David Leadbetter (left) and Michelle Wie walk
together at the Ricoh Women’s British Open.
CARNOUSTIE, SCOTLAND |
Parents
learn. Such was the message from
Se
Ri Pak
, who was talking after the Friday
64 which left her in second place on the
leaderboard at the halfway stage of the
Ricoh Women’s British Open at Car-
noustie (she would finish T14).
Pak, who won the U.S. Women’s
Open in 1998, was explaining that only
in the past few years that she has mas-
tered the art of relaxing at the end of a
golfing day – and that she is nowadays
schooling the younger Koreans in the
art of doing the same.
“When they arrive, they work 24/7,
each day,” she said. “They never relax
or have any lighter time. I tell them that
they need to have a better balance and
that they will play better if they do. They
are listening well.”
Asked if her advice does not fly in the
face of what the girls’ parents tell them
to do, Pak answered in the affirmative.
“Part of it with the parents is difficult
and sometimes the parents don’t under-
stand. But it is getting better. The young
players are smart enough to control
their parents and do their own thing.
“Parents,” came her summation,
“are learning at the same time as the
players are learning.”
Brittany Lang
’s last-round 67 and
second place was one good U.S. per-
formance but what of fellow American
Katie Futcher
. Having started the day
at 3-over par, the 30-year-old Futcher
finished at 5 under after a 64.
Out in a relatively ordinary 35, she
was home in 29 – the low back nine of
the week.
Rosie Jones
, the U.S. Sol-
heim Cup captain, watched the figures
go up on the board – and made it plain
that Futcher is the kind of “strong, ag-
gressive player” she wants in her team.
On the Saturday night of the Evian
Masters, competitors attended a gala
dinner at the Royal Hotel in Evian where
one of the guests of honour was
Jean
Van de Velde
. To be ruthlessly hon-
est, Van de Velde was probably the last
person they would have wanted to bump
into prior to playing at Carnoustie.
Cristie Kerr
, when she found herself
next to the old Ryder Cup player, had
felt it best to avoid any mention of the
game. “Jean really loves wine, so our
conversation was more about wine than
Carnoustie. He just wished me luck at
the end.”
Thomas Bjorn
was one of many who
said before the tournament that he
wanted to see the women tangling with
Carnoustie’s notorious water hazard.
Indeed, he laughingly suggested that
officials should put them off the back
tee at the 18th.
“That would sort them out,” he
chuckled.
Meena Lee
bounced over the burn
on her way to an opening 65 but people
did not have to wait too long for a more
dramatic incident as one of the TV bug-
gies drove bang into the middle of the
hazard. The tabloid papers had hoped
to discover that there was a lady driver
at the wheel but, as it turned out, the
culprit was a TV man who was more
concerned with laying cables to his rear
than what was happening ahead.
There was a big screen in the tented
village and, in the Thursday morning
wind, the TV coverage was booming out
across the course. The news, “
Caroline
Hedwall
is bending over her putt on the
18th green,” reached everyone’s ears,
including Hedwall’s.
The Swede backed off her 25-footer,
laughed, and started all over again. And,
per usual, there were plenty of watching
Scots to say how different things might
have been had
Colin Montgomerie
been
the player doing the putting.
There was a worrying development
for the Ladies’ European Tour as
officials from their Dubai and German
tournaments descended on Carnoustie
with a view to holding discussions with
the LPGA. As has happened with the
Evian, the sponsors want more world-
class players in their fields.
Were the Dubai and German events
to become two more tournaments on
the LPGA’s official schedule, it would,
of course, mean fewer spots for the
European contingent.
Meanwhile, the Ladies’ Golf Union
are making a good fist of fighting their
corner. When the LPGA started to boast
of the Ricoh Women’s British Open as
an LPGA “official event,” the LGU re-
sponded with a new championship logo
saying “LGU 1893, Event Owner.”
It turns out that it was
David Lead-
better
who suggested that
Michelle
Wie
should try a belly putter. “She was
so frustrated with her putting that it
was time for her to try something dif-
ferent,” said the instructor.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
Zoom level
fit page
fit width
A
A
fullscreen
share
print
download
clip
SlideShow
fullscreen
Open Article
article text for page
< previous story
|
next story >
add comment
|
read comments
Share this page with a friend
Save to “My Stuff”
Subscribe to this magazine
Search
Help
