Kansas City was such a weird, long, wet week! A practice round canceled, the first round in the books, and a waiting game for the last two. To sum it up, the Tour decided to call it an 18-hole tournament and reduced the purse by 50%. A lot of players and controlling fathers were upset and have made their voices be heard but I think the Tour did their best to make the best decision on all accounts. My mom and I loaded up and headed back to OKC. It’s supposed to be a 5-5½ hour drive but when I get behind the wheel, I try to beat the norm. It’s a game to me and I usually win. My fastest time from Norman to OKC is 24 minutes, which I’m quite proud of. I had to or else my team would’ve left me for a tournament my sophomore year. Lucy Nunn has nicknamed me Jeff (Jeff Gordon) and I must say, she’s spot on. Mama Dye and I made it back from Kansas City in 4 hours 15 minutes, with no speeding tickets! My bladder was yelling at me but we had to make it home in record time! Once we were 15 minutes from home, traffic came to a complete stop. I’ve lived in Oklahoma for 20 years and I’ve never seen it backed up like it was. I knew a hail storm had just come through but what was the deal?! This is what happened….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFv2W7Duqiw
This video is insane
Just some hail along the road
Oklahoma cannot get a break from Mother Nature. It’s awful how much damage people have had because of nasty spring storms. Hopefully it is coming to an end.
The day after I get home from a tournament is usually spent running errands and getting things done. I took the Jeep in for an oil change and was rescued at Wal-Mart for a BBQ lunch with Mike Cluen, a longtime family friend who I’ve been going to see at Golf USA since I was a little girl. His nickname for me is “his favorite A Player.” You’ve never heard a hick accent until you hear him talk. He’s a great man with great life lessons. Later that day I went out to a public course to meet my brother and dad and watch them play in their weekly 9 hole golf league. Brother just got a new set of Titleist AP2s…couldn’t get him to switch to Ping, so I needed to go watch him stripe them. After the second hole I was sick of watching him three putt so I stayed back and watched my dad and his group play. I snuck on and played holes 2-8 with them, without paying (I’m rebellious…I did pay $6 for a dang cart so it wasn’t like it was a free round.) My dad had the night and round of his life and shot 1 over. He has been struggling with his game for a long time and since he’s been watching me play so much lately I figure it just rolled over into his game. At least that’s what I tell him ha!
My club, The Greens, was hit hard by Sunday night’s hailstorm so I was homeless the entire week without a place to practice. The pros around Oklahoma are so kind and never turn me down to play but I feel bad for asking and hate to wear out my welcome. Head pro Chad Lamb at Rose Creek in Edmond let me and my friends come out and play Tuesday afternoon where we had a death match that came down to the last and final hole…girls vs. guys….I won the final hole to bring the match to even and we called it good. It was a fun-filled match that had a lot of trash talking, my favorite kind of golf! Talking crap makes me play harder and gets my competitive juices flowing.
Wednesday I rode out to Duncan, OK with my friend Christina Cung to meet her college team and my old assistant coach at The Territory. The OCU girls were getting ready for the National Championship, which is being held this week in South Dakota and I was thankful they invited me to come play with them. I haven’t been out to The Territory since high school but it’s one of the best courses in Oklahoma. I just wish it wasn’t so far away from the city. I had a good round going but lost two balls on one hole and made a big ol’ snowman. It was late in the round so I finished shooting one over par. We had a great day but had to race back and dodge ‘naders (tornadoes). This is what surrounded the Jeep going 92mph back to OKC.
OSU's Football Stadium in Stillwater
Thursday and Friday were spent at a local public course where I got in a lot of good short game practice. My brother was a bachelor Friday night so he came over and it was the original four for a night. I wouldn’t want to have spent my Friday night doing anything else other than hanging out with them. Adam and I took my dad to the range where I gave my dad a lesson. He just needs simple things to think about and that’s how my pro teaches me, simple! Their company scramble was the next morning in Perkins, OK and my dad was thrilled when he called to tell me that he was pounding 300 yard drives straight down the fairway. He is now asking for more lessons….figures. He’s been so dang hard-headed with me and didn’t want to hear any tips I had for him in the previous years but now that he sees it’s working maybe I can start charging him now. Ha! My dad claims that once I help him with chipping he’ll be shooting in the 60s. I like the confidence but come on now, going from 90s to 60s in a week? He’s not Jesus.
