Welcome to the Tour Blog, where Golfweek reporters deliver the latest inside news and happenings on the
PGA Tour, LPGA and European Tour.
Editor's note: This is the archived
material from the Kraft Nabisco and the run-up to Augusta.
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – Rafael Alarcon is here at the Kraft Nabisco
for the first time watching his student, Lorena Ochoa. What
particularly impressed him about her third round? The way she got up
and down for par on Nos. 5-7.
“The way she made those pars on
the front nine is the reason she came back and made the birdies,”
Alarcon said. “Sometimes good pars help you stay patient.”
Alarcon
felt the speed of the greens fooled Ochoa in her round of 71. But
considering the tenacity of the wind she experienced from start to
finish, Team Ochoa will take a one-stroke lead. The greens are
incredibly firm and the fairways soft, a difficult combination to
master.
“It’s playing almost as hard as I’ve ever seen,” said
Ochoa’s veteran caddie, David Brooker. “If you’re coming out of the
rough you have to land it short of the green.”
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted April 5
RANCHO
MIRAGE, Calif. – Cristie Kerr had dinner at P.F. Chang’s Friday night
where she opened a fortune cookie. It read: “A great day ahead.”
Maybe
Kerr should’ve picked up a lottery ticket while she was at it. The U.S.
Open champ carded seven birdies and one bogey to shoot 66 and vault up
the leaderboard in the third round of the Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Kerr currently sits two shots behind the leader at 4-under 212.
“Sometimes
all it takes is a little belief,” said Kerr, who called this her best
ball-striking day of the year. Kerr missed one green on a windswept day
in the desert. Her caddie, Jeff King, counted six putts that grazed the
hole and didn’t go in. It was almost better than great.
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted April 5
RANCHO
MIRAGE, Calif. – Juli Inkster was cruising along at 2 under Friday
(even for the tournament) when the wheels came off down the closing
stretch. The two-time Kraft champion bogeyed Nos. 16 and 17 and then
tripled-bogeyed the last to shoot 75. Inkster made the cut on the
number at 5 over.
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted April 4
RANCHO
MIRAGE, Calif. – An argument could be made that I am stuck in another
era – the non-digital, non-flashy era – and I wouldn’t argue with such
an assessment.
Regardless, the ultra-modern electronic
scoreboards at the Kraft Nabisco Championship drive me nuts. I want to
know what the leaders are doing, yet these scoreboards force me to wait
through a cycle of largely meaningless scores, stats and announcements
until I can see the leaders.
I don’t care who is tied for 30th. I want to follow the top 10 players.
Furthermore,
these scoreboards remove one of the great pleasures of golf watching –
seeing what the leaders made on each hole. In Scoreboard World, each
player has a total and that’s it.
Take me back. Way backkkkk.
– James Achenbach
Posted April 4
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – Mi Hyun Kim has made birdie on two of her first five holes and is one shot off of Lorena’s lead.
Much of the talk this week has been about Paula Creamer’s quest
to shed the “best player never to win a major” tag.
Statistically speaking, that label actually belongs to Kim. She and
Rachel Hetherington lead active players with eight victories without a
major.
Kim’s parents used to say she could not get married until she wins a major.
“They change their minds because I’m older now,” Kim told
Golfweek’s Beth Ann Baldry. “Now if I have a good boyfriend it doesn’t matter.”
Kim started dating Olympic gold medalist Won Hee Lee in Korea during the offseason after they rehabbed at the same hospital.
– Sean Martin
Posted April 4
RANCHO
MIRAGE, Calif. – Amy Alcott, one of two three-time winners of this
tournament, said before her second-round tee time that this will be her
final Kraft Nabisco Championship.
Alcott, 52, won this
tournament in 1983, ‘88 and ‘91, but has missed the cut in six of the
past eight years and hasn’t finished better than 68th.
Her
biggest contribution to the tournament came 20 years ago, when she
became the first champion to leap into the pond surrounding the 18th
green.
“This is not an easy thing to do because I have so much
of my personal golf history is tied in with this tournament,” Alcott
said. “I have been so privileged to play some of my greatest golf, have
some of my most brilliant wins and memories here.”
