2020 ISPS Handa Women's Australian Open

[Argonne69]

I'm going with Hye Jin to win this week. She appears to be in very good form, and if the wind continues to be a factor, she should handle it easily.

Ayean, Su, Leona, and Hee Young with top 10s.

 

[18majors]

 

Did you see what happened to Gaby Lopez and Madeleine Sagstrom after they win; not too much carry over from week to week.

 

[18majors]

Royal Adelaide Golf Club will play par 37-36—73, 6,633 yards (subject to change through the start of the tournament) this week.

 

[Argonne69]

Lol. Gaby and Madelene both won, so Hye Jin, Ayeon, Su, and Leona don't fit the scenario. Hee Young is an experienced journeywoman, and a solid player in the wind. Unless she popped a few more bottles of champagne after the cameras were turned off, I think she should be ready to go for another windy week.

[krisrod]

My parents live on the back of Royal Adelaide, so went past for coffee this morning and poked my head over the fence. The course looks spectacular. The rough is shorter than it normally is when the course is in tournament spec, so if the wind stays down we could see some very low numbers. As always in Adelaide though, if the wind gets up the course can be brutal. I won't be at the pro-am today, but will be there over the four days of the tournament. Should be fantastic.

[18majors]

 

Forecast is for winds to be no more than 20 mph from now to Sunday and next Monday; is that enough to create havoc at Adelaide?

[ChronicSlicer]

Can So Yeon Ryu keep her groove going this week? Will Fassi make a cut? @Argonne69 I'm surprised you didn't take Nelly for the W.
Going with Haru for the win. Yu, Bronte, Su,Esther H, and Amy Yang crack the top15.
I gotta say, it would be pretty cool to see Karrie Webb put on a clinic and dust the field.

[krisrod]

It depends entirely on the direction. Some of the holes become absolute monsters into the wind, but others (the back 9 par fives for example) become much easier and birdies suddenly become average scores.

No idea who will win. Nelly's length was a massive advantage at Grange West, but won't be as advantageous at Royal which is much tighter and more tactical. After the way she played yesterday, I think Henseleit might be a smoky.

[Singapore Joe]

She scored 72+72 in Vic Open and missed the cut. Both rounds had a good number of birdies but also a number of bogies plus one double. If she can keep the birdie machine running and eliminate the doubles, as she did in the qualifying tournament, she will be in contention. She's not very long off the tee (102nd with avg. 247.75 but the stats are only based on two rounds in a single tournament so they may not be accurate) which may become a disadvantage if the wind picks up and the long holes become a lot longer. And yet, she's 8th at GIR.

Turns out she's 5'5" tall so she won't make it to my Favorite Fathoms even if there is an opening now that Michelle Wie is out and Sandra Gal won't be back until March. Sagstrom is 5'9" so if she wears spikes she might just qualify.

How hard are the green complexes in Royal Adelaide, can we expect drama a la Royal Melbourne?

[Raving Shanker]

The greens are tricky. It's a kind of links course (not really, but almost). It has undulating fairways, sandy soil and fast, subtle greens. The last time it was played here in 2017 the scoring was good initially, but went steadily southward through the tournament as the wind got up a little and the greens firmed up. It was tough in the final round - not many birdies, and a war of attrition. A war lost by Lizette Salas and won by Ha Na Jang.

[Singapore Joe]

Sounds fun!

Adelaide is a nice place so was thinking of driving there for the weekend but then all kinds of things popped up in my calendar and I couldn't go. Better at least clear the Sunday to watch the final round from the idiot box. Sunday weather looks pretty good, though. Friday will be the windy day.

[Raving Shanker]

I'll be there all 4 days. Cleared my calendar for this. :)

[krisrod]

Nothing is like Royal Melbourne. That place is something else. As Raving Shanker said, the greens are fairly small and quite subtle. The undulating fairways mean that it's hard to get a flat lie and being on the wrong side of the fairway makes the greens very difficult to access. If the wind is up on Friday, teeing off earlier or later (depending on what the wind is doing) in the day could be the difference between making the cut and going home.

[18majors]

Go, Nelly,Go!

"For those who were settling into a long overseas swing, it’s now a matter of maximizing the moment.

For Korda, that means putting in a new set of irons. The top-ranked American got stronger over the offseason and struggled to control her ball-flight in the first two events.

“The shafts were too weak and they were bending on me,” she said."

Nelly Korda looks to add to family legacy Down Under

[18majors]

Let's go!

 

[Singapore Joe]

Nice! Have fun out there.

[18majors]

A point of reference; the golf course plays to an average of even par with almost no winds at all.

[Singapore Joe]

Right now, with the scores of the 8:17 groups on the first hole not yet in, the scoring average is just below par but not much. The whole field in total is one shot below and given that there are 42 players out there, that's an average score of (1/42) below par. More hair splitting upon request only ;)

Edit: a couple of updates on the scoreboard and now they are on average above par.

[Stooch]

Dang always forget Aussie events start wed. afternoon's here, missed getting in my bets this week. The other thing I forgot, was Lydia Ko existed on the LPGA, got the reminder looking at the leaderboard, I'm kinda cheering for her, she was always on my mind for years when thinking about those contending at a tournament.

[krisrod]

Fantastic first day of the tournament. Ewart-Shadoff was spectacular and Lee6 and Inbee were outstanding as well. Nelly hit a number of shots that made me wonder how she doesn't win every tournament she enters. Highlight of the day though was seeing Maria Fassi hit her tee shot off the first. I was six feet behind her and I've never seen a woman hit a ball with that much speed. She's something special.

