Sunday, June 24, 2012

Prague

My time in Europe is over. I can't believe it. 5 weeks across the pond is the right amount of time where you start getting accustom to the taste of Coca Cola Light, lukewarm drinks, not flinching at crazy foreign drivers, and you begin to use European sayings and words without thinking it's not normal for a southern girl to use them. I've always had friends and family travel throughout Europe but I never thought in a million years I would have the chance. This year has been a whirlwind with a lot of last minute across the world travels. Just like any young professional golfer, I have days of doubt with how my season will play out and will my talent be enough to allow me to continue to live out this dream I have. My life is blessed beyond measures and not a day goes by that I don't realize that. I've got the best families back home in Oklahoma City who not only help me financially but are with me every step of the way with positive and encouraging words. They care more about my well-being than my golf scores and that allows me to swing freely and play with a happy heart. God is good. I realized I didn't write about how my 4th week went in Switzerland. I became a local at my bed and breakfast. No one spoke English but when I sat down in the restaurant with a bunch of these old men watching "football" they knew to bring me out a bowl of spaghetti followed up with a scoop of vanilla gelato. I loved it. We had the most beautiful player party down on the water of Ascona. They set up a massive screen so that all the European golfers could watch the Euro Cup. I enjoyed having my American friends Sara Brown and her boyfriend Derek come over for the week. I had been sick the week before in Slovakia and before she left the US she asked if I needed her to bring me anything. I said "yes, a Diet Coke.". I think she was meaning bring drugs for me but the Diet Coke cured me and made me feel so much better! I possibly made my first travel mistake this week and it was not signing up for a local caddy. I'm pretty positive I did weeks before but no one showed up on the first tee for the first round so I huffed it around with my trolley and shot +1, -4 making the cut and playing the weekend! I hired a 21 year old English guy named Ollie who is a regular caddy out on the LET. His player didn't make the cut so she let me use him for the final two rounds. I had such a fun time with him and played okay...just didn't hole enough putts to take it low. Most of the players and I hopped on a charter bus and drove back up to Milan, Italy for the night to fly out the next morning for Prague, Czech Republic! The city of Milan was not convenient to get to from the airport so I stayed put and rested up for my 5th and final week in Europe. The great thing about traveling in Europe is the flights are short and sweet (nothing like this flight I'm currently on back to the States.) I had a long day at the course Tuesday, making really good notes during my practice round. I played with two girls from Finland both Tuesday and Wednesday. That's what I love most about this Tour. The people. We are from all over the world yet we have the commonality of golf and that's what brings us all together. The players and staff of the LET are so friendly and helpful. People learn your name quickly and care about you. But back to Prague...Wednesday morning I discovered my yardage book wasn't in my golf bag where I left it the night before. There had been some problems going on in the bag room with things missing and someone must've gone through my bag and taken my book. I was really upset about it because I spent hours on the course the day before and now I had to start with a fresh book without another practice round before the tournament began. Kind of a bummer but things happen. Interesting fact: in Europe they call yardage books Birdie Books. I like the positivity! On Wednesday afternoon, about 10 LET rookies and our caddies were shuttled to Prague City Golf Club where we played in a 9 hole junior pro am. I'll be honest, we were all exhausted and sometimes pro ams can take the life out of you. This one was different. I played with a 7 year old boy, a 10 year old boy, and a 14 year old girl. We played great! We had to use everyone's drives at least twice so we shot -5 on 9 holes. I was really impressed with how good the kids were. The 14 year old girl could kill her drives when she connected but I felt like the mother of the group as her and her caddy friend smoked an entire pack of cigarettes in 9 holes. That's one thing I can't wait to get away from, smoking! It's everywhere in Europe. In Prague on Thursday I had a short and sweet practice, taking it easy because I was beginning to develop some aches and pains in the old body. That afternoon I hung out with my English buddies Hannah Burke, Ellie Givens and Hannah's caddie Chris. We went out on the river and they pedaled a boat while I sat in the back and relaxed and took pictures. We had dinner out, got ice cream and walked around the city for the evening. I had an early morning round so I made it back to my hotel early. Round 1 was Friday and I met my local caddy Tereza on the first tee. She's a 15 year old girl from Prague. She