When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
...which rules out the 2015 Scottish Open going to Turnberry as many had suspected was the hope for a Scottish Open rota (of sorts). The news should bode well for Renaissance Club's hopes of hosting in 2015.
This will be the second time Turnberry hosts the Ricoh Women's British Open.
Installed as a 5-1 favorite from our good friends at Ladbrokes according to Randall Mell, Inbee Park has karma on her side based on her distant namesake relatives, the Parks of Musselburgh!
Mell writes:
Yes, she’s South Korean, but the name Park is revered in Scottish golf. Willie Park Sr. won the very first British Open ever played back at Prestwick Golf Club in 1860, beating the favored Old Tom Morris by two shots. Park won four British Opens overall. His brother, Mungo, won the Open in 1874. Willie’s son, Willie Park Jr., won two Open titles.
As for the whole Grand Slam debate, David Fay ended the debate on Morning Drive today, reminding us during his hit in between a visit from the latest Big Break winner that Grand Slam was taken from baseball's four-bag home run. Four.
And in our poll here, it's clear you all (69%) agree that she's going for a Grand Slam this week.
As for her game, Ron Sirak says the beauty of her performance to date has been in her "lack of distinctive quality."
Here is how Inbee gets it done: She keeps her ball out of trouble; she never loses her composure, at least not outwardly; and she can putt. All of those are skills that anyone can master with discipline and focus.
In the 216 holes Park as played in winning three consecutive majors she has only had one hole higher than bogey, a double on No. 18 in the first round of the LPGA Championship.
She has done that in large part because she hit 126 of 168 fairways -- 75 percent -- including a remarkable 51 of 56 in the U.S. Women's Open at Sebonack on Long Island.
Inbee has also averaged 28.08 putts for the 12 rounds of her triple.
**Park draws a 7:03 am tee time Thursday alongside Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Beatriz Recari. That's 2:03 ET.
When the LPGA designated the Evian Masters (now The Evian Championship) their fifth major starting in 2013, little could the tour have known that a player would go and win the first three majors of 2013, setting up a debate about what a Grand Slam actually constitutes.
LPGA Tour Commissioner Mike Whan, who is to blame for this first world semantic mess, made his view clear last week on Morning Drive.
"I'll call her a 'Grand Slam' winner if she wins four," Whan explained during an interview on "Morning Drive" Thursday. "I think we've created the 'Super Slam' for five."
Oy. We, being the marketing team I'm guessing?
My vote: this is a Grand Slam. It's four majors in a row.
But let's get the silliness out of the way to focus on a historic week of golf at the Old Course: will Inbee Park be winning a "Grand Slam" this week if she is victorious at St. Andrews in the Ricoh Women's British Open?
Aladair Reid says Karrie Webb was "far clearer than any of the mealy-mouthed utterances the male players produced at Muirfield last week" when talking about the male-only membership issue:
“If you are going to hold a public event, take money from the public and from public companies, it is pretty hard to say that only a certain kind of person is allowed to be a member here. I would have no problem with Muirfield saying: ‘We are a great links course and a private men’s club’, and just never holding the Open Championship there.”
Mickelson tries to catch Stenson in the Scottish Open.
Geezer Michael Allen tries to hold off Perry and Funk the U.S. Senior Open.
Daniel Summerhays leads the John Deere Classic.
Hee Young Park leads the LPGA Manulife Financial Classic with Inbee trailing by 7.
I'll be stopping in at Muirfield for a look around and then making sure that North Berwick is as good as I remember it. Ta-ta!
Randall Mell with some great behind-the-scenes stuff from Inbee Park as the seemingly cool cat was just like all of the perpetual worriers who've won majors, fretting away her Saturday night away en route to a positively stunning third-straight major win in the U.S. Women's Open.
Unable to sleep, Park opened the door of her bedroom and waved for her mother to come inside for a talk. Park confessed she was feeling nervous trying to become the first player since Babe Zaharias in 1950 to win the first three majors in a season. She confessed that she was worried about letting down friends and fellow South Koreans. She confessed she was worried about disappointing her family.
LPGA has designated the Evian Championship in September a major.
Beth Ann Baldry on the possibility of Park winning the Women's British at St. Andrews (talk about stars aligning...), but not a true "Grand Slam" because the LPGA de$ignated the Evian Championship in September a fifth major.
This year, however, there are five major championships up for grabs, and according to golf historian Martin Davis, that means she needs to win all five to, by definition, win the Grand Slam.
