By David Shefter, USGA
Bethlehem, Pa. – Sometimes the numbers don’t lie.
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Saucon Valley's Old Course has Cristie Kerr in a contemplative mood on the sixth hole Thursday. (John Mummert/USGA) |
A quick glance at the course statistics summary for Thursday’s opening round at the 2009 U.S. Women’s Open will show that the par-4 second and third holes on the Old Course at Saucon Valley Country Club were the two most difficult.
The creek fronting the 373-yard third became a repository for golf balls and witnessed a scoring average of 4.806. One player registered a 10; another had a 9. Several made 7s.There were more double bogeys (18) than birdies (seven). Kristy McPherson, playing in the afternoon wave, said she counted 64 balls in the water while waiting for her fellow competitors to play.
As for the 435-yard second, it doesn’t feature any water, yet the uphill par 4 still produced an average of 4.619.
Any wonder why Na Yeon Choi and Lorena Ochoa sit at or near the top of the leaderboard?
They were the only two competitors to birdie holes two and three on Thursday, with Choi carding a 3-under 68 for a one-stroke lead over Ochoa, 2007 U.S. Women’s Open champion Cristie Kerr and unheralded 24-year-old Duramed Futures Tour player Jean Reynolds of Newnan, Ga., who is competing in just her second Women’s Open. Hee Young Park’s 70 was the only other sub-par round.
Despite a perfect day to play golf and nary a breeze blowing through the Lehigh Valley, the 6,740-yard Old Course, the third-longest in Women’s Open history, was hardly in a giving mood. The scoring average was 76.424 and 31 competitors posted 80 or higher.
Kerr, among the early wave of 78 golfers, correctly predicted that conditions would be tougher for those with Thursday afternoon starting times. Of that group, only Choi broke par.
“The greens are starting to get a little baked,” said Kerr, who made three birdies and one bogey. “And there’s no wind to get them … really firm. The edges of the cups are going to start drying out. I’ll tell you, every single pin today with the exception of maybe one or two is near a slope or on a slope. You have to really be paying attention to what’s going on.”
A hole-out from a greenside bunker at the second and a long birdie putt at No. 3 pushed Choi to five under. But consecutive bogeys at five and six combined with closing pars on Nos. 7-9 provided Choi’s final tally of 68, her lowest score by three shots in seven Women’s Open rounds.
Ochoa, who also started at No. 10, rolled in a 50-foot birdie at the second and a 17-footer at the third before making six consecutive pars to close the round.
“That was a good birdie,” said Ochoa of her 3 at No. 3. “I hit a 9-iron [from 111 yards] just to keep it safe. I make sure to hit it five, six yards past [the flagstick].”
Choi, still seeking her first victory in her second season on the LPGA Tour after finishing second to Yani Tseng in the 2008 Rookie of the Year race, opened with three consecutive birdies from No. 10, then added another birdie at the par-4 14th hole. The lone bogey over the first nine holes came at the par-3 17th.
While her 2009 LPGA Tour season has not produced any wins, Choi has four top-10s, including an eighth-place showing at last month’s McDonald’s LPGA Championship. She turned professional four years ago after winning the Korean LPGA’s ADT CAPS Invitational as an amateur.
“This particular golf course is just so difficult,” said Choi through an interpreter. “I think I did my best to play smart golf today.
“Being here for two years now, I think I find it much more comfortable. I now understand better about the magnitude of this U.S. Women’s Open, and to be honest, I think I’m much more comfortable playing on this Tour and these golf courses than I am in Korea. So everything is good for me.”
In eight previous Women’s Opens, Ochoa had never been better than ninth after the first round. Twice, the 27-year-old from Guadalajara, Mexico has owned first-round leads in majors – at the 2007 Women’s British Open where she won her first major and the 2006 Kraft Nabisco when she shot a 10-under 62, but finished second.
“I hit the ball good, but more important, I had the right speed on the greens,” said world’s No. 1 female golfer who owns 26 LPGA Tour victories but is still searching for her first Women’s Open title. “That helped me a lot. One round down and three to go.”
Kerr, 31, has enjoyed a solid 2009 LPGA Tour season, including a win at the Michelob Open at Kingsmill to go with seven other top-10s. Like Choi, she has not missed a cut in 14 starts, but still seeks a second major title to go with her Women’s Open triumph at Pine Needles two years ago.
“Every day is kind of its own separate competition, and today, I did about as good as anybody is going to do,” said Kerr. “This is a pretty solid round for this golf course.”
The surprise first-round score came from Reynolds, who shot 75-82 last year at Interlachen C.C. to miss the cut in her only other Women’s Open appearance. But anyone following the 2009 Futures Tour could see Reynolds was performing quite well. Already she has two victories, including her last event two weeks ago in Hammond, Ind. She also finished second in Mason, Ohio and third in Decatur, Ill., the former coming a day before she qualified for the Women’s Open outside of Chicago on June 15.
“I came out here expecting to have a good round and play solid,” said Reynolds, a member of the victorious Georgia squad at the 2005 USGA Women’s State Team Championship. “So this is a nice feeling.
“It’s just confidence. Wins, they kind of jolt you out there and just make things a little bit easier to … fire at some pins when normally you’d be scared to.”
Notes: Both of Christina Kim’s fellow competitors withdrew on Thursday, creating an interesting twist for Friday’s second round. Martina Eberl of Germany withdrew after nine holes, while Seon Hwa Lee waited until after shooting a 9-over 80 to withdraw due to back issues. To alleviate using a non-scoring marker, the USGA moved Ji Young Oh down one grouping to play with Kim. They will go off the first tee at 1:03 p.m. That created a twosome of Brittany Lang and Helen Alfredsson, who tee off at 12:52 on the first hole…Brandie Burton (back) and Naree Song (hip) also withdrew…Candie Kung recorded pars on all 18 holes in shooting her 71 and produced the only bogey-free round…Other notable rounds included 14-year-old reigning U.S. Girls’ Junior champion Alexis Thompson shooting an even-par 71. She was tied for sixth with Eun Hee Ji, 2009 McDonald’s LPGA Championship winner Anna Nordqvist, Kung, Kristy McPherson and Young Kim…Paula Creamer and In-Kyung Kim each shot 1-over 72s. Both double-bogeyed the third hole…Defending champion Inbee Park shot a 75…McPherson on the difficult par-4 third hole, which played the toughest in round one: “If you make birdie, great; otherwise you just move on. I like No. 3. Hit the fairway, hit the green. Two-putt [and] get on about your business.”
David Shefter is a USGA Digital Media staff writer. E-mail him with questions or comments at dshefter@usga.org" dshefter@usga.org.