had never caddied before but she's a golfer so I knew she'd do just fine. On one of the first holes she let me know that she loved America and Americans which isn't something you really hear too often. I kept getting told that Americans are dumb and overweight. That's not a very nice stereotype but as I'm on this flight back to America I can say the latter is definitely true. I haven't seen large people in a long time and I keep catching myself staring at the man who needed to buy himself two seats. Geez. Anywho, I felt really bad for Tereza because one of the other local caddies wore golf shoes so she wasn't allowed to step on the greens to get any of the pins. The other caddy in the group was a mom who stayed far away from the greens so she could get a head start and not lag behind. I had Teresa working overtime, cleaning my ball, grabbing and tending pins and waiting for the entire group to finish out to put the pin back in. She did a fantastic job and kept up which was a huge plus. Something I'll never forget that she told me was that she adored my iron shots. I'd never been told that before but I think she found it interesting that I kept playing my low Oklahoma knock down shot in the windy conditions. We played great the first round with a -1, 71 but Saturday's round didn't work out in my favor. I didn't make putts and I didn't hit it close enough to the hole to give myself a whole lot of birdie opportunities. The wind was tricky for me that day with cross winds and swirly winds which is no excuse but club selection was where I let myself down. I bogeyed 16 and 17 which is never good and I missed making the cut by one single shot. That's always heartbreaking but as soon as I left the golf course I got to thinking "I wonder how much it'd cost to change my flight to come home a day early." I called US Airways as soon as I got back to the hotel and was shocked at the cost of change. It wasn't expensive at all and I'd be spending that if I stayed in Prague an extra day so I have now found myself flying over the Atlantic back to Phoenix. Unfortunately I had to go from Prague to Frankfurt to Philly to Phoenix but I don't care, I'm coming home! What a life changing experience I've had not just these past five weeks but this whole year! I can't believe I had the opportunity to play in such amazing countries this summer but God has been good to me. I plan on not touching the golf clubs for a short while...I might be escaping up to Flagstaff for the weekend to get away from the 115 degree temps do I'll take the clubs then. I've got a lot of catching up to do since I've been traveling for 7 weeks straight. I need to start planning my next adventure which looks like a handful of Symetra Tour events in mid to late July and August on the east coast and if I can find some funds I'd like to make it back over to Ireland and England in August for some more LET events. I'm going to miss the new friends I've made but can't wait to see my Americans again!!! Thank you friends for keeping up with me while I've been gone and cheering me up if I've ever needed it. I'm a lucky girl!

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Switzerland

Warning: this post gets a little graphic! This week I have found myself in Ascona, Switzerland. It is a town in southern Switzerland with a gorgeous lake that borders the northern part of Italy. Driving in from Milan I thought I was in someone else's body. God has been so good to me this year, blessing me with these opportunities to see the world. Last week in Slovakia pretty much sucked so I'll be brief about it. I flew in to Vienna from Amsterdam and went 5 hours east to Brezno, Slovakia. I felt like crap on the drive over and didn't get better as the week went on. The town doctor told me he didn't have magic medicine for me so I suffered last week. The golf course was pretty neat, sitting on the side of a huge mountain but the greens were by far the worst conditioned greens I've ever seen. Not only did they have elephants buried under them but the grass was sparse and just not legit. I know this is terrible but I will not be back to play that course. I almost withdrew from the tournament because of how bad I felt and the lack of preparation for the tournament but I figured if I'm still breathing, I can still play. I saw stars out there the first day. I had a local caddy named Milan who couldn't speak any English. He has never been to the United States. It actually shocks me what he probably doesn't know about the rest of the world, Slovakia is so far opposite of the US! I'm really learning patience by having local caddies each week who I can't communicate with. I really miss having my boyfriend on the bag each week. We're a great team and do great together. I gave it my all both rounds and missed the cut by a few. I took a 6am shuttle from Slovakia back to Vienna Sunday morning. I was ready to get done with that week and be back with civilization. I spent 24 hours in Vienna. I checked straight into my airport hotel and walk right over to the Vienna airport to find me a doctor. She looked at me for two seconds and wrote a prescription. I went upstairs, got the meds, and found a McDonalds. I was sitting there eating a burger that I couldn't