Volume 1, Number 10 July 23, 2003 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Pages Tu1, Tu2, W1, W2, W3, Th1, Th2, Th3, Th4, F1, F2, F3, F4, Sa1, Sa2, Sa3, Sun, Gallery, Results | ||||||||||||||||||||
Thursday, Day one: Grace Okay, Se Ri Oi Vey! (continued) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Hole 16: A straight par 4 with a tricky green. Grace split the
fairway, but her approach landed in the bunker. Still, she hit a great
out and saved par nicely. Hole 17: She hit a whopper of a drive here, easily 40 - 50 yards past Meg Mallon. She hit it so far that she ended up in the narrowest part of the fairway, but luckily was still in the short grass. From where I stood, the flag looked so close to the bunker that fronted it that it looked impossible to get close. But Grace hit a gorgeous wedge that landed pin high, then curved left upon landing and rolled right up to the hole. Very very impressive shot! A 4 ft birdie putt moved her back to -1, only one shot out of the lead for the entire tournament! |
Grace waits her turn during round 1 |
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Grace on the putting green |
Hole 18: Par 5. She bombed her drive 280 yards (said the official who measured it when I asked her), again about 30 yards ahead of her playing partners. She then waited about ten minutes for the group ahead of them before going (the others laid up). Grace's second ended up short of the greenside bunker in the rough after hitting a tree. She hit a superlative pitch that stopped just past the hole, maybe six feet away. This was another great birdie chance, but she wimped out on the putt, not reaching the hole, and had to settle for par. No "Hurricane Grace" so far (i.e., she had kept her cool the whole round), but some great play by her that put her only one shot out of the lead at that point. Hole 1: Very impressive drive that was followed by her iron of
the day, a sweet high arcer that dropped right next to the hole and stayed.
Easy birdie. -2!! |
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Hole 4: Par 5. Got into the greenside bunker in two, but hit a horrible out that rolled off the back of the green. This was easily her worst shot of the day so far, and it got her really upset. She whacked her club against the ground and said a very naughty word. She tossed her club back towards her bag with an underhand fling. She was steaming! You know how they say that animals freak out in storms? Well, at that
moment, a deer, perhaps scared by Hurricane Grace, came bounding out of
the woods and walked around the fairway! It walked into the bunkers and
hung out for a couple of minutes before some officials shooed it away,
then repaired the bunker. Grace, meanwhile, saved par. |
Pumpkin Ridge, where the deer and the Seoul Sisters play |
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Another great drive |
Hole 6: Good drive. Her second landed near this weird stone bed that lay near the green; I think it is meant as a drainage ditch. It's only about six inches wide, but Grace got relief cause it messed up her stance. She hit a neat little chip out of there, but could not save par. A bad break. This moved her to one over par. Hole 7: Just blistered her drive on this lengthy par 5. Her second
was an iron, and she still left it but 30 yards short of the green! And
it's 559 yards! Then she hit another great pitch that stopped dead right
next to the hole for an easy birdie. If only Se Ri could have done that!
Back to even par! Hole 9: Steaming mad, Grace annihilated her drive well past the island bunkers in the fairway; this one must have been close to 300 yards, as she had only 125 yards left in to the flag. She was left in some heavy rough, and had some trees to deal with, but pitched it up perfectly to 5 feet past the hole. Nice birdie to end things, and though her one over total left her five or so shots out of the lead for the moment, you had to believe that she was in good shape. |
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Summary: Although Grace had one big mistake towards the end and a few other problems on her back nine, in general this was a marvelous round for her. She was driving it well, hit some great approaches, and made some clutch putts. But this was also the round she got angriest in of the ones I witnessed. Dog tired after all the walking I did, I trudged back to my car. It was after 7 O'clock. I had been there for ten hours! But boy, it was fun, even though Se Ri's struggles got a bit hard to watch at times. |
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