Word from the Green

At nineteen years old, she became the youngest ever to win the U.S. Women's Open.

Although the final day lacked competitive drama as Park ran away with the championship, it was remarkable—and even a little painful—to see how no one at the top of the leader board was able to make a charge. Aside from Park, no one within five shots of the lead broke par on Sunday. Only her playing partner, Helen Alfredsson, managed even par.

This, I think, was due to more of a mixture of nerves and inexperience and less to a golf course that couldn’t be tamed.

Park simply managed herself better than the rest.

Park broke the record of the youngest player to ever win the U.S. Open, formerly held by countrywoman Se Ri Pak, who won the 1998 Open in Kohler, Wisc. When Pak won in 1998, the Korean golf boom started in the United States. This year, there were more than thirty Korean players in the Open, roughly a fifth of the field. What's more, the "Se Ri" generation—those who took up the game because of her—are now on tour.

Park is one of those. She says she hadn't touched a golf club until she and her parents watch Pak win the U.S. Open late one night on TV in Korea. She was nine years old and started playing immediately afterward.

Here's a wonderful AP report that explains it all.

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Yesterday was supposed to be Annika Sorenstam's final round in the U.S. Open because she retires at the end of the year. After she walked off the first tee in her final round, someone in the gallery shouted, "One more year, Annika!"

She looked in the direction of the plea, smiled, and shook her head "no."

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One of the biggest surprises yesterday was when I saw Paula Creamer warming up on the putting green with pink golf balls to match her outfit.

"She's surely not playing with those," I thought to myself.

She did. It was about her love of the color and her self-made image as the "pink panther." When she was a rookie on tour, a manufacturer made a pink golf shaft especially for her driver, and she won. The pink golf balls weren't so lucky.

Surprisingly, they were pretty easy to see on TV but a little more difficult as a spectator on the course.

I can't tell you if this was the first time she has used pink golf balls during a tournament round, but it might be her last. She entered the round a shot off the lead and finished six back. Perhaps the pink shaft had more luck to it.

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Finally, I want to extend a thank you to all the hundreds of volunteers that made the U.S. Open possible. On more than one occasion, you all made my life much easier.

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Day Six from the U.S. Women’s Open: The Cut

Michelle Wie had to do it yesterday: one of the most disheartening walks in golf. After Friday's round was delayed because of weather and then suspended because of darkness, Wie had no chance to make the cut and only a single hole to play. She probably had to go to bed within a few hours of leaving the course on Friday and rise early for a 7 a.m. start.

She played her hole, signed her scorecard, and most likely took the next flight back to her home in Hawaii. It was a solemn punctuation mark on a dismal week for her and many others in the same boat.

But Michelle—and even her caddy—gets paid handsomely. It's torture for the players who have a successful week by just making the cut. Having to finish Saturday means paying for an extra night in a hotel, juggling plane tickets, or just hanging around for the inevitable when you could be on the road toward your next destination.

The hassle can be even greater for the caddies, who often carpool and share hotel rooms.

A player once thought she stood no chance of making the cut at the LPGA Championship the summer I was on tour. There was a weather delay, so she decided that she didn't want to risk the possibility of staying an extra day if the second round finished on Saturday. So she hopped on the quickest flight out of Baltimore, and her caddy was already carpooling to the next stop when scores went high without expectation.

She had made the cut and got the call in the Nashville airport from a friend. She got on the next flight back to Baltimore and so did her caddy, only from the closest airport he could find.

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One of the holes that will get the most airtime on today's telecast by NBC will be the ninth hole. The drive is simple, and the second shot is rather straightforward. The challenge lies in the bizarre world of the ninth green. It's—in the words of Michelle Wie after she made a nine on the hole in the first round—shaped like a Pringles potato chip.

You’ll see a lot of shots going beyond the hole, sliding up a slope at the back of the green and then rolling back down toward the hole. What NBC will also show are the players that go over the slope and have to chip downhill only to roll off the giant slope on the front of the green.