Alcott played
“the best golf of my life” at the ‘91 Kraft, soon afte her mother had
passed away. She ran into tournament host Dinah Shore in Los Angeles,
and Shore told her to win another title for her mother. It was also
Alcott’s last LPGA victory.
“(Dinah Shore) says, ‘You know
you’ve got to go out and win my tournament just one more time because
it’s my 25th anniversary’ ” Alcott said. “And she says, ‘I’ve just
always been a little ticked off that I never got to share in that
thrill of going in the water.’
“It was a week all the stars
aligned and there was magic in the air, and she was behind the green
there in her black slacks. She always used to wear white pants with her
Nabisco coat, and I said to my caddie, ‘She means business. She
definitely doesn’t want her pantyline to show in white pants.’ ”
– Sean Martin
Posted April 4
RANCHO
MIRAGE, Calif. – It’s 1:04 p.m. and Lorena Ochoa has taken the lead for
the first time in the Kraft Nabisco Championship. Ochoa two-putted for
birdie on the par-5 second moments after Karen Stupples made bogey on
No. 10, her first hole of the day. Ochoa is at 5 under and has a
one-stroke lead.
Even though she’s only two holes into her
second round, Ochoa’s lead actually could be larger. She missed a
7-foot birdie putt on No. 1 and a 20-foot eagle putt on the next hole.
– Sean Martin
Posted April 4
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – Why is it that so many touring pros pick up distance after shortening their swings?
This
is exactly what has happened to Lorena Ochoa. At least, that’s what she
says. “My backswing is shorter, and I hit the ball longer,” she
proclaimed.
In Thursday’s opening round of the Kraft Nabisco
Championship, Ochoa consistently outdrove playing partner Morgan
Pressel by 35 to 40 yards. After the round, she was asked the kind of
question that all touring pros hate: “When you looked back and saw
Morgan, and probably needed binoculars to see her, did you ever feel
sorry for her?
“No,” Ochoa replied shyly. “I like her, but what can I do?”
Ochoa credits instructor Rafael Alarcon with shortening her swing. She says she is hitting the ball more solidly.
She credits a fitness program for increasing her strength. “I work out a little more, a little more weight,” she said.
And she credits a new golf ball, the Callaway Tour i, with adding distance as well.
How
much longer is she this year? “Maybe five or seven more yards with a
driver,” replied the woman who averaged 270.6 yards off the tee in 2007.
– James Achenbach
Posted April 3
RANCHO
MIRAGE, Calif. – Emergency sirens blared as Lorena Ochoa prepared to
hit her third shot on the par-5 11th hole. Instead of backing off and
waiting for the noise to pass, Ochoa hit her wedge shot to 1 foot for
her third of four consecutive birdies.
It may have been a warning sign to the rest of the field.
– Sean Martin
Posted April 3
RANCHO
MIRAGE, Calif. – If you’re wondering why scores keep randomly changing
at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, you’re not alone. The leaderboards
have been wrong all day here, mostly erring on the low side.
The
board had Hurst at 6 under through six (she was 3). Lorena Ochoa,
Annika Sorenstam, Reilley Rankin and Mi Hyun Kim all had inaccurate
scoring reports at some point during the first round. (Unfortunately
for Laura Davies, her 10 on No. 18 was correct.)
Fans already
were confused after the pro-am pairings from Tuesday were reprinted for
Wednesday, meaning no one had a clue who was where on the course.
It’s all one big guessing game so far this week at the year’s first major.
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted April 3
RANCHO
MIRAGE, Calif. – Maria Jose Uribe is keeping the tradition of strong
amateur play alive this week with her 2-under 70 performance in Round
1. The Colombian is currently tied for sixth, while fellow collegian
Mallory Blackwelder (71) is tied for 10th.
This week is a
family affair for Blackwelder, whose father, Worth, caddies for Juli
Inkster. Blackwelder’s mother, Myra, is a former LPGA player who now
coaches golf at the University of Kentucky where Mallory is a junior.
Worth kept his eye on the leaderboard all day, and snuck out to take a
picture of the family name on the big screen when he’d finished his
work with Inkster.
