These Guys Are Good

Lately, golfers around North America have been makin' it rain. Makin' it rain with their putters no doubt. Mark Calcavecchia made a PGA record 9 birdies in a row, turning in a 7-under 65 in the 3rd round of the RBC Canadian Open this past weekend. Nine birdies in a row is just ridiculous but it is becoming more common for players to perform at such a high level.

Also over the weekend, John Douma from Arizona, competing in the Health One Colorado Open at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club in Denver, birdied holes 9-11 and 13-18. He carded one double on the 12th hole (not that hard of a hole and usually birdie-able) and finished the day with a 64. Despite his back-nine charge, he still fell short of Derek Tolan, a recent CU Buff grad and rookie professional, with an un-rookie like second win this summer.

Last week, I was lucky enough to play in the Pro-Am for the Colorado Open and made 9 birdies and no bogeys. I missed a 6-footer for the 10th one too! Although they were not consecutive, it was my lowest non-competitive score, a 63.

10th Time Is a Charm!

On Tuesday I qualified for the US Women's Amateur. This is biggest amateur tournament in the country! I have tried qualifying for this tournament, the US Girl's Junior Amateur and the US Open a combined 10 times and have missed by a stroke 5 of those times. I advanced to the US Women's Open Sectional qualifier in 2006 but didn't qualify for the national tournament. This is very exciting. It is probably my last amateur tournament, but definitely the last time I will be qualifying for USGA events as an amateur.

I was scheduled to tee off at 7:40am but was delayed 3 hours due to the rather large hail storm and tornado winds wreaked havoc on Green Gables CC in Denver. Nevertheless, the maintenance crew came through and cleared the course enough for the 23 qualifiers to compete. There were 3 spots available, I took 2nd, and shot a 5 over, 76.

Anyway, here's a closer look at Old Warson Country Club in St. Louis, MO where the national championship will be held next week.

Yardage: 6,468 yards (match play)/6,441 yards (stroke play)
Par: 36-35—71
Defending champion: Amanda Blumenherst (turned pro in June)
Opened: 1954
Designer: Robert Trent Jones Sr.

USGA championships: This will be the second USGA event contested at the club, the first since the 1999 U.S. Mid-Amateur won by Danny Green. Old Warson also hosted the 1971 Ryder Cup Matches.

Design notes: Jones made use of a feature that he called the “heroic” school of architecture in which he designed alternate routes around formidable looking hazards.

Missouri and the Women’s Amateur: This is the third time the Show Me State has hosted the U.S. Women’s Amateur. Both previous championships were held at St. Louis Country Club in 1925 and ’72. Glenna Collett beat Alexa Stirling in 1925, while Mary Budke beat Cynthia Hill in ‘72. Budke would later captain the victorious 2002 USA Curtis Cup team. Collett won a record six Women’s Amateur titles.

Set-up notes: The par-3 17th hole will play at 184 yards during stroke-play qualifying and 211 yards once match play begins. Depending on the location of the tee markers, the par-4 14th hole will play either 300 or 324 yards.

Port Place: St. Louis native Ellen Port is one of Missouri’s most decorated amateur players, having won three U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur titles and representing the USA on the 1994 and ’96 Curtis Cup teams. Port has played in several U.S. Women’s Amateurs, reaching the quarterfinals in 1992.

Hopefully I'll be blogging about my experience. This is kind of a big deal and I'm so pumped to play with the best amateurs in the country!

Stewart Cink

Ladies and gentleman, your 2009 British Open Champion presenting his own Top 10 list on Letterman.

Number six is my favorite one. Ha.

Sexy Golfers...Good for the Game?

This girl is a golfer? Haha, yeah. More and more over the last decade or so, women's golf has become sexy. Natalie Gulbis was one of the modern day trailblazers who glamorized golf. Her swimsuit calendars and short skirts on tour was marketed, and still is, toward the middle-aged-Miller-Lite-public golfer who doesn't give a rats ass about what goes on on the LPGA yet they buy the calendars and watch her reality shows. Now, seven women known as the Wilhelmina 7 or the W7, sponsored by the Wilhelmina modeling agency have created a new kind of gossip on tour: Who's going to be Miss January, because its not just Natalie Gulbis making calendars now! Before the likes of Gulbis, female golfers wore knee length shorts, shirts down to their elbows and lacked any kind of fashion on the golf course. Now, the women's golf industry has incorporated fashion icons to model their clothing and created en vogue clothing to sport on the course.

The other day I was approached by my employer because my golf shirt was not "fit to the dress code". My shirt was a sleeveless polo but the back was cut out like a sports bra and apparently wasn't acceptable. In somewhat of a shock, I started pondering about this whole subject. Does she not know that women's golf is trying to make ground on this subject? Women athletes, especially golfers, have been known to be "masculine" if they possess elite athletic skills. They are butch. These girls posing in their swimsuits are proving they have the beauty and the skill. For example, Anna Grzebien, pictured above, won three national championships at Duke and is now playing on the LPGA. I remember when I saw her at a tournament and I would have never thought that she would be part of the W7, but its getting people's attention toward golf.

The obvious argument is that this is degrading to women's character, making a mockery of their actual athletic skill and just using their bodies to give the sport notice. For Gulbis, the argument is that she hadn't won a tournament for the first 6 years she was a professional. She had the beauty but not the game to win. She was noticed for her good looks before her game. That kinda gets at me because being a girl playing a male dominated sport, it seems like I'm always swimming against the current. People don't want to play with me because I'm a girl, or they doubt my talent or skill just because I am female. This all really pisses me off but after I hit one, they shut up. Ha.

However, these girls are bringing that temporary glance at golf. They are showing people that female athletes, like I said before, have the skill and the good looks. However they arrive at the conclusion that they play professional golf for a living, golf is being noticed so I would think that is good for the game. In every aspect of a females life, they are more noticeable when wearing a short skirt and if that gets people's attention, maybe, and hopefully they will notice what great athletes they are as well.

Any thoughts??

The Best Time of the Year

Le Tour de France!!

What an epic event. I am so excited to watch this year's tour not only because Lance is back, but because it has been 365 days since the last one!

Greatest test in sports....

And the coolest tv spots!


What an inspiration.