however, was short putts. She could have gone really low today if she had been better from 4 feet and in. I saw her miss 3 short ones in her 1st 7 holes on the back, including a 3-foot downhill eagle attempt on 14 after a fantastic approach. So even though she birdied 3 of the 4 par 5s today, she had to settle for a 72.
I watched Arimura make 14-straight pars (and 17 in the 18 holes I saw overall!). The most memorable came yesterday on the par-4 11th, where she had the 3rd-longest drive of any I saw on that hole. Instead of trying to fly it to the front-middle of the green and hope it released to the pin at the base of a bump in the back-middle-right, she hit a low punch that landed short-left of the green and ran right up to the bump, which she tried to use as a backstop. The ball fell to the right instead of coming straight back to the hole, but it was still a neat try that left her about 18 feet for birdie. She did something similar today on the par-4 7th, landing her shot left of the front-left pin and using the contour to release the ball back toward the center of the green, about 20 feet past pin-high but exactly on line and with a relatively flat look for birdie. Her best birdie chance that I saw, however, came on the par-5 3rd, where she hit a fantastic sand wedge from the front-right bunker to recover from a rare imperfect hybrid when she tried to hit the green in 2. But from 4 feet to the right of the tucked front-left pin, she hit a dead pull that didn't even come close to touching the hole. Obviously she is capable of making birdies--she made 3 in a row to close out her 1st round, 2 in a row at the start of Friday's round, and what must have been a fine walkoff birdie on 18 to salvage a 73 today. But what she really was when I was watching was a par-making machine.
That's why the 13th yesterday stands out so much. I can't remember if she was in the back trap or the rough just short of it, but when she came out of it her ball came perilously close to rolling all the way off the green and down a hill that was sending even well-struck shots back 50 yards short of the green. Then she did something I never saw again: she rammed her par attempt from 40 feet away. Fortunately, she hit the hole so solidly it bounced in the air and only rolled 3 feet away (instead of the 10 or more it was clearly slated to!). Unfortunately, she missed that comebacker and went from E to +2 in a single hole. She needed to stay there to make the cut, something that neither Ai nor Mika Miyazato were able to do over their last 5 holes. And she did it by playing textbook golf, fairway to green to tap-in. The only putt in that stretch I really saw her try to make sure she got to the hole was on 17, when she finally took a run at a birdie. But when you're giving yourself putts of 4 inches or less for par, that's the way you cruise to making the cut. Pretty impressive when you consider that she was playing with a club pro and with Reilley Rankin, who was scrambling heroically all the way home.
The 13th was also memorable for Uehara and Nomura today. Uehara had made her 3rd bogey in her previous 6 holes on the 10th, but righted the ship with pars on 11 and 12. When her fairway wood landed on the front-right of the 13th, it looked like she was in good position to make her 3rd-straight par. But then the ball started trickling slowly back toward the edge of the green. By the time it got there, it had enough speed to roll out all the way down the hill to about 50 yards short of the green and 50 feet lower than the pin. From there, she hit a good pitch to the back-right corner of the green, about 20 feet from the back-middle pin. And she rammed it home for par! Nomura missed her approach short-right and it ended up in one of those really deep bunkers that look like a challenge just to clear the lip. And when she barely did so, the ball trickled down the hill about 25 feet left and short of the cup. Then she, too, rammed it home for par! So even though she missed a 4-footer to save par on 11, a 3-foot eagle putt on 14, and a 7-foot birdie putt on 15--missing the chance to go 4-under in that 5-hole stretch--she also avoided a bogey or worse on 13. So I'd say she's about even. Uehara, by contrast, was deadly from short range--and good for her she was, because she wasn't afraid of getting the ball past the cup. She got her speed down on her last 2 holes, however, making a great 50-foot lag on 17 to 2 feet and getting her speed near-perfect on 18 from 25 feet down and through the gully.
Overall, I don't see any reason why these golfers shouldn't continue to be LPGA regulars for years to come. They certainly have the games to compete with the best in the world! Let's see what they can do Sunday.
