Chapter 4 – The Duramed Championship – Mason, Ohio
Tuesday morning I arrived in Cincinnati around noon, picked up the rental car and sat down to work on this blog while waiting for Angela’s flight to arrive from Washington DC.
First I need to take a moment to extend congrats to some players; Meredith Duncan for making her first Open as a professional and Anna Grzebien for also making it thru the sectionals at Rockville. (Both of them played in the Aloha Team Classic – 2009“Play with the Pro” day.) Likewise congrats to Carin Koch (see chapter one for comment about one of our volunteers caddying for Carin), Stacy Lewis who my wife and I played with at the Kapalua LPGA Classic Pro/Am the week before the Aloha Team Classic and Morgan Pressel winner of the inaugural Kapalua LPGA Classic last year. We wish you all much success at the Open. Considering the competition and effort required it is no small accomplishment to make it into the Women’s Open. Play well.
Likewise, since I am completing this chapter just after watching last night’s last episode of Big Break Prince Edwards Island congrats to Blair O’Neal for a great job. We all know you must be disappointed not winning the final match but you played great though out the show and it would have been tough for anyone to beat Derek in that final match. It was neat being able to watch you play the last couple of shows having just spent the day at Rockville with you. One question I had wanted to ask you when we were at Rockville was whether it was more stressful playing in the Open qualifier or on the Big Break?
Back to the story. It sure feels good to be able to wear a regular pair of shoes after spending the last three days in sneakers for 8 to 12 hours each day. On the course caddies are required to wear flat (no heal) shoes, preferably sneakers, so as not to mark up the greens. Angela arrives on time and we gather her bag and clubs. Before we leave the terminal we check her clubs.
I may have forgotten to share with you that one week before the Open Qualifier in Rockville, Angela was returning from a Pro/Am and Delta decided to run over her golf bag with a luggage cart. They busted her driver, two rescue clubs and her Rife putter. Not a good thing to happen before the Open Qualifier. Unfortunately she was not able to find a replacement driver with the right shaft so she went back to using an older driver and the two replacement rescue clubs had a slightly different lie to them. Rife was able to send her a replacement putter and it had a new a new grip that was a little larger.
I found it interesting that rather than lament about the clubs being different Angela just made the appropriate adjustments. If the 25% rescue had a bit more of a draw, then just aim a bit right. The only difficult area is being comfortable with the yardages. As amateurs we think we know the yardage we hit clubs, but for most of us we have a significant variance in how we hit our clubs. Watching the tour professionals it is amazing how consistently they hit clubs. Five yards can make a big difference. Just another “note to self”, hitting the ball consistently and knowing how far the ball will go each time you hit the club is more important than how far you hit the ball. Seeing Angela hit these clubs just reinforces the old saying that “it is not the bow or the arrows, it is the Indian”.
From the airport we head over to the golf course to let Angela check in and get the lay of the land. No golf today. After spending some time at the course and getting some lunch we head over to her host family’s house. This week she will be staying with Joe, Michele and their two daughters. (see the earlier section in this blog about “They call this a living”) After she gets settled we headed off to see a movie and get an early dinner . Tomorrow’s (Wednesday) practice round is scheduled for 2:00pm so I get to sleep in a bit.I spend Wednesday morning catching up on phone calls and email from my hotel. We headed to the golf course around noon for some practice time before the practice round. This is a Duramed event so things are a bit more lay back than at Turtle Bay. The practice round is on carts which is a good thing since there are some really long walks between the greens and tees. The practice round is also a shotgun start so as to get as many players out as possible. (2:00 start to the practice round since there was a Pro/Am that morning.)
The practice round is the first chance to see the course. We are checking yardages from key spots and find that some of the yardages in the yardage book are off. I also verify every green for the depth. Angela spends time chipping and putting to different areas on the green in anticipation of possible pin positions. We are particularly careful in getting yardages on the par threes and for the approaches to the greens.
This practice round is played as a foursome. Angela knows one of the players that we ride with, but not the other two. During the practice round Angela is focused on her practice while staying relaxed and loose. There is some light hearted banter back and forth between the two of us (we both can give and receive pretty well) which gives us a chance to relax a bit.
The course looks to be very playable and is in good shape. It is interesting that while there are some areas roped off around the first and 18th holes for the most part the course is wide open. Unfortunately there are not big crowds during the week so there is no need to rope off all the fairways. From the spectators view another great opportunity to see some great golf, up front and close to the action. We finished up the day with some time on the practice green.
