By Dave Shedloski
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Teresa Lu was one of two players to record a sub-par round in Friday's morning wave. (John Mummert/USGA) |
Bethlehem, Pa. – It happens at just about every championship. There is always a non-conformist, someone who defies the group-think, not to mention logic, and goes out and puts up a number.
So far, this week’s U.S. Women’s Open is proving to be an exception when it comes to someone breaking out to be the exception. The Old Course at Saucon Valley Country Club has been an obstinate layout midway through the second round of the 64th Women’s Open.
It’s saying something when the low round, thus far, remains the 3-under-par 68 Na Yeon Choi posted Thursday afternoon. With half the field completing their second round on an idyllic summer morning in the Lehigh Valley, only two players broke par: Teresa Lu at 2-under 69, and Lindsey Wright with a 70.
Seven others, including defending champion Inbee Park, shot level-par 71.
Only a zephyr of wind caressed the tree-lined parkland course, and yet recalcitrant Saucon Valley retained its resistance to scoring when the greens were at their softest and smoothest for the day.
“This golf course just doesn’t allow it,” said Morgan Pressel, the 2005 U.S. Women’s Amateur champion, who followed up a 74 with a 4-over 75 on Friday. “There are maybe three to four birdie holes out there, and even if you birdie all of them, you still have all the other holes to deal with. Your short game has to be money, and you’ve got to get some breaks to shoot anything low.”
Lu can attest to that. The 21 year old from Chinese Taipei, who tied for 10th last year at Interlachen Country Club, found herself with a tap-in birdie at the 210-yard par-3 ninth after she pulled her 5-wood tee shot, got a lucky kick off a mound, and watched her ball nearly roll in the hole.
Australia’s Lindsey Wright, who has top-5 finishes in the previous two majors this year, noted that there is nothing on the LPGA Tour that compares in difficulty to what the players encounter at the U.S. Women’s Open. No wonder she was moved to say that her 1-under-par 70 was “a great round,” even though she’s had 14 rounds lower this year.
“It’s a shock when you come out here because you don’t have time to take a mental break,” said the former Pepperdine standout who was a semifinalist at the 2002 U.S. Women’s Amateur. “You’ve got to be on the ball every shot.”
Park, who offset four bogeys with as many birdies for her 71, went a step further. “This golf course is set up to make bogeys. You’ve got to play a hole perfectly to make a birdie,” she said.
Park said her 4-over 146 total felt like four under par. “I fought really well just to keep it around par."
Choi, speaking through an interpreter, observed, “Most of the courses on the LPGA Tour are par 72, and I feel like this course really should be par 73 or 74.”
Try higher. The second-round scoring average as Friday’s afternoon wave embarked was 76.35, and it was likely to ratchet upward as the challenging greens dried out, making it even more difficult to get close to what many players said were some of the toughest hole locations they have seen this year. Or maybe in a couple of years.
“Usually, the U.S. Open is the ultimate test,” said Norway’s Suzann Pettersen (even-par 71). “They pretty much set the course as challenging as possible. Last year it was a little different. … Par wasn’t necessarily a great score last year. This year it is, and this is where we want it to be, and you've absolutely got to play good golf to get around this place.”
Added Wright, the runner-up at last month’s McDonald’s LPGA Championship: “The course is just phenomenal. You’ve got to have every shot in the bag: putting well, driving well. That’s how it should be. That’s the U.S. Open.”
Dave Shedloski is a freelance writer whose work has previously appeared on www.uswomensopen.com.