Let me start with brief bios of each player. Arimura is clearly the most accomplished of the bunch, having won on the JLPGA 13 times and getting her 1st major title in 2012 at the Konica Minolta Cup. She finished 3rd on the JLPGA money list 3 times between 2009 and 2012 (and 6th the other time), but has struggled on the LPGA with consistency, although she does have 3 career top 10s so far. Uehara doesn't have quite the resume of Arimura despite having joined the JLPGA back in 2003. Although she has only 3 career victories there, she finished in the top 26 on the tour's money list for 6-straight seasons before she decided to try to qualify for the LPGA in 2012 Q-School--where she finished 1 shot behind Moriya Jutanugarn and Rebecca Lee-Bentham and 4 shots ahead of Arimura. And even though she has only 1 LPGA top 10, she's missed the cut only 5 times in her 33 starts as an LPGA member. Nomura, meanwhile, won on the JLPGA as a non-member in 2011 (the same year she debuted on the LPGA) and finished 29th on the 2013 JLPGA money list but was 1 of 2 golfers in a 4-way playoff at 2013 Q-School to make it onto the LPGA with full status, so she has decided to make it her home tour again this year after not exactly setting it on fire in 2011 or 2012. 2014 has been much better to her, however, as she's just outside the top 30 on the money list, 20th in driving distance, and 3rd in putts per green in regulation. As a result, she's #12 on my list of the 22 best female golfers in the world under age 22.
Next I'll make some general observations about their games, based on what I saw yesterday and today.
Arimura is a very efficient player in every aspect of her game, from the way she moves around the course to her pre-shot routine to her swing to her putting stroke. She's short but powerfully built, and she takes advantage of her strength and flexibility with a wide stance that you'd think would make it hard for her to make a complete turn, but she does so with ease. Picture a wider triangle formed by her legs and a narrower inverted triangle formed by her shoulders and arms that she maintains pretty much throughout her swing. When I watched her play, she went into lockdown mode after a crazy double on the par-3 13th put her right on the cut line. And she executed it beautifully, hitting fairway after fairway and green after green. Her putting was very conservative both days I watched her. I think she got a 1st putt past the hole maybe twice. I don't know if she was respecting the speed of the greens too much or if it was a conscious strategy to make her pars as stress-free as possible, but either way she never took a real run at a birdie putt in the 18 holes I watched. Where she was aggressive with was her chipping and pitching, which didn't always serve her well. At the same time, she seemed to have the most creativity with her approach shots of all the players I've followed this week. She and her caddy have definitely done their homework, as she used the contours and backstops to her advantage several times. That helps explains why she's hit 38 greens to Nomura's 36 and Uehara's 30 thus far today.
Uehara is a much more aggressive and high-energy player. She walks as fast as anyone I've ever followed on either tour, swinging her arms in textbook fashion as she zooms along. Her swing's tempo is faster than Arimura's, too; in fact, she takes such a big cut at the ball that her right knee is in danger of buckling outwards when her hands reach their apex. If Arimura has more of an Ai Miyazato-type swing, then Uehara's is closer to Sakura Yokomine's (although she doesn't go nearly as far past parallel as Sakura does!). And yet she's not nearly as long as Arimura off the tee (once again, the holes they measure understate the difference in driving distance, both this week and for the season; Arimura was more like 10 yards longer off the tee than her, not the 3.3 their stats say). As a result, she was often hitting fairway woods when Arimura was hitting hybrids. On the other hand, she's a much more aggressive putter than Arimura, which sometimes got her in trouble on Monroe Golf Club's slick greens.
Nomura is a totally different type of golfer than Arimura and Uehara, who are both definitely precision players (Uehara was #11 in driving accuracy coming into this week), hitting 88% of their fairways off the tee thus far this week. Even though Nomura's even smaller than they are, she has a much more powerful game. She's got the potential to be a straight-up bomber like Ya Ni Tseng was back when she was dominating women's golf. In fact, you might call her "Mini-Ya Ni" if you watched her play! She doesn't rely for her power as much on upper-body rotation as on upper-body strength. She has a very armsy backswing, but once she bends her knees to start her downswing and pushes her body up as she hits the ball, her club falls right in the slot and the ball just explodes off the club. The move depends on timing, so she's not as consistently excellent a ball-striker as Arimura in particular. But she hit the longest drive I saw on the par-5 14th all 3 days of walking the course I've done so far (although not the longest of the day: a spotter told me Jennifer Kirby hit it to 153 yards away from the 1st group this morning, while Nomura was about 175). Her weakness today, however, was short putts. She could have gone really low today if she had been better from 4 feet and in. I saw her miss 3 short ones in her 1st 7 holes on the back, including a 3-foot downhill eagle attempt on 14 after a fantastic approach. So even though she birdied 3 of the 4 par 5s today, she had to settle for a 72.
