Distaff Doings

I've been a bit remiss in covering the ladies, and occasionally inaccurate (you'll notice they're not at Lake Merced this week, my bad).  So let's rewind the tape and catch up from the beginning.

Shack teed up the event earlier in the week in his Forward Press column:

This week his tour wisely avoids Super Bowl Sunday for the Coates Championship at

Golden Ocala, the theme course featuring “replica” holes from famous courses, including the Road hole and Augusta National’s 13th.

If you know my views on architecture, you know that the worst replica course is still better than nearly every “original” design by so-so architects. As we saw at last year’s inaugural Coates won by Na Yeon Choi, the injection of strategy, interest and a little quirk adds to the tournament viewing fun.

It's far too transparent admission of lameness for me to embrace it, but perhaps I'm merely displaying my insufferable purity.  But they can't replicate the conditions of a Road Hole and to my eye they end up with a pale imitation of the original.

In the prior week's installment, Geoff posed a recurring question to LPGA Commish Mike Whan:

Will we see the LPGA finish on days other than Sunday to help get the tour more attention? 

“We’ve never really resisted the idea, but I have a customer--the check writer--and my job has to keep in mind what they’re paying for and to get them to come back year after year. So we play with that customer in mind as well their customers, the fans and community. A really good Wednesday finish is still going to be worse than a bad Sunday in so many ways. I say to Mike McCarley [President of Golf Channel] that I sell the idea to everyone but push it on no one.”

The obvious trade-off is between television  ratings and local on-the-ground logistics, but nobody is really conceiving of a Wednesday finish.  More like this weeks schedule, when they'll have the Wednesday to themselves and finish early on Saturday.

The computer that does the pairings apparently reads the press:

OCALA, Fla. – The 12:25 p.m. tee time at the Coates Golf Championship should raise a few eyebrows. For the first time since “GimmeGate” last year, Suzann Pettersen and Alison Lee find themselves paired in the same group – for two consecutive days.

“That computer, it’s amazing how it spits things out,” U.S. captain Juli Inkster said facetiously. 

Pettersen and Lee were embroiled in controversy last September at the Solheim Cup in Germany when the Americans’ Lee scooped up her ball on the 17th green at St. Leon-Rot Golf Club. The Europeans’ Pettersen immediately told a rules official that the 18-inch par putt had not been conceded. Lee insisted that she heard otherwise.

I think it might have been more interesting to pair Pettersen with Inkster, one of the few people on the planet that instinctively had the Euro's number and is pretty accomplished with the needle.  But stroke play is a completely different experience and anyone expecting fireworks is a tad naive.

Though there was an interesting development early in the day:

J'accuse Suzann.

I've ignored Ha Na Jang's albatross last week, but if she's going to be this cute about attention will be paid:

Albatross and Birdie.   Birdie is the tall one.

OCALA, Fla. –– Ha Na Jang celebrated her history-making shot by adding a third family dog. 

She named the white ball of fur “Albatross” after becoming the first player in tour history to record an albatross on a par 4 at last week’s Pure Silk Bahamas LPGA Classic. Jang hit a 3-wood from 218 yards on the par-4 eighth hole at Ocean Club. Her mother got another Pomeranian in South Korea to go with their oldest dog, Birdie. Eagle, a Border Collie, lives with her uncle. 

“I need one more dog, ‘Hole-in-One,’ ” Jang quipped.

I'm OK with her shot being a hole-in-one, butt a 218-yard Par-4?  Whatever...

Beth Ann Nichols sets up Lydia' season debut here:

OCALA, Fla. – Lydia Ko has yet to drive a car on the highway. She’s made it to the top

of women’s golf at warp speed, but prefers cruising to Publix in her shiny new Lexus RC F Sports Coupe at 30 mph. 

“Everybody said it's the same as a cart,” said the 18-year-old Ko, “but it's nothing like a cart.” 

Ko makes her 2016 debut at this week’s Coates Golf Championship. Mom, Tina, drove her here from their nearby home at ChampionsGate. Ko skipped the season-opening event in the Bahamas to get in an extra week’s worth of practice. She’s also committed to the ISPS Handa NZ Women’s Open Feb. 12-14, a sign that she hasn’t forgotten her roots.

There's much to enjoy in the piece, but this was my favorite bit:

Speaking of forgettable shots, when Ko first picked up a club at the start of 2015, she had the shanks. She’d just enjoyed the longest offseason of her career, and was shocked to find herself suffering from the dreaded shanks for two weeks. Ko came to Ocala understandably scared. (And then finished second.)

And you'll be shocked to learn that her skills don't translate to our national pastime:

Ummm Lydia, at your tender age kids here are still playing tee ball.

Beth Ann Nichols also had this rather optimistic take (or at least the headline writer did) on one player's struggles:

OCALA, Fla – Lexi Thompson started putting with her eyes closed at the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship. She’d tried everything that week, and at the suggestion of her caddie and father, decided to put what had been a practice technique into play. 

She’s been doing it ever since. 

“It feels like I’m burning a hole through the golf ball with my eyes (open),” said Thompson, who always has been more of a feel player.

Lexi is the Adam Scott of the women's game, a great ball-striker that struggles to get the ball into the hole.  Beth Ann focuses on her strong putting on her first nine, but sort of sweeps under the rug that she looked equally bad the second nine:

Thompson made six birdies in the span of seven holes on the front side at Golden Ocala and shot 32. She putted the ball beautifully during that stretch. On the back side, Thompson said she didn’t putt with the same confidence. She opened the Coates Golf Championship with a 3-under 69, four strokes back of leader Ha Na Jang. 

It’s no secret that the weakest part of Thompson’s game has been on the greens. Suzann Pettersen putted with great success with her eyes closed earlier in her career. Thompson remembers it well.

So Beth Ann, if Suzann putted so well with her eyes closed, why isn't she doing so now?  Because if Lexis is Adam Scott, then Suzann would be Lee Westwood.... obviously without the sense of humor.

Here's the thing....one of the themes of David Owen's authoritative treatise on the "Y" word in the New Yorker is the importance of visual input to the condition.  For instance, no blind golfer has ever exhibited this condition...  If you haven't read David's piece you should do so now.... don't worry, I'll be here when you get back.

So, when I hear of a golfer putting with eyes closed, my mind goes to a very dark place.  I expect Lexi to remain wildly inconsistent with the flat stick...  the good news for her is that in any week that she's an average or better putter, she's likely to cash a nice check.  The bad news?  Have you seen the young lady putt?