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My player this week is Laurie Rinker-Graham
Monday: Our goal yesterday was to get it back to single digits
but it was not to be. Too many off line shots left us with a +2 round.
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Being a twosome at the end of the field left us with a lot of idle
time, so Laurie volunteered to help rules official Sue Witters mark off
some ground under next to the 12th hole. No a bad job and no overspray
on her clothes.
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We were first off the tenth tee in the third round, also in a
twosome, but last in the final round. The third round's parings were
inverted for TV and was easier to play with no one in front for nine
holes. Thinking it was unfair to be at the end of the field and having
to wait all day I queried Robert O. on the reasoning. Hoping to catch
him in an untenable explanation I was surprised by the logic of it all. He
stated that the first threesome off the back tee played much better
than us and deserved to play at a steady pace all day ant not play one
nine fast and the other waiting on the leaders. They do the same on
the PGA Tour and makes sense when contemplated.
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By the way, 77 players made the cut. If it was 74 or less we all
would have been off the first tee.
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Just under 700 miles to Williamsburg and I made it a little more
than half way last night. Thanks to a heads-up from Laurie, I managed
to circumvent a traffic jamb on I81 and saved about an hour. Cell
phones are beautiful things.
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We were in the afternoon pro-am but I could only stick around for
nine holes. Much more important things to do like the caddie par 3
team event and the $10,000 hole-in one contest! Didn't win either one
but had a blast.
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When we left this venue last year they closed down for renovation
of the golf course. All the greens were redone and some of the holes
were changed. Today was the first play this track has seen since we
were here.
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Had a young amateur in our group today and he could really bust it.
Must have been around 13 years old but consistently popping it out
around 230 off the tee. He was playing from the up tees which
shortened the course considerably and made the par 5's into 4's.
Laurie played with him last year and finished first but only managed a
fourth place finale today. Another team member wrote software for
weather forecasting. Think we busted his chops a little?
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Going to be a long day tomorrow. Walk the course and a practice
round. My puppies will need some TLC.
Tuesday: Arrived at six and departed at six. I knew it would be
a long day but a 5 hour 25 minute practice round is ludicrous! One of the
practice round rules is that if there is a group waiting in the fairway,
chip shots, bunker shots and putts are limited to two each to speed up
play. You can throw that one out the window with a new or changed course.
It seemed endless but a little money riding on the match made it
interesting. Laurie had a $20 Nassau game (with numerous presses) arrange
with Cathy Johnston-Forbes and Brandie Burton joined in for nine holes.
She may not do that again. Cost her a buck-eighty! Laurie took Cathy for
twenty.
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The Spot |
Screwed and Tattooed!
Colin Cann, veteran caddie for the likes of Annika
Sorenstam, Se Ri Pak and now Paula Creamer, heard the most
unfortunate SNAP while retrieving a ball from the greenside bunker
on the fourth green during the practice round. It was his ankle! He
lost his footing and three broken bones were the result. Wilksie was
charting the green and, attempting to come to Colin's aide, went
down himself. Luckily, a grass stain on his butt was all he received.
Colin went into surgery this morning and will have a rod and plate
inserted. Six weeks in a walking cast is on tap. |
- On a lighter note, ran into The Big Break Winner, Danielle
Amiee, affectionately known as Barbie to the tour players, on the
putting green trying the new Hammy putter. Caddie and Hammy Rep.
Tommy Grogan helps with the fit. Sure he is!
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- Congrats to last week's dynamic duo.
Lou and Stacy |
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Wednesday: Easy day. Laurie's two boys are
flying in so we practiced early. Picked up a new set of
Callaway irons and had Paul
bend them to match the set she's playing now. He couldn't believe
how strong she has them set.
- The player over/under pool on Barbie is 84. So far no
takers on the under. In fact, she may play only one day if
things go terribly wrong. An LPGA rule states that if you
fire 88 or higher you don't pass go. Bye-bye.
- Another pool, which runs all year, is the 13 run
baseball pool. If your team scores 13 runs in one game,
win or lose, you win. $5 per week with carry-overs. I have
"The Tribe" (home town) this week. It'll rotate
each week after that.
- Natalie Gulbis is sporting a new vehicle provided by
Hammy Putters but may have the paint job changed to be
less conspicuous. YA THINK!
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- Helped one more cadero order a laptop yesterday. That
makes three in as many weeks. Another neophyte needs some
help setting his up tonight. This one is out of a pawn
shop and doesn't have any of the original software. If we
screw it up it'll be a doorstop!