I watched Arimura make 14-straight pars (and 17 in the 18 holes I saw overall!). The most memorable came yesterday on the par-4 11th, where she had the 3rd-longest drive of any I saw on that hole. Instead of trying to fly it to the front-middle of the green and hope it released to the pin at the base of a bump in the back-middle-right, she hit a low punch that landed short-left of the green and ran right up to the bump, which she tried to use as a backstop. The ball fell to the right instead of coming straight back to the hole, but it was still a neat try that left her about 18 feet for birdie. She did something similar today on the par-4 7th, landing her shot left of the front-left pin and using the contour to release the ball back toward the center of the green, about 20 feet past pin-high but exactly on line and with a relatively flat look for birdie. Her best birdie chance that I saw, however, came on the par-5 3rd, where she hit a fantastic sand wedge from the front-right bunker to recover from a rare imperfect hybrid when she tried to hit the green in 2. But from 4 feet to the right of the tucked front-left pin, she hit a dead pull that didn't even come close to touching the hole. Obviously she is capable of making birdies--she made 3 in a row to close out her 1st round, 2 in a row at the start of Friday's round, and what must have been a fine walkoff birdie on 18 to salvage a 73 today. But what she really was when I was watching was a par-making machine.
That's why the 13th yesterday stands out so much. I can't remember if she was in the back trap or the rough just short of it, but when she came out of it her ball came perilously close to rolling all the way off the green and down a hill that was sending even well-struck shots back 50 yards short of the green. Then she did something I never saw again: she rammed her par attempt from 40 feet away. Fortunately, she hit the hole so solidly it bounced in the air and only rolled 3 feet away (instead of the 10 or more it was clearly slated to!). Unfortunately, she missed that comebacker and went from E to +2 in a single hole. She needed to stay there to make the cut, something that neither Ai nor Mika Miyazato were able to do over their last 5 holes. And she did it by playing textbook golf, fairway to green to tap-in. The only putt in that stretch I really saw her try to make sure she got to the hole was on 17, when she finally took a run at a birdie. But when you're giving yourself putts of 4 inches or less for par, that's the way you cruise to making the cut. Pretty impressive when you consider that she was playing with a club pro and with Reilley Rankin, who was scrambling heroically all the way home.
The 13th was also memorable for Uehara and Nomura today. Uehara had made her 3rd bogey in her previous 6 holes on the 10th, but righted the ship with pars on 11 and 12. When her fairway wood landed on the front-right of the 13th, it looked like she was in good position to make her 3rd-straight par. But then the ball started trickling slowly back toward the edge of the green. By the time it got there, it had enough speed to roll out all the way down the hill to about 50 yards short of the green and 50 feet lower than the pin. From there, she hit a good pitch to the back-right corner of the green, about 20 feet from the back-middle pin. And she rammed it home for par! Nomura missed her approach short-right and it ended up in one of those really deep bunkers that look like a challenge just to clear the lip. And when she barely did so, the ball trickled down the hill about 25 feet left and short of the cup. Then she, too, rammed it home for par! So even though she missed a 4-footer to save par on 11, a 3-foot eagle putt on 14, and a 7-foot birdie putt on 15--missing the chance to go 4-under in that 5-hole stretch--she also avoided a bogey or worse on 13. So I'd say she's about even. Uehara, by contrast, was deadly from short range--and good for her she was, because she wasn't afraid of getting the ball past the cup. She got her speed down on her last 2 holes, however, making a great 50-foot lag on 17 to 2 feet and getting her speed near-perfect on 18 from 25 feet down and through the gully.
Overall, I don't see any reason why these golfers shouldn't continue to be LPGA regulars for years to come. They certainly have the games to compete with the best in the world! Let's see what they can do Sunday.
NEC Karuizawa 72 Ladies Set-Up: Bo-Mee Lee Leads 3 By 2
Bo-Mee Lee continues to play great golf over on the JLPGA. Heading into the final round of the NEC Karuizawa 72 Ladies, she's gone 69-64 and leads Shiho Oyama (68-67), Yumiko Yoshida (67-68), and Kumiko Kaneda (69-66) by 2 shots. There's a big group at -8, including 1st-round leader Na-Ri Kim and Megumi Kido, who matched Lee's 64 today. Big names like Sun-Ju Ahn, Miki Saiki, Misuzu Narita, and Erina Hara -5, Akiko Fukushima, Mi-Jeong Jeon, and Natsuka Hori at -4, and Momoko Ueda and Teresa Lu at -3 will really need to put the pedal to the metal to be a factor tomorrow. But at least they have a chance to play on Sunday. Yuri Fudoh, Ji-Hee Lee, Rikako Morita, Mamiko Higa, Onnarin Sattayabanphot, and Phoebe Yao missed the cut and Sakura Yokomine withdrew.