The Wildcats will play in the Alabama
Spring Tournament without their coach and No. 1 player this weekend.
The Kentucky athletic director gave his blessings for the pair to make
the trip out West, a good move given the amount of publicity the school
will receive if Blackwelder keeps up this pace.
As for Uribe,
get used to seeing her in majors this year as the UCLA freshman plans
on playing in all four. Her victory over Amanda Blumenherst last summer
at the U.S. Women’s Amateur opened the doors to professional golf’s
most elite events. The catch is, to play in the Ricoh Women’s British
Open the 18-year-old has to skip this year’s Amateur in Eugene, Ore.
As of now, Uribe said she plans on going back to UCLA next fall, but adds that “anything really good can happen.”
“I think that life has steps that you have to take,” Uribe said. “Right now it’s college golf.”
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted April 3
RANCHO
MIRAGE, Calif. – Good day for Japanese golf. Ai Miyazato posted seven
birdies and finished tied for second at 4 under. Rookie Momoko Ueda
came in with 70 to leave a pair of Japanese stars in the top 10 on Day
1 of the Kraft Nabisco. And there are dozens of Japanese media members
here to capture their every move.
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted April 3
RANCHO
MIRAGE, Calif. – Mission Hills Country Club is 3,000 miles from and 50
degrees warmer than the site of Amanda Blumenherst’s last tournament.
The Duke junior and No. 1 player in the
Golfweek/Sagarin
College Rankings finished second Sunday at the Bryan National
Collegiate in Greensboro, N.C., before departing for the Kraft.
“It
was so cold, I could’ve sworn I saw snow,” Blumenherst said on the
putting green after her first-round 73. “Now I haven’t seen a cloud in
four days. It’s weird swinging in one layer.”
Blumenherst, who
finished T-10 at the 2006 U.S. Women’s Open, is making her Kraft debut.
She made birdie on two of her final three holes to shoot 73 Thursday.
– Sean Martin
Posted April 3
Here's a sentence you'll never see on the PGA Tour, at least not at a major championship:
Nicole Perrot is out of the Kraft Nabisco Championship after missing her pro-am tee time Wednesday.Though,
come to think about it, can you imagine what Joe Business Guy would
pony up to play Augusta National on the Wednesday before the Masters?
Billy Payne, hope you're not listening!
– Jeff Babineau
Posted April 3
RANCHO
MIRAGE, Calif. – Things looked promising for Laura Davies after she
holed a 9-iron from the rough on the par-4 12th hole (her third) for
eagle. But it didn’t take long for things to turn bad. Back-to-back
bogeys on Nos. 15-16 dropped her to even par, but a whopping 10 on the
par-5 18th hole is what sent her over the edge.
Davies drove the
ball in the right rough and layed up with a 4-iron. She had an awkward
stance from for her third shot from 120 yards. Davies stood in shock as
the ball found the water and then thinned a wedge over the green.
Her
chip shot (sixth) then ran off the green and back into the water. She
chipped again and flirted with the same fate, but stayed dry and got up
and down for 10.
“I walk off with a 10 there and the tournament is over,” said Davies, who finished 4 over. “It’s just sickening.”
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted April 3
RANCHO
MIRAGE, Calif. – Old habits die hard, Natalie Gulbis continues to
discover. After playing in Singapore at the HSBC Women’s Champions,
Gulbis headed home to Nevada for two weeks to work out some kinks. The
first week she spent with instructor Butch Harmon, and then headed to
Mission Hills to do a little preview work before the Kraft.
“I
picked up a lot of bad habits on the first couple weeks on tour,”
Gulbis said. “I got long, my posture was dropping. ... I was getty
handsy with putting.”
Everything is now on the upswing, Gulbis
is pleased to report. Her best finish at a major came here in 2006,
when she tied for third. Gulbis finally got that first win out of the
way last season at Evian. Could a major be next?
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted April 3
RANCHO
MIRAGE, Calif. – Mission Hills director of golf course operations David
Johnson predicted Wednesday that even par would be this year’s winning
score at the Kraft, three shots higher than last year. One problem –
the rough isn’t growing. Johnson and his crew fertilized last week –
just like last year – but the rough is only at 3 inches, not the
“ideal” 4 to 5 inches.