The green is the smallest on the course at twenty-seven paces deep. It's really between six and nine paces deep because of the two slopes. The front slope is twelve yards, and the back slope five. So if you can't put it on the sliver between, you're bound to show up on national TV as a cautionary tale.

Additionally, the shot from the fairway is one of the most interesting views for a player and caddy. The player hits her shot, it lands on the green, and you can't see the result. Then, you see the ball run up the slope on the back of the green, and then it disappears as it rolls back down. All you can do is wait and hold your breath for the crowd's reaction to know how close you might be.

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The youngest player to make the cut is fifteen-year-old Jessica Korda of the Czech Republic. Unlike a lot of the teenagers at the U.S. Open, Jessica still looks like she's fifteen. She's a wispy six feet tall and looks like she'll one day grow into her lanky frame.

Don't put any money on it, though. Her father/caddy is the former tennis pro and 1998 Australian Open champion, Petr Korda, who's officially listed as six feet three inches and merely 160 pounds.

Needless to say, you can spot the two easily from a distance on the course.

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Along with the regular tour loopers, one-time caddies like me, there are a handful of players who requested local caddies for the event. Luckily for the players, Interlachen has a good caddy program. Here's an article from the Pioneer Press about the caddies’ unexpected experiences.

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Even at the U.S. Open, it's not just golf, golf, golf for the players. See how tour star and fashion maven Natalie Gulbis unwinds at the Galleria in Edina, provided she can be in bed by 9 p.m. for her morning tee time the next day.

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If you're interested in more tour fashion, you can check out the Open blog from Golf for Women. If you've been to the course, you've probably seen the two authors at some point. They tend to be everywhere.

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If you don't know anything about third-round leader Stacy Lewis, call Tiger Woods. This is Lewis's first tournament as a professional. She also has scoliosis and is playing with two six-inch rods in her back, along with five screws.

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And lastly, for another intersection of golf and tennis: Greg Norman and Chris Evert wed yesterday. 
 
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As I write, the second round is just coming to a close on Saturday morning. Play was suspended yesterday at 4:30 p.m. because of thunderstorms. It took another two hours for the storms to pass and for play to resume.

Last night, I went to bed with the slight chance that Martha could make the cut. But it's not going happen. (A tournament "cuts" the field after two rounds. It's usually the top seventy scores and ties or all players within ten shots of the lead.)

Martha played well Friday but was unable to come up with a big birdie to get her rolling. That's the U.S. Open. This year, players don't have to play too defensively from the tee or the fairway but they do around and on the greens. This makes putting together a string of birdies all the more impressive. One stroke of the putter that's too bold, and you're faced with a long second putt, or in many cases, you could be chipping from off the green.

Martha did provide some highlights on Friday. The one that drew the biggest ovation from the crowd was on the fifth hole—her fourteenth. She hit her drive into the thick rough to the right, chopped it into more rough fifty yards short of the green on the left, and then went over the green to the right. The chip was approximately thirty-five feet from the hole but was, as they like to say, "dead." It was downhill with little space to the hole, lots of slope, and very, very fast. She hit it with perfect pace and direction. All the hole had to do was get in the way. It fell for a remarkable par.

Martha shot a two over par (seventy-five) yesterday, and she finished the tournament at seven over par: 153. That was three shots back from the cut.

I'm now one for seven as a professional caddie in making the cut. (The one I made was on the cut line, too). So, although I can crunch numbers, walk fast, replace divots, tend the flag, rake a bunker, and show up on time, I might not be your ticket to big-time golf success. I am a free agent, though, and my prices are currently a bargain.

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After the round, I was eating lunch in the caddy shack, and everyone was buzzing. Either they were getting ready for their decisive second round or had just completed it and were waiting to see if they would make the cut. Making cuts are nice because your player earns a portion of the prize money. The U.S. Open has one of the biggest purses the players will ever play for, so all caddies are hoping for a big payday.