Let's see if Lee can pick up her 8th JLPGA victory tomorrow!
Let's see if Lee can pick up her 8th JLPGA victory tomorrow!
Friday, August 15, 2014
Wegmans LPGA Championship Friday: Lydia Ko Gets to -5; Will Anyone Else Be There at the End of the Day?
Well, I'm back in Pittsford after failing to qualify for the New York State Mid-Amateur--and failing miserably. Feel free to skip the next 2 paragraphs if you don't come here to hear me moan about my game. And count yourself lucky it's as short as it is--I entertained myself on the ride here from Tuscarora by composing much longer and meaner posts in my head. Obviously doing so didn't completely get the round out of my system.... Maybe the next paragraph will...or the one after that.
I was -3 after 3 holes and just missed a 30-foot birdie try on the 618-yard par-5 4th, then managed to miss the 4-foot comebacker and the 18-incher right after that for my 1st 4-putt of the year and 1st of 4 doubles on the day. Even after double #2 on the next hole, a shorter par 5--from 12 feet away from the hole in 3, just off the green, no less--I hung in there and managed to shoot a 40 on the front when I avoided my 3rd double of the side on the 9th hole thanks to my 6th 1-putt of the side. But I fell apart on the back, hitting only 1 fairway (and doubling that par 5, too, to add insult to injury) and ending up at the bottom of the pack.
It was a true Jekyll and Hyde round. I was E for 9 holes and +15 for 9 holes. In addition to my 4-putt, I had 3 3-putts (all on the back, and all due to badly-judged and/or -executed approach shots that left me facing monster putts with mega-undulations or hills to deal with), but I also had 7 1-putts and made all kinds of pressure putts to save 2-putts. Tuscarora easily had the fastest greens of any I've played all year--and unlike last year I made a point to regularly play courses with fast greens this year, so I can't say I wasn't used to it. But it was really my inability to handle the pressure of needing to put together a solid back 9 and absolutely butchering 3 short par 4s in a row to start it that killed me today. For some reason I couldn't figure out how to avoid pull-hooks all day and I didn't do a great job clubbing myself, either. Oh well, for what will probably be my last round of 2014, it was pretty representative of the good and the bad in my game this season. Glad to put it out of its misery.
Given my mood, let's start my focus on the 2nd round of the Wegmans LPGA Championship with more bad news. 2 of my favorite golfers, Ai Miyazato and Mika Miyazato, will be missing the cut. They battled all day, but a couple of late bogeys for each of them did them both in. I'm also sad to see Amy Yang and Jeong Jang missing the cut. It's not looking good for other faves like Moira Dunn, Paula Creamer, or Morgan Pressel, and rookies like Yueer Cindy Feng and Amy Anderson are on the wrong side of it at +3 right now.
On the bright side, Lydia Ko fired a 6-birdie 69 to move to -5 for the week, Tiffany Joh a 4-birdie 70 to get to -2, and Danielle Kang a 5-birdie 73 to hang in there at -1. Plus Ya Ni Tseng, Jennifer Song, and Ayako Uehara will make the cut. There are others golfers I particularly root for out on the course right now whom I don't want to jinx, so enough said about them for now. The big question obviously is whether the bomb squad of Brittany Lincicome and Lexi Thompson will be able to continue threading the needle at Monroe Golf Club and finish the halfway point of the tournament ahead of Ko. And whether the fighting Lees (Meena and Ilhee) will be able to finish their rounds ahead of last week's winner Mirim when all is said and done today. And whether Inbee Park will be able to bounce back from losing to Lee as well as Suzann Pettersen did today. Actually, there are a whole lot more questions than that, but I have to burn off this negative energy by following Chie Arimura as she finishes her round. More later!
[Update 1 (7:41 pm): Well, Lincicome played fantastic golf today, eagling the par-5 14th to get to -9 and staying there over her last 4 holes. Lexi didn't play quite as well, but she did birdie the par-5 3rd to get back to -7 after finishing the back (her front) bogey-bogey. Unfortunately, she bogeyed the par-3 6th and couldn't birdie 8 or 9, so she's tied with freakin' Inbee Park, who birdied 3 of her 1st 4 holes on the front and parred in to match Lexi and Meena Lee's 66s from yesterday. But it's Julieta Granada who holds the 18-hole record at Monroe GC for this tournament, as she fired a bogey-free 65 today!! She's tied with Pettersen, Shanshan Feng, Mirim Lee, Beatriz Recari, and Jennifer Johnson at -4. And how about her fellow Park, Jane, who birdied 3 of her last 7 holes (on the front) to catch Ko at -5?!]