even taste and started popping my pills. First one went down fine, second one, not so much. It was huge and acidic and once it hit my tongue, I knew something wasn't right but I downed it quickly with my Coca Cola Light. Immediately I started spewing and gagging. I grabbed my things, left my brand new McDonald's lunch sitting on the tray and sprinted for the nearest bathroom. Keep in mind I'm spewing as I'm doing so. It was a very low point in my life. I lost everything I had in my body for about the 15th time that week. Awesome. I'm a champ though and went back out for my McDonald's but someone had thrown it all away. Danget. If anyone was wondering, the second pill was supposed to be thrown into some water and drank... Later that day I hopped on a train to the city center of Vienna. I'm getting the hang of the trains and totally guessing what foreign languages mean. It's all a guessing game but it's kind of part of the adventure. I made it and walked around for a little while. I really wasn't feeling the whole site see, take pictures of a new city thing, I just wanted to be back in bed with a book and maybe my sudoku. Yes I'm sick with no energy but even on a good day I love being in my comfy clothes and being lazy, I'm great at it. Monday I walked across the street from my hotel to the airport and left Vienna for Milan. It was a short hour flight with the whole plane being tour players and caddies. Once we reached Milan we all got on another tour bus and drove two hours north to Ascona, Switzerland. The drive was unbelievable. I was trying to finish watching my Game 5 of OKC-San Antonio on my iPad (I'm a bit behind) but the views around us were incredible. We drove past Lake Como which is where I believe George Clooney owns a home. I'm going to try to get him to be my local caddy this week. I can't believe I'm here but I'm so thankful. Today was supposed to be our only practice round day but it was completely rained out so thankfully the tour is cutting the double pro ams tomorrow to 9 holes a piece so we can all get out there and squeeze in a practice round somehow. I did manage to hit balls today which was nice. Sometimes after traveling your body needs a day of just that to get back into rhythm. Even though my sports psychology coaches wouldn't like this, my mind wanders when I'm on a range. Today, I got to thinking about how much I've grown up in the past 7 years. When I first got to OU and we would head out for a golf tournament, it freaked me out if my coach ever asked me to check the team in at the airport. I didn't know the first thing about checking in for a flight. Now it didn't take me long to figure that out and to start driving the whole team to the airport but even more so, nowadays I'm traveling all over the world solo and not giving it a whole lot of thought. It doesn't make me a better person or anything like that, it just is funny how much experience changes you. I had a feeling leaving the country in May for 6 straight weeks that I might come back a different person. You know when you get out of a movie you feel like you've been changed? I feel that way after being gone so long and being thrown into some foreign things! Anyone ever play the game The Sims? Remember how they talk? German maybe? I feel like when I was in Germany especially I was surrounded by a bunch of Sims. Now you guys should see me this week. It's hilarious. The ladies running my hotel know zero English and I mean ZERO! Somehow I got a nice bowl of spaghetti and water last night for dinner and extra pillows and a blow dryer in my room when I got back up to my room. Perhaps it's because I went on a translation website and typed in some words and wrote it on my iPad. They were cracking up at me but a girl has to get what a girl needs! I think they're washing my clothes now... Just to give you guys an idea of how expensive this town is: my stomach was yelling at me on the driving range so I went into the clubhouse for some lunch. A sandwich and fries, no drink, was 32 Swiss Francs... I'm starving at the moment.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

European Tour

Man. For some reason this blog is like homework to me even though I truly do enjoy writing and it is for my own benefit so that one day I'll be able to go back and look at it and remember all the cool and crazy things I was a part of. I'm going to put the blame on the fact that my laptop was stolen in March and typing without keys just isn't the same...enough procrastination talk, I'll get on with the story. I left the US May 16 for my best friend's wedding in Cancun. I had a glorious time and the wedding was beautiful. I returned back to Phoenix for less than 24 hours to pack and prepare for a 5 week golf adventure in Europe. I was stressed to say the least. I don't remember crying that much in all my life. I just wanted to sit still for a few days and instead my schedule was asking me to be in too many places at once. Qualifying for the European Tour in January was such a huge accomplishment and since I earned my full card I better make sure I played in as many events as I could. I signed up for 5 events in a row without giving it a whole heck of a lot of thought. Miss the boyfriend. Miss home. Miss