LONGS DRUG CHALLENGE 

THE RIDGE

AUBURN, CA

My player this week is Jill McGill

Monday: This is the second new venue for this event in as many years and some may say it went from bad to worse. The layout is visually spectacular. Set up in the foothills with dramatic elevation changes and challenging greens. Unfortunately, those elevation changes will wreck havoc on the spectators not to mention the loopers whom will be baring the load of a tour bag on their back. Sore backs, feet, knees and anything else that moves will be in abundance.

The greens are in good condition but the fairways are extremely sparse. "Ball in hand" will surely be in effect this week.

Many caderos are staying at The Foothill Motel in Auburn. Reservations were made with consternation since this is a new area and accommodations were unknown. But we are pleasantly surprised with this "mom and pop" establishment and surely will return if we're here in 2005.

Tuesday: First impressions may be deceiving. This was the case in determining the degree of difficulty we rated walking the course. It wasn't as bad as we though at least for our group. Thank goodness the rest of practice round played faster than the first three holes. I though we were going to be out there for six hours. It only took us five! About an hour longer than usual.

We played with Leta Lindley and Tina Barrett. Leta's husband Matt loops for her and Jeff Steffler for Tina. Jeff's sense of humor is one of a kind and contagious. Laughter was the order of the day. All work and no play makes for a very long day.

Leta is 5'4", Tina a little taller and Jill 6'. This was the order we were teeing off for the first couple holes. After Leta teed off on number three Tina proceeded to put her peg in the ground when Jill quipped "Are we still teeing off by height"? That one received a raucous guffaw. Good one Jill!

Usually, when the fairways are in bad shape they are "blue lined". That is, they are outlined with blue paint to define their boarders so as to determine where you may "lift clean and place" the ball. But there is a dilemma this week. The tournament budget doesn't allow for this extra expenditure and the man power isn't available to perform the work. I don't know how this will be resolved. We may play it up through the green.

I erred last week on the possible location of one of the new events. It was Bermuda not the Bahamas.

Wednesday: Just your typical pro-am but this time our guys could play. Shot 18 under.

Thursday: I call this "Anatomy of a Nine". We made the turn 1 over. Just a so-so performance till now but the drive into the left bunker on ten was a harbinger of things to come. After making a good par we arrived on the eleventh tee box with a decision on what club to hit. It's a par 5, all uphill with a reachable fairway bunkers. We have been hitting a driver the last two days but the tee was up and the ball was running quite a bit. We picked the 3 wood to keep it short of the bunker that lied 250 yards off the tee. Unfortunately, an "over the top" swing put us behind a tree in the left rough. Pitching out to a spot 215 to the front, we still had a chance to get home.

Our 3 wood approach was "over the top" again, rolled up the left rough even with the middle of the green and back onto the cart path. Back down she went! 50 plus yards and right into a bush. Now the decision was to take an unplayable or hit it back towards the tee. Jill picked the later. Now knowing how much the bush would grab her club she gave it a healthy whack. Oops! Caught it clean. Still it wasn't all that bad leaving 136 yards to an uphill green.

Jill picked an 8 iron and "came over the top" again! This one flew the green left an lodged against a tree. Now another decision. She could not take a stance with the tree in the way and would either take an unplayable or hit it backhanded. She picked the backhanded play. Jill got most of the ball and advanced it just short of the putting surface. But do you remember that this hole was all uphill? That means if you're over the green it's all downhill coming back. No way could she stop the ball close to the hole and wound up two putting to end the torment. Ouch! I understand The Golf Channel got it all on TV.

She called me afterward and thought that since we hit it so far backwards it should technically be a par 6. I think my sense of humor is rubbing off. 

To Jill's credit she got two of those shots back and finished +3. Maybe a better day tomorrow.

Heard that the Hawaii event will be held on the North Shore at Turtle Bay and that Tucson still might be on the schedule. But I also got wind that the BMO has decided to forego their sponsorship of the Canadian event and a new patron is being sought. Time will tell.

Friday: Well, it finally happened. Jill "hit the wall". Too much golf has taken it's toll. Six in a row is a bit much for most players and Jill is no exception. Shot another 3 over and we have our weekend free. Did get a couple things accomplished though. Changed her putting grip slightly, and the stroke looked much improved. Augusta is still up in the air. Jill won't decide if it's on her schedule til next week.

Saturday: Believe it or not, Linda Ishii, the first alternate as play began on Thursday, decided to watch some golf before everyone teed off. Bad move. Wendy Doolan withdrew just minutes before she was tee it up and not being able to find Linda, Dina Ammaccapane, the 2nd alternate, replaced her . Wendy's caddie, Tex, never missed a beat and toted for Dina.

Many players and caddies reside in Florida and have been watching hurricane Jeanne with trepidation. A few have left early as the airlines have waived their change fees to facilitate travel prior to airports closings.

Just booked my flights for my trek to Korea and Japan. Found a good deal out of Cleveland but took a great extent of research. Every time I tried to book the return to Japan the price kept going up. This got me thinking "out of the box", after a few well chosen cuss words, and changed my routing. Actually got a better deal with more convenient times. The Internet is a wonderful thing.

Players need to apply for visas for both countries but caddies only for Japan. Luckily, I needed to get a new application, original was way too sloppy, from the LPGA and a notice was included that both player and caddie need to submit their forms together or they will not be processed! Jill was going to let IMG do hers and I was to let the LPGA mine. Whew! Hopefully, an early call to IMG on Monday will help us coordinate our plans. Next Thursday is the cut-off and we need to get it right.

If you noticed I changed the spelling of caddy to caddie in the title of this page. Angus McKenzie, one of our rules officials, corrected my use of the term. This is one of his pet peeves.