[Update 2 (7:54 pm): I'm pleased and saddened to report the Mostly Harmless jinx is only at half strength today. Pleased for Chie Arimura, who bounced back from a devastating double on the tough par-3 13th with 5-straight pars to make the cut on the number. And saddened for Reilley Rankin, who scrambled her butt off after making a tap-in birdie on 10 to get to +2, but couldn't get the last up-and-down she needed on 18 and missed it by a shot.
I hate to say it, but that was among the easier attempts Rankin had coming home. On 14, she swiped her 2nd shot right and it ended up in dirt near a green-side tree. After maybe-purposely exploding it from the dirt (she looked concerned about a root and conferred with her caddie to be sure how she wanted to play the shot) and coming up short of the green, she punched a nice wedge to 4 feet and made the tester. Then she left what looked like a 25-footer on 15 3 feet short and sank another key par save. Then she was between clubs--3-hybrid or 4-hybrid--and chose the longer one while the wind was gusting. But it died during her swing and she powered it through what was left and almost bounced it onto the 17th tee. She played a classic Texas wedge to 3 feet and made it to stay on track. Then on 17 she pulled her approach badly but was lucky enough to fly it a foot past Death Valley (that really deep trap left of the green that must be 20 feet below its surface). She made another good chip, but it ran about 8 feet by and she made the putt to stay alive. Then on 18 she left it in the front-right fringe and misjudged her putt up the gully or swale or ditch or whatever you want to call it that runs diagonally up the green, leaving it barely halfway to the pin tucked in the back-left corner of the lower tier. That left her at least 18 feet, but the putt died left and low in the last foot or so. And just like that, she was done for the week.
Of course the club pro Alison Curdt had a tough time out there, but she hit a lot of good shots and made several good chips and putts. I got to see her make 2 of her 3 birdies on the day (on 10 and 14), plus she parred 13, so she shouldn't feel bad about her 79.
I'm devoting a separate post to Arimura's game, but 1st I have to grab something to eat you-know-where!]
[Update 3 (11:31 pm): Home sweet home! Finally! Entertained myself on the ride home thinking of tweets I could do with #thisisyourbrainongolf as the hashtag. As in:
[Update 4 (8/16/14, 12:36 pm): Yes! Mina Harigae made the cut! Xi Yu Lin gets to play with Laura Davies later today! Mo Martin and Kristy McPherson get to show the world how precision players handle moving day! And the Jane Park is paired with Lexi. So many good pairings to follow tomorrow. I think I'll spread the Mostly Harmless jinx around by only following folks for 3 or 6 holes at a time. First victims (if I wake up in time): Salas, Arimura, Uehara.]
I was -3 after 3 holes and just missed a 30-foot birdie try on the 618-yard par-5 4th, then managed to miss the 4-foot comebacker and the 18-incher right after that for my 1st 4-putt of the year and 1st of 4 doubles on the day. Even after double #2 on the next hole, a shorter par 5--from 12 feet away from the hole in 3, just off the green, no less--I hung in there and managed to shoot a 40 on the front when I avoided my 3rd double of the side on the 9th hole thanks to my 6th 1-putt of the side. But I fell apart on the back, hitting only 1 fairway (and doubling that par 5, too, to add insult to injury) and ending up at the bottom of the pack.
It was a true Jekyll and Hyde round. I was E for 9 holes and +15 for 9 holes. In addition to my 4-putt, I had 3 3-putts (all on the back, and all due to badly-judged and/or -executed approach shots that left me facing monster putts with mega-undulations or hills to deal with), but I also had 7 1-putts and made all kinds of pressure putts to save 2-putts. Tuscarora easily had the fastest greens of any I've played all year--and unlike last year I made a point to regularly play courses with fast greens this year, so I can't say I wasn't used to it. But it was really my inability to handle the pressure of needing to put together a solid back 9 and absolutely butchering 3 short par 4s in a row to start it that killed me today. For some reason I couldn't figure out how to avoid pull-hooks all day and I didn't do a great job clubbing myself, either. Oh well, for what will probably be my last round of 2014, it was pretty representative of the good and the bad in my game this season. Glad to put it out of its misery.
Given my mood, let's start my focus on the 2nd round of the Wegmans LPGA Championship with more bad news. 2 of my favorite golfers, Ai Miyazato and Mika Miyazato, will be missing the cut. They battled all day, but a couple of late bogeys for each of them did them both in. I'm also sad to see Amy Yang and Jeong Jang missing the cut. It's not looking good for other faves like Moira Dunn, Paula Creamer, or Morgan Pressel, and rookies like Yueer Cindy Feng and Amy Anderson are on the wrong side of it at +3 right now.