- The connection at our hotel is abysmal. I keep getting
errors using my FTP program to update this website.
Amazing it's transferring the pictures.
- Camera update. The Fuji
FinePix E550 and the Kodak DX7440
(click links for reviews) were the
two I was considering. I went with the Fuji based on a better
movie mode ( 30 fps in both formats), 6 megapixel versus 4 for the
Kodak and generally more bang for the buck. They both have a
4x optical zoom. The Fuji was a bit
more expensive and takes a XD memory card (picked up a 512 MB for movie capacity), which is also more than the SD for the
Kodak, but thought the features could not be beat for the
price. Just under $300 at Sam's Club. So far very satisfied.
Ready to shoot in about 1 second and no discernable
shutter lag. The Fuji uses AA rechargeable or non-rechargeable
batteries. Which batteries are best? Check out The
Great Battery Shootout.
Thursday: I knew this track played easy today, tees
up and accessible pin positions, so our 2 over which would
have been respectable really wasn't. The wind blew a little
but was manageable. Tomorrow, the shinola is supposed to hit
the fan. Cold wet and windy.
Played with Morgan Pressel and she had it going for a while
till boarding the dreaded bogey express. Reeled off four in a
row and finished two over. She hit into the group in front on
the par five seventh after exiting that string. We just
couldn't stop her in time. Her shot finished a couple steps
short of the green and, with the pin cut only eight from the
front, caught their attention. Failing to get it up and down
from such a short distance didn't help matters much.
- The man running the main scoreboard was running the
Barbie pool. 79 and higher were the picks. She finished
with a 79. A front of 43 and 36 on the back. Good comeback
Danielle.
- Speaking of pools, I have "Greater Good " in
The Derby. $100 to the winner but the way things are going
Greater Good is probably a Clydesdale!
- We all know cell phones are banned from the tournament
so when a walking scorer's rang by the first tee it makes
you wonder.
- My roomy "Boston Ralph" rode his horse, Jan
Stephenson, into a tie for eighth today at -2. Good for him
and her.
- A very vocal gallery today. Hoop'n and holler'n all the
way around.
- Laura Davies was taken to hospital yesterday with a bout
of food poisoning and so was Sherrie, one of the caddies. Appendicitis
was suspected for Sherrie but discounted after a few
tests.
Friday: WASH OUT! Slugged through 7 holes and we
were done. Even par and moving up the board but it was all for
naught. Seems most everyone was heading South and we were on
the rise. We all
start fresh tomorrow.
- Wish I had my camera when we all came in. What a sight.
Doubled-up hats, earmuffs and socks on hands were just a
sample of the garb worn today.
- A long afternoon off had a few caderos honing their
skills with an ad hoc game of chance at the hotel.
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- The party at Busch Gardens is still on. Hope to get
a few pics.
Saturday: Cool, breezy but sunny with
conditions improving as the day progressed but we
played better in yesterday's slop. Chipped and putted to
a "down the road" 77. Maybe next week.
Morgan Pressel had a strong finish and will be
playing tomorrow. Unfortunately, her local caddie won't
be on the bag. The skin on one of his water logged feet
split and he barley made it around today.
- Vicki Goetze-Ackerman struggled through nine holes
in yesterday's abhorrent conditions and eight of
them without an umbrella. After leaving the first
green the wind ripped it to shreds. I'm sure she's
happy with today's restart.
- Absolutely everything gets soaked in those
conditions including the yardage book. One brainiac
decided to dry his off in the microwave. Seemed like
a logical idea till it started smoking!
- Donna Wanna (Rosales's looper) hit the 13 run pool
with the Dodgers.
- What the heck is going on? Two more caddies
visited hospital this week. Yesterday, Jay
Rothenberg was treated for dehydration as a result
latent Montezuma's revenge. Three IV bags of saline
were needed to get him back to normal. He looked
good today but doesn't know if he's able to go 36
tomorrow if needed. Jeff King was admitted earlier
in the week with heart palpations but worked the
tournament.
- Another bag toter, Tom Borwick, has been nursing a
bum right knee for a few weeks but seems to be on
the mend.
- Looks like there is a conflict of interest with
Natalie driving her Hammy truck. Seems Taylor Made
says it violates the contract negotiated with her
and until things get ironed out her caddie Greg will
be tooling around with it.
- Took a pics at the party yesterday and will try to
get them in next week's Caddie Corner.
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