The way it works is that players pay their caddie a base salary every week. Caddies, however, are responsible for all other expenses, such as lodging, travel, and food. If a player makes a cut, the standard rate is to pay 5 percent of what they earn to their caddie in addition to the weekly rate. If they finish in the top ten, it's seven percent. If they win, it's ten.

This year, the purse is $3.1 million. The winner will earn $560,000. So, whoever wins, that caddie will have a very nice payday for a week's worth of work.

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The other buzz in the caddy shack—besides the incoming thunderstorms—was the hole locations for the day. Many of the tees were pushed forward, encouraging scoring, something the U.S. Open is often criticized for discouraging. The tenor among the caddies at my lunch table was that after a so-so first round by some of the world's top-ranked players, tournament officials were trying to get the big names to the top of the leader board. The conspiracy theory? Set the tees forward, and place the holes in locations that those players would find the most agreeable to their style of play.

The caddies' theory didn't work. Of the big names that draw bigger numbers on television, Annika Sorenstam was the only one with a good round—and she's still five shots off the lead. Otherwise, the course played more difficult yesterday than on Thursday, even under softer conditions. So much for that theory.

Almost everything went to plan on the first day, and Martha still walked away with a regrettable seventy-eight, which puts her at five over par and tied for 110th.

The round was going well, there was a nice roaring ovation at the first tee, and nearly a birdie out of the gate. Another good birdie chance on the second hole. Finally, on the third, Martha knocked her approach to two feet, and she was on the board at one under par.

On the fourth hole—a challenging downhill par three where players have to land the ball short of the green and helplessly watch where it might end up—Martha hit her tee shot to twelve feet. It was probably one of the best shots on the hole the entire day. Her putt then scooted four feet past the hole, and it took three more putts from there.

She responded well with a birdie on the next hole, but after that, it was a day marked by putts stopping just before they reached the hole. It's a lesson in human behavior: hit one putt too hard, and you won't do it again. Keep your hand on a hot burner, and you'll forever remember not to do it again. The only problem is that golf requires you to toss aside most of human nature in order to play well.

We tee off bright and early this morning at 7 a.m. We'll be the lead group setting the pace for the rest of the morning tee times.

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What a difference the sun makes. Today there were thirty-two rounds under par, quite a feat for the U.S. Open. A vast majority of those rounds came in the morning when it was still cool and clouds hung over the course. By 1 p.m., the clouds had moved through, and the sun was shining. You could literally feel the moisture on the ground from the morning evaporating. By 2:30 p.m., the course was like granite, and it showed in the scores.

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Two days ago, I posted a link about Christina Kim and her bright colors, floral prints, pigtails, and Kangol berets. If you're looking for fashion trends, floral prints seem to be in on the tour at the moment. That said, golf fashion tends to run a good decade behind what they're wearing on the streets, but the women are no doubt more daring and up-to-date than the men. But if you're looking to be noticed on the course, leave your bright colors at home, and try shuffling around in the clothes of Japan's Sakura Yokomine.

As only a true maverick would do, Sakura pulled out her rain umbrella on a sunny day. Okay, so that's not too uncommon, but what has made Sakura stand out this week—aside from her game—has been her knee-high black socks(http://sports.yahoo.com/golf/pga/photo?slug=19b0f77f80f8e84389d2893dd5a97963-getty-78697472tl056_u_s_women_s_o&prov=getty). I'm not sure if she's channeling her love of 1970s basketball or her high-school uniform or if she is just trying to improve circulation. Either way, it's very different and very cool.

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About all the Lexus in the Interlachen Country Club parking lot . . . If you guessed they were for players, you would be correct. If you qualify for the U.S. Open, you automatically receive a Lexus for the week. They're mostly the midsize SUV (either the RX 350 or 400 hybrid,) but there are a few sedans I see now and then. For the players that have an entourage that needs to fit into one vehicle, the GX 470 was available. Sadly, for the record-setting twenty-eight teenagers in the field, many have to leave the driving fun to Mom and Dad.