First group I watched was the Diaz/Ochoa group. Diaz was over on the left of the fairway in the hollow but Lorena was bang in the middle of the fairway. Bog standard par for Diaz but Lorena hit her approach pin high and five feet away and made a nice birdie. Diaz's drive on 11 was bang in the fairway whilst Lorena was in the semi rough on the right side. She went for the green and got on nicely to leave a lengthy eagle put. Diza put her approach in a right hand greenside bunker. She could only get a par but Lorena had a two put birdie for 2 in a row. The 12th was an easier hole today with the reduced wind but neither of them managed a birdie.
I made my way to the 13th green to wait for them to arrive. Lorena had a look at a birdie but although she hit a great put it just wouldn't drop. She looked a little anxious after hitting her drive on the 14th but it was OK.
Headed over to the 6th in time to see Momoko Ueda hoick her 2nd sh
ot into a nasty looking spot short on the right hand side of the fairway. Terry didn't seem to think she could get a club on it sufficiently to go for the green but she was convinced she could. She ended up in the deep left greenside bunker. Next up were Vicky Hurst and Martina Eberl. Vicky Hurst put it somehwere I'd never seen anyone end up before. She was so far right of the fairway and so long she was miles back and deep in the hay. She gave it full welly and only made it to the shorter hay at the edge of the fairway. From there she could only advance it up the fairway a bit. She got it on the green with her next but two putted for bogey. Her playing partner was not doing much better. She laid up but ended up in the deep fairway bunker. She did better than the Japanese lass the day before and got out at the first attempt but a bogey went on her card too.Morgan Pressel was also in one of the deep fairway bunkers on the 6th and was not a happy bunny. Michelle Wie hit a great tee shot on 6 but her 2nd shot came up shot and right. She hit a chip shot onto the green that was pin high but quite a lot left of the flag. She missed the birdie put and gave herself a really hard slap on the leg in anger and frustration. Paula Creamer and Karrie Webb had meanwhile made it to the 3rd green. Mimi was in animated conversation with her caddie as she made her way down the 6th fairway.
Spotted the aussie lasses on the far side of the 6th fairway as Karrie Webb and Se Ri Pak approached. Mutual waving ensued.. They continued on with Karrie. She made par on the 6th after hitting her approach into one of the right greenside bunkers. Soph came through to tee off on the 4th and she was already 3 over after 3 holes. Not a great start. Saw Se Ri Pak's group go through the 6th then wandered off for a cheeseburger. Caught up with Michelle Wie's group on the 11th green. She had been in a bit of trouble off the tee and had put her third shot in a greenside bunker. Her lie and position in the bunker meant she had no choice but to come out backwards. She hit a lovely chip from there and limited the damage by making the bogey put.
Caught up with the aussie lasses. Myranwy confirmed she wouldn't want to be a member at Royal Lytham. In fact she said if this were her local course she would take up lawn bowls. She couldnt believe how evil the bunkers were. They moved on to follow Karrie on the 12th whilst I waited for Christie Kerr to appear on 11 and then wandered over to the 6th green to see Beany play through. Then it was over to the 14th fairway to see Paula Creamer over on the right in a really nasty spot. I was actually trying to head for the crossover by the 15th tee to get back to the tented village.
As the Creamer group was on the adjacent 14th green we wern't allowed to cross over until they had teed off. Unfortunately nobody told the marshalls that Inbee Park in the group in front had hit her tee shot way right and had hit a provisional which was in a fairway bunker. They were still searching for her first ball so there was no chance of them teeing off but they still kept us standing there. Creamer went and sat on the bench they have thoughtfully provided on the 15th tee.
Once the 5 minutes were up Inbee played her provisional out into the fairway and eventually cleared the way for Creamer and Webb. There was nearly a mutiny when they announced that as Kerr's group were now on the 14th green we'd have to wait for them to tee off as well. Luckily they saw sense and let us cross once Kerr and Moromizato were on the 15th tee. Came across Jiyai Shin on the 17th tee. Her caddie handed her her driver and set off at a rate of knots back over towards the 16th. This was Shin putting in place her strange tactic of playing 17 by hitting onto the 16th fairway.
Mika Miyazato's caddie joked with Shin that normally when a caddie quits he leaves the bag behind. Her caddie cleared Inbee Park and Maria Hjorth off the 16th fairway so they were out of the landing zone. It didn't seem to be a great strategy. Double on Thursday and bogey on both Friday and today as I saw from the giant scoreboard later.
Stood by the 18th green to watch a few groups finish off. Karrie came up short on 18 on the shoulder of one of the greenside bunkers. She hit a lovely chip shot onto the green but didn't make the par putt. Watched Kerr finished off on 18 and then headed off to get myself a can of Strongbow. Saw M&M sitting watching the big screen with some red wine and went and joined them. They bought me another can as we watched Beany finish off the day with a 3 shot lead.
They weren't leaving until Monday morning so I told them I would love to have dinner with them on Sunday if they could arrange for me to park at their hotel. They said they would ask at let me know if that would be OK. Headed off back to the car park. With play being over for the day it was a much quicker trip as we could cut across the fairways wherever we liked and straight line the journey. Thought it was going to take ages to get out of the car park but they opened up the entrance as an exit and was away quite quickly.
No comments:
Post a Comment