The term "grand slam" originates from bridge, a card game in which players win tricks. When someone clears the table, they earn 13 tricks, or a "grand slam." Bridge was quite popular around the time Bobby Jones won the four biggest tournaments of his era in 1930, prompting The Atlanta Journal's O.B. Keeler to use the bridge term to famously describe Jones’ improbable feat.
“It doesn’t refer to four,” Davis said. “It refers to running the table.”
John Strege looks at the putting mastery that is key to Park's success.
Putting guru Dave Stockton believes that good putting begins with the mind, not the mechanics, and that Park "mentally is in a league of her own out there," he said. "What I love that I see is her total lack of being affected by where she stands. She's very calm, very composed and it serves her well. The rhythm with her stroke and throughout the whole swing, most of the time in a U.S. Open you see others losing that. But she's withstood it really, really well. I think it's because of that demeanor that no shot is more important than the last one or a future one. She doesn't change her routine depending on the pressure."
Inbee will be making the rounds Monday morning with her third major championship trophy of 2013. Courtesy of the LPGA media relations folks:
7:30 a.m. – Golf Channel’s Morning Drive
8:30 a.m. – NBC’s Today Show
9:30 a.m. – ESPN’s Sportscenter
The champion's post-round interview highlights from the USGA:
The USGA's recap helmed by Senior Southampton Correspondent Hunki Yun:
Randall Mell reports a real oy veyer from the third round of the U.S. Women's Open at Sebonack.
Korda shot a 5-over 40 on the front nine. She shot a 36 on the back nine with her boyfriend on her bag. By day's end, she was tied for sixth.
“The first few holes, I was very shaky, but my boyfriend/caddie kept me very calm out there, and kept it very light,” Korda said. “And it was kind of funny seeing him fumble over yardage. Like I said, it just kept it very light out there.”
Korda said her boyfriend will remain on the bag Sunday, but he won’t continue to caddie longterm.
“I think everybody has problems every week,” Korda said of the disagreements with Gilroyed. “You blame the caddie, the caddie blames you. It's just up in the air. I just felt like enough was enough today. I just wasn't mentally ready for it.”
Fun anecdote from Randall Mell from Tuesday at Sebonack on the eve of the U.S. Women's Open at the Tom Doak-Jack Nicklaus designed course:
When Doak first inquired whether he could follow Creamer around, Creamer didn’t believe it.
“I asked my dad,`Is it a joke? Is someone playing a trick on me?'” Creamer said.
Creamer, who won the U.S. Women’s Open in 2010 on Oakmont’s treacherous greens, relished the chance to grill Doak on nuances of his designs.
“Why would you do this to us?” Creamer playfully asked Doak of the toughest greens. “I didn’t give him too much grief about it, but he laughed.”
Dave Shedloski talks to architects Nicklaus and Doak about the unusual design collaboration.
Nicklaus said the routing of the course is predominantly the work of Doak, but the tee-to-green strategy shows more of his influence. He figures he moved perhaps as many as half of the bunkers into more strategic locations. Doak designed the greens. Nicklaus liked them, but softened them.
“The look is more Tom’s, and the golf is a combination of both of us,” Nicklaus said. “My idea was to have good, playable golf. Tom will throw bunkers in different places for the aesthetics, so that’s the look. I think the combination turned out well. I learned a lot from this golf course; it’s given me another dimension on how to do golf courses.
Here's a nice video overview and the first glimpses of the Doaklaus design making its debut on a grand stage, this week's U.S. Women's Open.
Mark Herrmann has the backstory of Sebonack and the odd design pairing of Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak:
Logic insisted that, when the time came to design Pascucci's dream course, he hire Nicklaus to do it, which is what happened. Logic left the room, though, when Pascucci insisted that Nicklaus share the job with Doak, the current architecture whiz. The course owner held a meeting at which neither of his guests wanted to be present.
"I remember the tension in that office was incredible,'' said Mark Hissey, who was project manager while Sebonack was being built and is executive director of this year's Women's Open.
At one point, Pascucci left the room, pretending he had a phone call, just so the two men could start talking. Before it was over, they had an agreement, and when they were all done, they had a course that the U.S. Golf Association found major-worthy.
John Strege tells us about England's Jodi Ewart Shadoff, a belly putter since November, 2011 who doesn't seem too concerned about a possible ban on anchoring.
"If they do decide to ban it, it wouldn't be a huge issue for me," she said, following a round of even-par 72 on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club. "I'd have to spend a couple months really working out with a short putter, but it wouldn't be a huge deal.
"Honestly, I've said this a lot of times, but all you have to do is look at my putting stats to know it's not a huge advantage."
Ewart is three back of Inbee Park who leads at -7.
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