[Raving Shanker]

Had a good long day out! I followed some groups, but i also did a lot of opportune switching between them. It was dead calm at 7 am, but a gentle breeze was blowing off the ocean by 8 am. And it was a steady breeze to be reckoned with shortly after. Gorgeous weather though, and a lot of the smoke hanging around last week has now gone.

Linnea Strom. +8 Ouch. I didn't see any of her round, but I saw her earnestly practicing on the range after it, and watched that. I would be interested to hear what the serious golfers here think of her swing. She is an imposing woman in person.Minjee Lee. Was flat and uninspired through 3/4's of her round, then found her mojo. She looks good. Can win - certainly!Jeong Eun Lee 6. Creates a lot of opportunities with long driving and stellar approaches. But is no robot! She throws in some very poor strikes. I think you'll find her putting stats were excellent, but i am not so adoring of the stroke. Seems a bit of dog's breakfast, yet she made a few. Can win.Nelly Korda. Was the most consistent of this long hitting 3-some. Missed dome chances with the putter. Has started her defence in very fine style. Can win!Hye Jin Choi. Flushed the ball as usual. Very impressive -2. However, having got to -2 early gave shots back to get back to even. I saw the second - it was a 3-putt from 15 feet on the 18th (her 9th). She then stormed off, half through some crowd ropes out the way, and then proceeded to pound the living daylights out of her next drive down the first. Also NOT a robot!! lol. Then pitched a little 60 m shot in and birdied it. I have a feeling she is no longer content with her "future star" billing. She wants to win. Can win!I saw some interesting chaos. The 3rd hole is an almost reachable 268 m (296 yards in the 3rd world). The Royal Adelaide officials deemed it reachable, and kept players waiting on the tee for up to 12 minutes. Poor Felicity Johnson of England had a mid-iron in her hand to lay up, but the officials oddly had no plan for that. Felicity did not handle it well either, addressing her ball and backing off multiple times. I saw some horrible shots off that tee, presumably due to the waiting. The Bront hit the worst of them!

I caught up with my old pal Haru Nomura. I was standing on the left side of the 3rd fairway, when a ball rolled to my feet from the tee. It was Haru's. We then had a situation where the spectator rope was wrapped hard against a tree, so it was quite difficult moving this immovable obstruction. I spoke with Haru about it, then her caddy, and spent some time removing the rope from the stakes for her. Haru grunted tersely at me in appreciation. My heart skipped a beat. Nevertheless, I think I will bill Royal Adelaide for my labour. You never know your luck with this club!

Saw plenty of shots from Nealimi, Patty, Amy Yang, Azahara and more. Given that this course is difficult to move around on, I spent a bit of time circulating "the Hub" - a central region that touches half the holes on the course.

Nicole Broch Larsen seemed to be dressed as an Aussie rules footballer, in contrast to the vivid hues and sartorial splendour of Porna, whom she played with! What a contrast!

I guess you all saw Inbee, the Rocket, Hannah, Lyds, (poor) Su and So Yeon on your own goggle boxes. So I won't comment much on them, except to say that Lyd's swing was horrible through the middle part of the round. She got a much better tempo down the stretch though, that I attribute to me using my jeddi mind control on her, to try to get her to feel again what it is like to be a good golfer.

Tomorrow I'll have a half day there, 7 - 11 am. I have to w.... I have to w...wo...wooor. I have to work in the afternoon :(

 

[18majors]

Koreans are following these players

 

 

[Argonne69]

The morning wave definitely had the advantage it seems. Only 7 out of the top 19 players played in the pm, and 5 of them are at the 3 or more shots of the lead.

'Not expecting Jodi to stay at the top for long.

Inbee's putter warmed up quite nicely.

'Great closing stretch by Hee Young birding the final four holes to finish at even par. I thought I had given her the jinx.

Ayean playing solid again. She definitely seems to be the real deal. Hye Jin lurking.

 

[ceedee]

Me and my golf channel in youtube has episode with Maria Fassi. She hits driver there and if I remember right her clubhead speed was 109mph.

[18majors]

Scores are good today; cutline is -1 right now but trending lower.

[pmcuk]

I've been watching Ayean Cho since the last tournament where she folded in the last round. I expect her to be more determined this time around. She's already a tournament winner so she knows she can win. Nice to see SYR playing well.

Lydia Ko still way down the field. I haven't seen any explanation of her decline that makes sense other than she may just be burned out and interested in other things. In Wiki the wording seems to suggest that her decline was due to dropping Leadbetter. I don't think that explanation would get very far on this forum!

[Singapore Joe]

Thank you for keeping us up to date. Appreciate your reporting. Sorry to hear about that w thing that you mentioned. Really annoying how it interfers with all the things more fun.

At The hirteenth Beach the 15th hole of the Beach Course was a reachable par four. The organisers had made it a call hole, i.e. you play to the green, mark the balls, and then the next group tees off and you go on putting while the next group walks to their balls. Seemed to work pretty well.

[Argonne69]

FFS. Leadbetter. Lead poisoning more like it. Lydia continued to lose distance off the tee with DL. Her short game skills saved her a## until she spent so much time trying to correct her swing that she neglected her short game.

Lydia is a short hitter. The tour continues to get longer, and she headed in the other direction. I'm still a huge fan, but until she figures out how to average 255+ yds without hooking the ball she's going to continue to struggle.

 

[krisrod]

Lydia just hit one of the worst drives I’ve ever seen from a tour pro. She recovered nicely from there (didn’t see whether she saved par or made bogey) but a low snap hook is an ugly thing to see.

[Argonne69]

Was that during the first round, or the 2nd? The snap hook during the first round was quite ugly.