On the bright side, Lydia Ko fired a 6-birdie 69 to move to -5 for the week, Tiffany Joh a 4-birdie 70 to get to -2, and Danielle Kang a 5-birdie 73 to hang in there at -1. Plus Ya Ni Tseng, Jennifer Song, and Ayako Uehara will make the cut. There are others golfers I particularly root for out on the course right now whom I don't want to jinx, so enough said about them for now. The big question obviously is whether the bomb squad of Brittany Lincicome and Lexi Thompson will be able to continue threading the needle at Monroe Golf Club and finish the halfway point of the tournament ahead of Ko. And whether the fighting Lees (Meena and Ilhee) will be able to finish their rounds ahead of last week's winner Mirim when all is said and done today. And whether Inbee Park will be able to bounce back from losing to Lee as well as Suzann Pettersen did today. Actually, there are a whole lot more questions than that, but I have to burn off this negative energy by following Chie Arimura as she finishes her round. More later!
[Update 1 (7:41 pm): Well, Lincicome played fantastic golf today, eagling the par-5 14th to get to -9 and staying there over her last 4 holes. Lexi didn't play quite as well, but she did birdie the par-5 3rd to get back to -7 after finishing the back (her front) bogey-bogey. Unfortunately, she bogeyed the par-3 6th and couldn't birdie 8 or 9, so she's tied with freakin' Inbee Park, who birdied 3 of her 1st 4 holes on the front and parred in to match Lexi and Meena Lee's 66s from yesterday. But it's Julieta Granada who holds the 18-hole record at Monroe GC for this tournament, as she fired a bogey-free 65 today!! She's tied with Pettersen, Shanshan Feng, Mirim Lee, Beatriz Recari, and Jennifer Johnson at -4. And how about her fellow Park, Jane, who birdied 3 of her last 7 holes (on the front) to catch Ko at -5?!]
[Update 2 (7:54 pm): I'm pleased and saddened to report the Mostly Harmless jinx is only at half strength today. Pleased for Chie Arimura, who bounced back from a devastating double on the tough par-3 13th with 5-straight pars to make the cut on the number. And saddened for Reilley Rankin, who scrambled her butt off after making a tap-in birdie on 10 to get to +2, but couldn't get the last up-and-down she needed on 18 and missed it by a shot.
I hate to say it, but that was among the easier attempts Rankin had coming home. On 14, she swiped her 2nd shot right and it ended up in dirt near a green-side tree. After maybe-purposely exploding it from the dirt (she looked concerned about a root and conferred with her caddie to be sure how she wanted to play the shot) and coming up short of the green, she punched a nice wedge to 4 feet and made the tester. Then she left what looked like a 25-footer on 15 3 feet short and sank another key par save. Then she was between clubs--3-hybrid or 4-hybrid--and chose the longer one while the wind was gusting. But it died during her swing and she powered it through what was left and almost bounced it onto the 17th tee. She played a classic Texas wedge to 3 feet and made it to stay on track. Then on 17 she pulled her approach badly but was lucky enough to fly it a foot past Death Valley (that really deep trap left of the green that must be 20 feet below its surface). She made another good chip, but it ran about 8 feet by and she made the putt to stay alive. Then on 18 she left it in the front-right fringe and misjudged her putt up the gully or swale or ditch or whatever you want to call it that runs diagonally up the green, leaving it barely halfway to the pin tucked in the back-left corner of the lower tier. That left her at least 18 feet, but the putt died left and low in the last foot or so. And just like that, she was done for the week.
Of course the club pro Alison Curdt had a tough time out there, but she hit a lot of good shots and made several good chips and putts. I got to see her make 2 of her 3 birdies on the day (on 10 and 14), plus she parred 13, so she shouldn't feel bad about her 79.
I'm devoting a separate post to Arimura's game, but 1st I have to grab something to eat you-know-where!]