family. Miss USA. That's a crap ton of golf. Tons of travel. Puts a lot of stress on this old body of mine. Anywho, I signed up for it all and I'm committed to it by golly!! I've got so much to be thankful for and I know that. It was my goal before leaving my country not to take a day in Europe for granted. I left the States and arrived in Munich where I was picked up in a €160,000 Audi. Not too shabby. It was on day one where I felt like death. So exhausted and just didn't feel like my normal, healthy self. I played 18 holes of a practice round immediately following my transatlantic flight and hadn't had much to eat in the past few days. I love my food and without it, I'm a different person. I played with Heather Bowie-Young and Carin Koch who are both Ping players and both have Oklahoma connections. I roomed with two Americans Hannah and Jennie who are Asian so I was able to make a ton of Asian jokes with them all week...loved that. We stayed at a cute bed and breakfast that this lovely German lady ran who spoke hardly any English. My local volunteer caddy for the week was a cute 15 year old German girl named Natalie. She didn't speak much English either but it worked out perfectly. The course was in fantastic shape. The crowds were huge. The weather was perfect. I couldn't have asked for anything more except better health. I didn't eat all week due to severe cramping in my tummy and finally saw a doctor on Sunday who threw me in an ambulance at the course and stuck an iv in me. I made him write down what he was putting in me so I could look it up...after the fact. What he put in me is banned in most of all countries including the US and it is something that vets use in animals. I'd be okay if I were to start barking. Whatever it was, it helped and I felt great from that point on. My roommates for the week and I did a lot of site seeing. We took the train into the city three times and saw tons of cool things. One train ride I actually ran into a group of OU students who were studying abroad. I got my picture with them. I love small world stories! They even knew my sister-in-law's family. I'm not too sad I missed out on the German food by not eating. Not offense but it's just not my cup of tea. Renting bikes and riding through the city and English Garden however was amazing, I felt like I was on a movie. My bike was made in the 1700s and me pedaling my body weight didn't work out too well... One other highlight to the week was I test drove a €220,000 Audi R7. Ridiculous. Loved every minute of it. I had to drive this auto review blogger German man who was talking nonstop in my ear as I'm trying to listen to the gps lady and enjoy the beautiful countryside of Munich which was a bit of a downfall but I didn't wreck the car so I consider it a great success! I flew out the next Monday to Oslo, Norway back down to Amsterdam, Netherlands. Oslo was a place I wanted to stay. It looked gorgeous!!! Maybe one day... I took a train from Amsterdam down to Rotterdam with more of my Asian friends Esther and Steph. This tournament town was completely different from the previous week. We stayed in the heart of downtown Rotterdam. Lots and lots of people with all sorts of shopping and restaurants around the hotel. A group of friends and I found a Mexican restaurant which was the best meal I've had since being gone. I decided to enjoy a nice frozen strawberry margarita with my fajitas that came out on a normal plate, no sizzling required...they were still great. When we were finished the waiter brought us all free tequila shots. My Asian friends freaked out a little bit but pulled through and took one for the team. It was actually the best tequila shot I've ever had...pain free. I'm American and so proud to be one. I love our food and it's all my body knows and wants. One night I had to go get me some McDonald's. When I went in the McFlurry machine got crazy and flung ice cream all over the place. I love it when I get to experience things like that. The girls working behind the counter had it thrown right in their faces and hair. They were freaking out and laughing and yelling all this Dutch talk. 20 minutes later I got my quarter pounder and fries and was a happy American! I had another volunteer caddy for the week...actually two and I didn't even fire the first one. A father and a son. Both nice guys and very similar in personalities. The father had a previous engagement on my second round so his son graciously carried my bag. Such a sweet family and I played well until my final round when my dang health went south again. Woke up Sunday morning feeling dreadful. Tried to get some flu-like meds but anything our physio had was against our drug policy so I tried to play through it and just played poorly. Made a cut, made a check but definitely planned on forgetting about that final round and move forward to the next week. I hopped on a charter bus that left the course in Rotterdam and took us up to Amsterdam's airport. I found a train that led me to Amsterdam Central then hopped on a tram that led me to the area where I had booked a hotel for the night. I was regretting my decision while I waited 30 minutes for the hotel girl to come get me at a restaurant and lead me to my hotel...in