On Saturday morning, Mama Dye and I headed to our second home (OKC Airport) and flew out to Phoenix, AZ. I saw the whole OCU golf team and coach, and 4 high school friends at 6:30 in the morning! It was fun! My mom and I were supposed to stay in my friend's condo in Scottsdale but the AC was broke and there was no way we could stay in a 90 degree place so we checked into the nice, host hotel that was next to the course where I’d be qualifying for the US Open.
I had my first practice round Saturday afternoon at Pinnacle Peak Country Club with Bill, my caddy/Manager of VIP Ping Wrx Fitting aka Big Timer in my books. He paired us up with three more of his co-workers so we were all Ping’ed out. I was afraid all of our clubs were going to get mixed up. We had a fun afternoon playing out in the gorgeous weather. When we finished, it was early enough to sneak in some Sprinkles time…it’s a must when I’m there.
I'm fat, I know
I headed back to the course on Sunday morning for another practice round with Bill. I hit the ball well and figured out my Arizona distances (a lot further than Oklahoma distances). I’m not ashamed though, I did have to hit a bunt driver on a par 3 that was straight into the wind. Thankfully during the actual qualifier I used the 4 wood both rounds.
Pinnacle Peak CC in Scottsdale, AZ
Monday morning was the 36-hole qualifier for the US Open which is being held in Pennsylvania in July. The USGA switched it up this year and had a one-day qualifier, which I really like. I woke up at 4:45am and at 5:15am the sun was out! I’m not a morning person but if the sun is shining that early, I can deal with the early tee time! They set the course at 6800 yards so I knew that that could work in my advantage. We teed off at 7:09am and were finished in 4 hours. I had one birdie, which was a putt made off of the green. I can usually sneak in about 4-5 birdies a round but I knew to be patient and play hard in my second round. I found 0 birdies in the afternoon! Bill and I had a good time out there even though I putted like a blind fool. My speed was off all day long and it was a shame because I was finding almost every fairway and hitting all the other clubs pretty stout. I told Bill as I was walking up to a green, if I don’t make this putt, I’m switching to Scotty Cameron! He knew about how my brother talks to me and tells me I suck so on the green I birdied he told me “hey your brother called and told me you suck.” I laughed and made the dang putt for bird. Bill and the Ping company have taken such good care of me. Look at what my hotel room looked like:
You would think I played Titleist :)
Bill stole my putter one night and redid the paint on my putter and changed it to red. It looks so good now!
Here we are before I teed off
I ended up shooting 8 over with one birdie all day long. I missed making the US Open by 5 shots. I can’t dwell on it too much because I did try my absolute hardest and know that when it’s my time, I will qualify. I’m not going to give up and will just put in that much more time.
We are currently in the plane heading home for a week. I’m going to spend a lot of time on my short game because the next event, The Colorado Women’s Open, is only 6300 yards. That means whoever can make the most putts is going to walk away with the big cardboard check. My brother is my Pro-Am partner so the whole family is going…mom, dad, brother and sister-in-law. It’s going to be a lot of fun. It was my first professional event where I got second last year. I have good memories from it so hopefully we can get a W because I need to bring home the bacon.
Fairways and greens…
Update on my foot:
I went to the foot doctor on Thursday afternoon and had a lot of x-rays taken. He discovered that I have a shattered fibular sesamoid bone in my right big toe. There is no way for it to heal except for surgery. He shot up my foot with a cortisone shot and can continue to do that until I have surgery. Rehab will be three weeks so I'm going to try to prolong the operation until Christmas time.
This is right before I got a shot
Pedicure girl did not know she was messing with a broken toe
End result of the pedicure, slightly bruised but I love Cha Ching Cherry OPI polish!
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