[Update 3 (11:31 pm): Home sweet home! Finally! Entertained myself on the ride home thinking of tweets I could do with #thisisyourbrainongolf as the hashtag. As in:
- disaster flashback and/or premonition in middle of downswing #thisisyourbrainongolf
- Someone screamed "boo!" in the middle of my downswing. Oh. It was my brain. #thisisyourbrainongolf
- Never point to the sand trap that would have cost you your 3rd double of the 9 after saving bogey with a 15-footer and mouth "FU" to it. #47onback9 #thisisyourbrainongolf
- "Dear God, why do I have to suck so hard at a game I love so much?" #thisisyourbrainongolf
[Update 4 (8/16/14, 12:36 pm): Yes! Mina Harigae made the cut! Xi Yu Lin gets to play with Laura Davies later today! Mo Martin and Kristy McPherson get to show the world how precision players handle moving day! And the Jane Park is paired with Lexi. So many good pairings to follow tomorrow. I think I'll spread the Mostly Harmless jinx around by only following folks for 3 or 6 holes at a time. First victims (if I wake up in time): Salas, Arimura, Uehara.]
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Wegmans LPGA Championship Thursday: Lexi Thompson and Meena Lee Lead at -6
Even though I'm writing this from the media center at Monroe Golf Club, I'm sure you know more about what happened during the 1st round of the Wegmans LPGA Championship than I do. You see, while Lexi Thompson (66), Meena Lee (66), Brittany Lincicome (67), Lisa McCloskey (67), and Shanshan Feng (68) were lighting it up in the morning, I was following Laura Davies, Angela Stanford, and So Yeon Ryu. And while Cristie Kerr fired a 68 and Jennifer Kirby (-5 through 15) was going on a run in the afternoon, I was following Ai Miyazato, Sandra Gal, and Lizette Salas. True, I did see a lot of shots from Feng, who was in the group behind us in the morning, but the only time I saw Lexi was when we happened to duck into the same porta-potty zone at the same time! So I'm going to focus in this post on what I did focus on today: 6 golfers and 1 course (which I've now walked 3 times, so I feel like I'm starting to get to know it).
What was neat about following these 6 golfers was the range of styles of play they bring. Davies is of course a classic bomber, while Ryu, Stanford, and Gal are straight shooters and Miyazato and Salas are precision players. So I got to see how they each attempted to attack a course that was equally new to each of them. Their scores ranged from 69 (Stanford) to 74 (Miyazato), but to tell you the truth, there wasn't a whole lot of difference between the players in terms of quality of play. I saw 84 drives today and only 1 missed the fairway by more than a yard--Davies's pull into the trees off the 1st tee (where she ended up on wood chips that constituted a temporary cart path, took relief from it, punched out into the front-left trap, and made a great sandie to save par!). Salas hit the fewest greens (11) and Gal the most (15), but until I looked it up, they didn't seem so different from everyone else I followed, who hit 13 or 14. I only saw a few bad misses of greens, as most ended up on the fringe or just off it. One that stands out was Ryu's double-cross on the par-3 6th that ended up in the front-left trap, from which she made double when she hit it a little thin out of the sand and ended up in jail over the back-right corner of the green. Salas put herself in a few very difficult traps, as well, but she had trouble carrying the high banks and had to make excellent scrambles from the rough to save bogeys on those holes. Even the apparent yardage differences from their scorecards are somewhat misleading, as they only average results on a few holes. Davies was consistently longer than everyone else, while Ryu and Stanford were neck-and-neck on most holes. Miyazato was surprisingly long, expecially on the front (their back), often outdriving both Gal and Salas. In fact, Miyazato's drive on 9 wasn't that far short of Davies's!
So what made the difference between their rounds? If you guessed pitches, chips, and putts, pat yourself on the back. Salas bogeyed her 1st 2 holes and needed to work to avoid a double on the par-4 11th, but she was able to make 3 birdies on each side to offset her 5 bogeys. Miyazato had maybe the best ball-striking round I've ever seen her play, but she missed 5 putts between 4 and 12 feet on the back (her front) and I was so disheartened I stopped counting on the front. And yet, after she made what turned out to be her only birdie of the day on the par-4 7th (after sticking her approach to 3 feet) and followed it up with another great approach on the short par-3 8th, she had 12 feet from pin-high right to fight back to E on the day. The putt had perfect speed but crept around the perimeter of the hole instead of falling in. Then she hits a great wedge on the par-5 9th that lands near the hole but fails to hold and as the rain starts falling just misses a chip-in and then misses the comebacker. Contrast that with Stanford, who came about an inch short of an eagle on the par-4 18th and ended up being the only person I saw to break 70 today, and that just about sums it all up.