“I was out there the other day thinking, ‘Grow, please grow!’ ” defending champion Morgan Pressel said.
– Sean Martin
Posted April 2
RANCHO
MIRAGE, Calif. – Nicole Perrot is out of the Kraft Nabisco Championship
after missing her pro-am tee time Wednesday. Perrot was scheduled to
tee off at 10:35 at Mission Hills’ adjacent Palmer Course.
It’s
the same rule that knocked John Daly out of the Arnold Palmer
Invitational a couple weeks ago. It’ll go down in the books as a WD.
Another reason pro-ams and majors don't mix.
– Sean Martin
Posted April 2
RANCHO
MIRAGE, Calif. – Lorena Ochoa’s dating life has never created a whole
lot of buzz here in the U.S. But you can bet her new relationship with
AeroMexico CEO Andres Conesa will cause quite the stir in Mexico.
Ochoa
and Conesa confirmed Sunday at the Safeway International that they’ve
been spending a lot of time together in recent months. Conesa was in
the desert watching Ochoa win her second title of the season and came
into the media room to listen to her interviews. AeroMexico is a
longtime corporate sponsor of Ochoa’s, and Conesa has been CEO for
three years.
Knowing how humble Ochoa is, she probably still walks back to economy class every once in a while.
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted April 1
RANCHO
MIRAGE, Calif. – Michelle Wie isn’t playing this week at the Kraft
Nabisco Championship, but she’s still in the news. The
Democrat and Chronicle newspaper of Rochester, N.Y., reported today that Wie has been given a sponsor exemption to the Wegmans LPGA this summer.
For
years now, Wegmans has tried to get Wie in the field, but every year
she’s turned them down. This time, it was Wie who came calling, and
organizers opened the door.
There’s no doubt the Stanford frosh
still creates buzz wherever she goes. But it seems high time Wie starts
earning her way. She doesn’t deserve this spot over a college star such
as Stacy Lewis, who actually has plans to play on the LPGA after
graduating from Arkansas.
But Wegmans isn’t the only
tournament willing to give her another shot. Wie’s next event is the
Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill May 8-11.
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted April 1
RANCHO
MIRAGE, Calif. – Considering her fervent support among Mexican fans,
it’s no surprise Lorena Ochoa is a big draw at the Kraft Nabisco here
in the desert of Southern California. That’s why she was headed to the
tournament office after her pre-tournament news conference to pick up
tickets for friends and family.
“I’m going to ask for 100,” Ochoa said. “I’ll see how many I can get, and I’ll just pay for the rest.”
Even
my taxi driver was picking Ochoa to win this week. Most cabbies don’t
seem too knowledgeable about women’s golf, but he cited last week’s
seven-shot Safeway victory as the main reason that she’ll take home her
second major championship.
– Sean Martin
Posted April 1
We had a chance to spend some time with Andres Romero late last year in
his native Argentina. Great guy, always smiling like he just came up
with a punch line and crazy athletic.
One scene from the chipping green at Buenos Aires Country Club comes to
mind. Romero was running chip shots 50 feet to a back pin. A few feet
to Romero’s left, countryman Angel Cabrera playfully launched a lob
wedge shot high into the air to the same pin, dropping his ball within
2 feet of the cup.
Romero didn’t miss a beat, took a full swing and sent a ball twice as
high that hit, rolled twice and stopped 3 inches from the cup as a wide
smile spread across his face. Cabrera just shook his head. He knew the
damage Romero could do if he were comfortable in the United States. Now,
after Romero’s Big Easy breakthrough, everyone else knows.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted April 1
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – Aree Song will
miss the Kraft Nabisco Championship for the first time in nine years.
The 21-year-old hasn’t played in competition since the Long Drugs
Challenge last October, when she withdrew after the first round because of
illness.
Song, who tied for 10th here as a 13-year-old in 2000,
was diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome and adrenal insufficiency.
She plans on playing a limited schedule this year as she regains
strength.
