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| Cristie Kerr enters Sunday ranked fourth in greens in regulation. (John Mummert/USGA) |
By Dave Shedloski
Bethlehem, Pa. – The dyspepsia induced by a major championship in general and U.S. Open examination specifically – the angst palpable even as competitors battle to suppress it – results from the unequal probing of a player’s golfing skills, temperament and cognitive aptitude, with the importance of each perpetually shifting as a round progresses.
Today’s final round of the 64th U.S. Women’s Open will surely bring raw exposure of these pressures to the contenders, but not simultaneously and not in the same proportions.
It’s hard not to favor the chances of Cristie Kerr, already a winner of this title, in 2007, who enjoys several advantages over the remaining 71 players in pursuit. Not only does she possess the staggered start she has rightly earned, a two-shot lead over Korea’s Eun-Hee Ji, but also she derives a boost from the intangibles of experience and the tangible benefits all golfers receive from that most blessed of scoring enhancements: precipitation.
When more than an inch of rain pelted Saucon Valley Country Club overnight Saturday, the dynamics of the competition were altered appreciably. The Old Course will still be difficult and long, and still has genuinely punishing rough and deceptive greens. But a soft and slower layout also is a less exacting test, minimizing errors and, thus, is less piercing to the nerves.
There is always the chance that the more inviting conditions will allow a rally by a player well back. Talented Swede Suzanne Pettersen and reigning Kraft Nabisco champion Brittany Lincicome are six behind Kerr’s 2-under-par 211, while Morgan Pressel, a runner-up in the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open, is another stroke behind, at 218. Should one of them triumph, it would break the championship record for greatest final-round comeback, which is five strokes, accomplished six times, the last by Annika Sorenstam in 1995.
That trio, plus anyone else with designs on the title, can take comfort in the opportunity to simply hit golf shots with less consideration for the consequences of inaccuracy. They can fire at will at a course no longer crackling dry and disagreeable to imperfect strokes. Damn the torpedoes and the double bogeys.
The setup might further provoke brazen assault. The forward tees will be used at both the 10th and 15th holes to encourage players to attempt to drive the green. The 18th hole also has been set up to play much shorter, about 380 yards rather than its full 444. Those changes alone shorten the Old Course by more than 200 yards from its advertised 6,740 yards.
Kerr, seeking to become the 15th multiple winner of the Women’s Open, might feel a bit handcuffed compared to her peers. She will have to play the percentages, exhibit the wisdom of restraint more often than her foes. This would be a problem were Kerr not inclined to do this anyway. The 31 year old from Miami, Fla., has shown her steeliness by beating a weight problem and then, with her ’07 Open triumph at Pine Needles, ending a wait problem and claiming her first major title.
“My game is tailored to this kind of golf because I can assess my comfort level going for pins and kind of look at a shot and assess the trouble and the risk-reward,” Kerr said. “Kind of knowing yourself a little bit, use my gut instinct. You really have to think your way around the golf course. That’s what the U.S. Open is all about, and I’m very comfortable now with what I have to do.
“There’s not that question of, ‘Can I do it?’ because I’ve done it. I know that it takes nothing special, nothing extra. It’s just good, solid golf you have to play.”
Good, solid golf is what Kerr has produced thus far, ranking 22nd or better in the key performances areas, with her 37 greens in regulation (ranked fourth) a barometer of her shot-making. That has set up 10 birdies, second most in the field, and, more important, has led to her scoring supremacy after 54 holes.
But her Rubik’s Cube when she steps on the first tee with Ji at 1:30 p.m. EDT is aligning good shots with better thoughts.
“I think [playing smart] is everything,” said Kerr after her third-round 72 that was tactically efficient more than technically proficient. “If you’re playing well, the temptation is to want to try and go for more pins and birdies, and on this golf course, you can’t do it because it’ll bite you right in the butt. You gotta play smart golf. On this course, it’s also about eliminating mistakes as much as it is making birdies.”
The Old Course at Saucon Valley, long and defiant, is inclined to provoke errors and prevent prosperity, and even in its watered down state will retain that disposition. This will cause an infinite variety of conundrums that the field must counter with all their wit and wiles. There is a riddle each must solve and no two players will face the same riddle.
Kerr is the favorite, and not only because of her ordinal advantage. There is more; she seems more mature, more at ease. Perhaps that's because she has exhibited, through her words and deeds this week, that she understands the riddle – and that it comes from within.
Dave Shedloski is a freelance writer whose work has previously appeared on www.uswomensopen.com.