There's a lot more to say--I literally charted every shot on my course map--but I don't have time to go into more details. So in the 10 minutes I have until I have to catch a shuttle and go to my favorite Korean restaurant in Rochester, let me just sum up the rounds in bullet points:
What was neat about following these 6 golfers was the range of styles of play they bring. Davies is of course a classic bomber, while Ryu, Stanford, and Gal are straight shooters and Miyazato and Salas are precision players. So I got to see how they each attempted to attack a course that was equally new to each of them. Their scores ranged from 69 (Stanford) to 74 (Miyazato), but to tell you the truth, there wasn't a whole lot of difference between the players in terms of quality of play. I saw 84 drives today and only 1 missed the fairway by more than a yard--Davies's pull into the trees off the 1st tee (where she ended up on wood chips that constituted a temporary cart path, took relief from it, punched out into the front-left trap, and made a great sandie to save par!). Salas hit the fewest greens (11) and Gal the most (15), but until I looked it up, they didn't seem so different from everyone else I followed, who hit 13 or 14. I only saw a few bad misses of greens, as most ended up on the fringe or just off it. One that stands out was Ryu's double-cross on the par-3 6th that ended up in the front-left trap, from which she made double when she hit it a little thin out of the sand and ended up in jail over the back-right corner of the green. Salas put herself in a few very difficult traps, as well, but she had trouble carrying the high banks and had to make excellent scrambles from the rough to save bogeys on those holes. Even the apparent yardage differences from their scorecards are somewhat misleading, as they only average results on a few holes. Davies was consistently longer than everyone else, while Ryu and Stanford were neck-and-neck on most holes. Miyazato was surprisingly long, expecially on the front (their back), often outdriving both Gal and Salas. In fact, Miyazato's drive on 9 wasn't that far short of Davies's!
So what made the difference between their rounds? If you guessed pitches, chips, and putts, pat yourself on the back. Salas bogeyed her 1st 2 holes and needed to work to avoid a double on the par-4 11th, but she was able to make 3 birdies on each side to offset her 5 bogeys. Miyazato had maybe the best ball-striking round I've ever seen her play, but she missed 5 putts between 4 and 12 feet on the back (her front) and I was so disheartened I stopped counting on the front. And yet, after she made what turned out to be her only birdie of the day on the par-4 7th (after sticking her approach to 3 feet) and followed it up with another great approach on the short par-3 8th, she had 12 feet from pin-high right to fight back to E on the day. The putt had perfect speed but crept around the perimeter of the hole instead of falling in. Then she hits a great wedge on the par-5 9th that lands near the hole but fails to hold and as the rain starts falling just misses a chip-in and then misses the comebacker. Contrast that with Stanford, who came about an inch short of an eagle on the par-4 18th and ended up being the only person I saw to break 70 today, and that just about sums it all up.
There's a lot more to say--I literally charted every shot on my course map--but I don't have time to go into more details. So in the 10 minutes I have until I have to catch a shuttle and go to my favorite Korean restaurant in Rochester, let me just sum up the rounds in bullet points:
- Ryu: 2 bad shots in a row on the par-3 6th were the only thing that kept her over par. She did have trouble with super-long putts on the front a couple of times, but pretty much anyone would have. Her left wrist was taped, but it didn't seem to affect her ball-striking. What held her back was an inability to make the putts she needed to get some momentum going.
- Stanford: She was solid all day and deserved to go a couple lower than she actually ended up. That approach on 18 makes up for a lot, though!
- Davies: A typical adventurous round for Dame Laura, although after 1 she was almost always in the fairway all day. She hit a driver off the deck on 9 and almost reached it in 2, but she also displayed fantastic touch out of the sand. If a few par saves and birdie putts had fallen, she could have gone really low today. 71 was about the worst she could have scored.
- Miyazato: Fantastic ball-striking both off the tee and especially with her fairway woods and hybrids, solid pitches when she missed the green, but even when she stuck it or made good recovery shots, her putter just didn't come through for her today. At one point late on the back she missed 4 really make-able birdie or par putts in a row. After her round, she talked about just accepting that it's part of a process that she has to keep working at. She attributed her improved ball-striking the last 2 months to a lot of hard work, so she knows at some point the putter will start working for her again.
- Salas: What a battler! For every bad approach shot she'd hit, she'd hit a great one, too. She had a good-sized group of family and fans following her and they had a lot to celebrate!
- Gal: A very elegant, artistic golfer, with great touch around the greens and on them. She was right around the hole all day, but could get only 2 birdies to fall. Her 71 was about the worst she could have scored, too, given the quality of her play.
All right, I hope I learned a lot about tempo, focus, and persistence that I can take to my Mid-Amateur qualifier tomorrow at Tuscarora. Walking 36 wasn't too much of a struggle, but I'll be glad to get some food and some rest before I play at 9:39 am tomorrow!
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