“I have so many great memories (at the Kraft), from
playing in the last group in the final round with Karrie Webb and
Dottie Pepper as a 13-year-old, to making eagle on 18 in 2004 to nearly
win a major in my rookie year. ... I truly hope that I can recover from
this and return there next year.”
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted March 31
I’m
not sure Zurich Classic winner Andres Romero is a superstar in the
making at 26, but he may be. What I am sure of is he has enough talent
to accomplish something that had never been done before and probably
won’t be done again: Make 10 birdies in 14 holes in the fourth round of
a major championship.
Romero came out of virtual nowhere–in
terms of the scoreboard and being known –to do so at Carnoustie at the
British Open in July. In his second PGA European Tour season then,
Argentine pieced together one of the more remarkable final rounds in
Grand Slam lore. I bring this up because his feat didn't receive enough
recognition in the shadow of Padraig Harrington’s playoff victory over
Sergio Garcia.
Starting at the third, Romero
birdied 10 of the next 14 holes and took a two-shot lead to the 17th
tee. He made no pars after the seventh. But his 67 would include
doubles at 12 and 17 and a lipout of a 15-foot par putt at 18 for
playoff inclusion. Most bizarre was his skulled 2-iron approach from
the right rough at 17 that richocheted off the burn and traveled some
50 yards to the right and out of bounds.
He said the pressure got to him there. But clearly it didn’t Sunday in New Orleans.
– Jeff Rude
Posted March 31
SUPERSTITION
MOUNTAIN, AZ – Yani Tseng was sitting in a folding chair by the putting
green late into the evening on Saturday at the Safeway. Perhaps she was
hoping that spending a little extra time near the greens would help her
to read them.
Tseng, likely the most talented rookie on tour, is
tied for 20th at 7 under. But consider that in the last two rounds,
she’s had seven three-putts. Five came on Friday, and two today. The
greens here at Superstition Mountain roll fast and true. They were
running at 14.5 on the Stimpmeter during Saturday’s round and players
expect more of the same tomorrow. They’re the fastest greens Tseng’s
ever seen.
“I need Dave Stockton,” she said with a laugh.
Stockton has been helping Tseng with her shortgame recently, but has
enough troubles of his own this week at the Champions Tour’s Ginn
Championship, where he shot 79 Saturday.
Tseng hopes to see Stockton next week at the Kraft, and don’t be surprised if she’s in contention yet again.
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted March 29
SUPERSTITION
MOUNTAIN, AZ – There’s a pro-am curse here at the Safeway International
and Kristy McPherson isn’t falling for it next year. At the beginning
of the week players have a chance to sign up to play in extra pro-am
rounds for extra cash in case they miss the cut.
“It’s like the kiss of death,” McPherson said. Signing up subconsciously admits defeat.
McPherson
got the phone call Friday night after shooting 78-73. She earned $1,200
Saturday for playing 18 holes and will get $900 Sunday for nine holes.
It may pay the expenses, but McPherson isn’t taking the chance next
year. Missing the cut isn’t even going to enter her mind.
She’s out to play for real cash.
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted March 29
Dean
Wilson, Zurich Classic first-round leader, grew up in Hawaii. Wilson
now knows Barack Obama, presidential candidate, also grew up in
Hawaii. More to the point, Wilson now knows who Obama is.
That
wasn't the case in December 2006 when the PGA Tour player was taping a
television segment at a daily-fee course on Oahu. Obama also happened
to be there that day, playing golf with childhood friends while on
vacation.
Someone mentioned to Wilson that that guy over there might be the next president.
"President of what?" the golfer said. "President of the golf club?"
Admitted Wilson later, "I had never heard of him."
And who says professional golfers aren't focused?
– Jeff Rude
Posted March 28
WESTWEGO, La. – Steve Flesch is no stranger to the equipment trailers.
The left-hander and Bob Estes usually vie for the week’s top tinkerer
award, but one of Flesch’s changes for the first round of the Zurich
Classic is sweeping even by his own meddling standards.