It is interesting to see the course for the first time. I find riding the course actually more difficult than walking. Walking the course allows you to see the hole in front of you. When you are on the cart you are always approaching the shot from the side. I enjoy being able to try to anticipate how Angela will play the hole; what line she will take and what clubs she will hit.
Thursday is the Pro/Am with an 8:30 shotgun start. Again everyone is on carts so rather than carrying the bag I am hanging off of the back of the cart between holes. While Angela is focused on the amateurs in the group this is also a good opportunity to practice. We get to see the course again as well as continuing to check yardages and determine how to attach the course. As I did during the previous day ‘s practice round I am keeping track of each shot we play with distances and clubs hit. During the Pro/Am it is a little more difficult since they are playing a scramble so we are not always playing Angela’s ball. Therefore I am trying to keep track of her shot results and then also get to where they will play from to calculate appropriate distances.
Prior to the round while Angela is on the practice green she says hello to the Rife Putter
representative Danny Day. What a great job he has. He gets to attend most of the Futures and LPGA events to show the Rife Putters to the players. He sets up shop on the practice green and players are able to come over to try out different putters. He is also there to help any of the players that are using Rife Putters with any questions or problems. Angela thanks him for the quick response to replacing her broken putter a couple of weeks earlier, but indicates she is not sure she likes the grip. Danny takes a look and offers to replace the grip if she would like. They talk about the specifics and he runs off to change out the grip for her. The round starts in 10 minutes and she has her putter back in 5. Great service by a great representative of one of the hottest putters on tour.Funny situation arises on the 2nd hole we play when Sutee Nitakorn, the head professional from the Kaanapali Golf Resort comes walking up the cart path. We both see each other at the same time and both expressed surprise at running into each other 5,000 miles away from home. Turns out he is vacationing in the area and he came by to see Kim Welch the winner of the Big Break Kaanapali. Nice to see a friend that far from home. Angela is bewildered. How can run I know someone out here in the middle of Ohio?
The amateurs we are playing with include one lady and two men. She is the owner of a local spa that is a sponsor and the two men are husbands of clients of the spa that won the day in a drawing at the spa. The team played okay, but not well enough to place. Most importantly everyone had a great time. It was another opportunity to see how well Angela makes sure everyone enjoys themselves.
The only hiccup in the day was a short weather delay. Fortunately we were at the 10th tee and right by the club house when the horn went off. Turned out it was about a 40 minute delay and there was food available for the players as they waited for the all clear. I enjoyed the day and was glad to be able to help the group around the course by chasing down shots, providing yardages, cleaning balls and just trying to be helpful. All in all it is another good day on the course.
Friday morning is the first round of the tournament. We have an 8:00 tee time starting on the first hole. We played with two players who were both very nice. Dana Bates is an older player who is a teaching professional from the Palm Springs California area. She had a great day and seemed to make putts from everywhere. Angela started off well with a birdie on the first hole, but then seemed to settle into a frustrating round. Had a few wayward tee shots and a number of putts that lipped out. Also a number of what I would call bad breaks which included finding a wayward drive to only see that it ended up in a depression and not have a shot.
Tough part is knowing what to say or not say. I can see the frustration building, but not sure how best to help, if I can. Again this is a great example of where having a long term relationship between player and caddie would really help. I try to reinforce the good shots and keep quiet about the bad ones. There were a number of shots pushed right during the round as well as a number of shots that found bunkers. On the positive side there were a number a great recovery shots, but overall this first day was a tough round. The best part was finishing the round with another birdie on number 18; bookend birdies.
After the round we went straight to the practice range where Angela worked on her game. She figured out that maybe her setup was faulty so she took out a simple setup aid that she uses (two yard sticks that have markings to help her check her distance from the ball and width) and she hits some balls to verify that this was the problem. With a good positive attitude she moves over to the practice green and works on her putting.
We call it a day around 3:00, grab a quick lunch and drop Angela off at her host family’s house. She enjoys a nice dinner prepared by her host (Joe is a professional chef) and I find my way back to the hotel to relax for the evening.
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Hope you will continue to follow my experience. The next chapter which will be published in a couple of days will share the completion of the tournament in Mason and share with you the worse possible situation that could have arisen.
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