Just watched a few minutes of coverage of the US Woman's Open. The leaderboard had 1 American flag in the top 10. Quite a difference from the Men's Open.
Aine Donegan (A) from County Clare, now at LSU. Is 1 shot back at - 3. Several other Amateurs are doing well including Farah O'Keefe from Austin Texas (no relation). Ladies so far are playing well on the course.
FWIW, I have read that not enough young American girls play golf, unlike say Soccer which seemingly every young girl plays. As a result there is a large number of European and Asian girls on Scolarship at American colleges. I found this.
Koepka accuses teammate of quitting (Wolfe) on the course. No kidding! They get paid regardless of what they do. Why not quit.
Wolfe is the kid who took several months off for "mental health" reasons a few years ago. Maybe the kid is becoming like those baseball players who can't throw the ball to the 1st baseman or back to the pitcher.
The Ladies did well vs Pebble today. I was watching the afternoon group on Peacock and followed Brooke Henderson, Lydia Ko and Rose Zhang. Lydia had a quad on a par 3 early and that killed her, Rose and Brooke battled the course well and Brooke finished with a couple of birdies. Rose Zhang hit the ball right on the #17 and the pin was on the left, because of the way the green is shaped she couldn't realistically putt if she wanted to get close to the hole so she chipped and almost holed it nearly identical to the Gary Woodlands chip from the green on the same hole when he won the Open in 2019. Of the 156 players less then 20 broke par, which is par for a US Open course.
I didn't' watch the John Deere as I knew it was going to be a birdie fest and so many of the top players don't play, opting to be in the UK/Ireland the week before The Open. But I did watch a lot of the Women's Open at Pebble Beach. Allisen Corpuz was the winner and I didn't even know who she was, but it's clear she has a very nice game. I started out rooting for Brooke Henderson, Nellie Korda and Lexi Thompson. Only Brooke had a good tourney {finished 12th), Lexi didn't make the cut and Nellie just isn't the same player since the injury. I quickly became a fan of Aine' Donagan the Irish Amateur who did have a great tourney except for the 9 on the difficult par 4 8th hole. Hit into the Canyon twice and even her 3rd attempt wasn't that great, but she didn't collapse and while she never recovered those lost 5 strokes, she finished up 1 stroke behind Benedetta Moresco of Italy for the low amateur. But the story for me was Bailey Tardy, I was really hoping she would win it when we went to the weekend but some questionable course management decisions, like using an 8 iron on the 17th when everybody else was hitting 6 or 7. She of course came up short had a terrible lie and looked at her caddy with WTF look. AJ would have refused to hand her that 8 iron. But in the end for a qualifier she had a great tournament, finished tied for 4th. Overall it was a great tournamnt for the women. Plus, the story was the players and Pebble Beach and not about the Mean old USGA making the rough too penal and stuff like that.
The pro at our local club and coach at our local uni UNCW said much the same many years ago when my daughter was younger....any young girl with a pulse can get a college schollie by playing golf. They literally have to scour the world to find enough bodies to fill the schollie limit and the shortage of US girls forces them to look overseas. Unfortunately after a year or so of taking lessons, mine too decided that the mall, swimming pool and beach were the far better leisure time options breaking both my heart and wallet at the same time....
Terry I watched a lot of the Open also. I found myself rooting for the same ladies you did. I didn't see what happened to Donegan, all I knew is that she had had a blowup. I have the pictures of two golf holes here in the room I use as my office, the 13th at Augusta and the 8th at Pebble. The former is not only beautiful but almost always hosts exciting play at the Masters. The 8th at Pebble is just awesome to experience. I've never had an ace, but I birdied the 8th and I wouldn't trade that for a hole in one. The Hawaiian kid was just so composed and focused. She and Kim were in a tight struggle until the 12th where Corpuz made a tough par from a bunker and Kim 3 jacked it from the fringe. It was nice seeing a girl named Charley finish strong for second. The ladies got a nice payday on Sunday.
Didn't know this, but the LPGA is now allowing players to use range finders during tournaments. They were not allowed at the Women's Open which is a USGA event though and one player was disqualified for her caddie using one. I'm sure golf traditionalists are not in favor of this, but it seems like a no brainer to me. I mean it's not like the players don't have a ton of information, those books they and the caddies carry have tons of information about the course they are playing. Not to mention virtually 100% of Amateur golfers use either a rangefinder or a GPS device rather than looking for sprinkler heads or walking off distnaces from the 150 pole.
LPGA announced Voice Caddie as the “Official Rangefinder of the LPGA,” signing a multi-year agreement with the South Korean company. Every player on the LPGA, Symetra Tour, LET and LET Access Series was given an SL2 Laser Rangefinder. Players will be allowed to use distance-measuring devices at most LPGA events going forward. LPGA officials are still working with partners for several co-sanctioned events. The Symetra Tour began using distance-measuring devices in 2020. They were also allowed at LPGA Monday-qualifying events last year. KPMG: Rangefinders allowed for first time; they’re here to stay LPGA
one of the more unique tournaments of every season is the American Century Celebrity Tourney in Lake Tahoe this weekend. Apparently the biggest prop bet is whether or not Charles Barkley will finish inside the top 70. He's never done it.
If I recall correctly, players were using range finders in the men's PGA Championship this May. I think that the reasoning is that it speeds up play. I think that they can only use the finders for distance and not other things like slope. They're probably really helpful for the caddies when their player hits it wildly off the tee and there on another fairway or some other place that getting yardage is difficult.
Yes I am certain they can use them in the PGA Championship, as you noted for distance only. They are allowed in PGA Tour events or any of the other Majors.