Flesch won twice last year (Reno-Tahoe Open and Turning Stone Resort
Championship) using a belly putter. But lackluster showings and limited
feel prompted him to switch back to a conventional-length putter in New
Orleans.
“I was hitting it so good at the end of last year and didn’t make
anything. I thought, I can putt this bad with anything,” said Flesch,
who was using a 34-inch Never Compromise mallet-headed putter on
Thursday. “With Augusta on my mind, I thought why go to the Masters
without any feel.”
– Rex Hoggard
Posted March 27
WESTWEGO, La. – A group of players gathered in the TPC Louisiana locker
room Wednesday afternoon to watch Tiger Woods on ESPN’s “First Take.”
Early in the interview Woods was asked about an incident during last
week’s WGC-CA Championship when a photographer took a picture while he
was in his back swing.
The incident occurred at the par-3 ninth hole on Sunday. According to
published reports, Woods used two profanities as a result of the
photographer’s miscue.
“It’s been frustrating because we’ve gotten it four times this
year and three out of the four I made bogey,” Woods said. “You have no
idea what’s been said out there on the golf course. . . . It was the
heat of the moment.”
Although the Tour doesn’t announce fines, most players in the TPC
locker room figured he would be disciplined. Mused one Tour player: “No
one is ever out there taking pictures of me, so I don’t have to worry
about that.”
– Rex Hoggard
Posted March 26
WINDERMERE, Fla. – Ran into Tim Vickers
March 25 spectating at the Tavistock Cup. Vickers, you might recall, is
Michelle Wie’s new caddie and an instructor-in-training at the David
Leadbetter Academy at ChampionsGate. The Englishman was out of a job
this week after Wie withdrew from the Safeway International with a
sprained wrist.
The release that went out last Friday stated
that Wie “accidentally hit a ball that was embedded in a thick rough at
the range” at Stanford March 13 and needed time to heal.
Why would someone with weak wrists even look at an embedded ball on the range? Doesn’t make sense.
Vickers
helped clear things up by explaining that two balls were stacked on top
of each other on the range, one so far embedded into the ground that
Wie couldn’t see it when she hit the ball resting on top.
“It
was a bit of a fluke really,” said Vickers, who noted that Wie is
expected at ChampionsGate in the next few weeks to work with
Leadbetter. Her next scheduled event is the Michelob Ultra at Kingsmill
May 8-11.
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted March 26
WESTWEGO, La. – Bad news for Zurich Classic officials and John Daly. We
just spied an “Owl’s Nest” of Hooters Restaurant fame down the right
side of the ninth hole. Things might be OK. There’s a good chance “Long
John” will withdraw before he ever makes it to the ninth tee.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted March 25
WESTWEGO, La. – Having married a Crescent City local, we’re a bit
partisan when it comes to the culinary treats offered on the practice
range during the Zurich Classic. So instead of offering our own
one-sided insight we took an informal poll during Tuesday’s lunch hour.
Although one equipment rep suggested the practice range grub at the
Honda Classic and next week’s Houston Open might compare, most of those
quizzed said they would pick NOLA above all others on Tour.
“Oh my God, look at this,” one equipment rep said, motioning at
Tuesday’s spread that included boiled crawfish, blackened grouper –
cooked by famous chef Paul Prudhomme himself – and fried oysters. “You
can’t touch this place.”
It’s official, crown TPC Louisiana the Tour’s culinary capital.
– Rex Hoggard
Posted March 25
This just in from the Giving Back
Department: A pair of Annika Sorenstam Golf Scholarship recipients will
spend the day with Ms. 59 March 26 at the Safeway International and
play in the event’s pro-am.
Sorenstam heads to Phoenix after the
Tavistock Cup concludes Tuesday to prepare for the LPGA’s fist event on
mainland U.S. soil. There she will meet up with Pontus Widegren and
Louise Larsson, recipients of this year’s scholarship. Sorenstam has
awarded scholarships to rising Swedish stars since 2003. In addition to
their day at Safeway, the pair also will get a university tour to see
what college golf is all about.
Something tells me that visit won’t be to Scottsdale Community College.
– Beth Ann Baldry
Posted March 25
Posted: 4/15/2008
print
email
discuss