an alleyway with bones and trash and nasty stuff all around. Looking back on it now, I've got a great experience and vision of what Amsterdam is like. Hotels in Europe appear veeeerrryyy differently online as they do in person. They're never as nice. The place was sketch but I dealt with it for just a night. I had needed to do laundry for days now and had a night in Amsterdam to do so but heck, I was in Amsterdam. Laundry could wait. I headed out to grab dinner around 10pm to the local McDonalds. I walk up: "Can I get a cheeseburger?" "We're all out." "Can I get a hamburger?" "We're all out." "Can I get some nuggets?" "We're all out." Keep in mind I'm not in some small quaint southern town that goes to bed at 7pm. This city never sleeps! I left and grabbed a Subway down the street. I kept asking people where's the Red Light District and slowly but surely I found the red lights! You kind of just stumble upon it. So here I am, solo 25 year old girl, munching on a subway, ball cap on walking through the paths of the the Red Light District. I saw what I went to see, more than what I went to see actually. I couldn't look them in the eye. It felt like a dream. I had to get out of there. I went and found Anne Frank's house just for a nice history pic. I walked miles that night! Got back to the alleyway hotel and tried to sleep for 4 hours but the pot smoking cafe down below did not get quiet until 4am. My taxi man got me at 5:30am. Great experience though. That's what Amsterdam is all about! Took a taxi to Amsterdam Central, trained to Amsterdam airport, flew to Warsaw, Poland with an American and Australian friend then down to Vienna. On my way from Warsaw to Vienna you could say I was a little tired. I sleep on planes. Like a champ actually. Invest in Bose headphones anyone who travels a lot! So here I am, holding a hot tea in my right hand on the tray, sitting in seat f, right side plane, window. Dozing. My left hand shoots straight up. No biggie, just a little reflex. I go back to sleep. Time goes by. My right hand gets a reflex. Straight right. I threw hot tea directly onto my neighbor lady who spoke 0 English. I woke right up in a panic and started rubbing her down with my napkin all over her pants and almost private area. I felt so bad but now looking back on it, it's one of the funnier things I've ever done. She's ok in case anyone was wondering, the tea wasn't thhhaattt hot. We arrived in Vienna and hopped on a huge charter bus that went east to Bratislava and picked up more players then much more east to Brezno, Slovakia. Home of lamb? Not much going on in this town. Beautiful, beautiful part of the world but I cannot imagine living here but I guess if this is all you know, it's all you know. The bus ride really kicked my butt and I began feeling even worse. Tuesday I didn't even get out of bed. I haven't slept that much since I was a kid! Wednesday I made it out for a quick 9 hole practice round and a mandatory party then back to bed. Today is Thursday and I made it out for a quick back 9 practice round and found the doctor and am back in bed. He thinks it's the flu but gave me some Slovak pills and wants me to come back and get some chest X-rays. Lovely. The great thing is its all free. I hope? In Germany I didn't sign for anything when I was iv'd up so European healthcare is a pretty sweet thing. I'm really ready to start feeling better. Being sick sucks and it just isn't who I am. I actually hit the ball the best I've hit it in a long time this morning and I was in my worst condition of having absolutely nothing in me with a sleepless night but back in my balling' days I played my best when I was sick so that's what I'm leaning on for this weekend. I've never WD from a tournament in my life and my goodness I want to keep that streak going. Some other notes: Thunder brings tears to my eyes. Dream come true for me and I'm missing all of it but am their number one fan. I'm a much pickier eater than I thought. I am drawn to funny foreigners and am making funny friends from all sorts of countries. I'm losing my tan. This is scary but I'm getting used to not watching tv. I don't like it. Different languages give me a headache. Shhhhh I didn't say that! I miss ice in drinks. I'm going to gain 15 pounds the first week I'm back in the States. See you soon Chick Fil A! I'm a champ at sudoku now. Hard level style! I learned how to eat the English proper way with utensils. It'll take me three hours to eat dinner but that's ok, I'll be proper. These folks say "Kendall is ccuuunnttrryyy." The LET Tour is a wonderful tour and I wish we could adopt a lot of their ideas back in the States. I've got amazing friends who have helped me get through being a little homesick and pushed me to staying positive. I need to still find some skinny pants so I can come back to the US looking all European. (won't happen) Thank goodness for FaceTime and iMessage! I got to see my first unborn niece's face last night and she is going to be here before I know it! Sparkling water is just not a good invention. I might have gone through 2 sleeves of balls in 3 weeks of golf. Crazy. I think I'm going to be in culture shock when I get back home. Europe is something everyone should experience.