2019 Volunteers of America Classic Oct 03 - 06

[the bishop]

Hey a little off topic but anybody know what happened to 4waymiss? Hasn't been active since June. Kinda miss his paticipation in the LPGA threads.

[fredogolfer]

Following Ingee, Sakura and Mirim Lee. Looks like Duncan French, Wie’s former caddie is on Lee’s bag, news to me. Mirim is outdriving everyone by 10-15 yards. Dumbo’s short game is kind of loose. Plenty of flying dumbos along for the ride. Currently on 15, the group’s 5th hole.

[fredogolfer]

McDonald, Olson, Creamer playing slow,slow,slow.

[Argonne69]

The projected cut line has moved to +2. That's going to help a few players struggling to keep their cards. The scores are definitely higher today.

 

[Stooch]

> @Argonne69 said:

> The projected cut line has moved to +2. That's going to help a few players struggling to keep their cards. The scores are definitely higher today.

>

 

yeah, you show up on the course not firing on all cylinders and you can get punished.

[mkuether]

> @Argonne69 said:

> Scoring this morning seems higher than yesterday. Winds are light, so I'm guessing the greens are starting to firm up.

>

 

We were supposed to get some storms in the area last night and early this morning but ended up getting almost no rain. The weather today was still 90+ and the sun has been absolutely brutal so I’m sure the greens are starting to bake and firm up. If this continues I would imagine that the greens will be very firm by Sunday unless there is a conscious effort to soften them up.

 

 

[Stooch]

LPGA isn't really feeling to friendly with these pin placements with firm and fast greens lol

[fredogolfer]

Whew, I am spent. To say today was hot feels like and understatement. Luckily I’m sitting at the IKEA café typing this although I am like 5 shades darker. Hmm, what to say?

 

Mirim Lee started out great. As I said earlier she was on fire but then she cooled off. Mirim’s hurdle was putting. She missed about 3-4 putts for birdie or par that were less than 10 ft. Ingee started cool and began heating up but toward the end cooled off with the 2 bogeys. An observation about Ingee, she was as lovely as ever but seems to be bothered by everything, a plane flying over a bird cawing, a cart approaching on the path, a car driving by. More often than not, the slightest most distant noise caused her to pull away from address and readjust. I hate to say it but she was the slowest player. A rules official followed for a couple of holes but I don’t think they were put on the clock.

 

Like I said, she was as lovely as ever, smiling and taking pics afterward even with a group of flying Dumbos. I was surprised she was so bothered because the course has several stretches where the players and fans walk side-by-side. She was fist bumping people, talking in Korean to some of the fans and overall hamming it up.

 

Sakura has a new fan. Oh if she could just play like she did today, she’d contend a lot more often. She scrambled and got herself out of trouble so many times today that it was truly something to see. I never ask for pictures but I asked to take one with her and she obliged.

 

Mirim was Mirim. Duncan was getting more irritated than her and he was borderline rude on a couple of occasions.

 

I don’t know what I was thinking with my ambitious roll call. Play starts at 8:48 and I am going to have to split up groups to catch a few of the players I want.

 

I wont get to see Charley or Sarah Kemp.

 

Ariya has lost a lot of weight. I wonder if it’s affected her game?

 

Paula is much thinner than I remember as well. Of course, I hadn't seen her in person since 2014.

 

I am about ready to go to bed but I need to go find a hat for tomorrow. The tournament has made a lot of adjustments with parking, rerouting traffic etc. Lots of construction going on around the course. Any space around that area is having houses built on it. A hole marshall was telling me how years ago, that area was truly outside of Dallas and now it’s been engulfed by the metroplex. This part of DFW is not my favorite, million dollar homes that all look the same, stripmalls, typical suburbia but boy you really get the feeling of the money that is in the area.

 

 

[Argonne69]

I played the course back in late 2016, and there were only a few homes built near it.

 


 

 

[Argonne69]

In Gee and Hee Young both made the cut, so I'm a happy camper. Now they just need to move up the leaderboard and secure their positions on the money list.

 

The hole locations looked tough today. Judy mentioned that the grain was playing a big factor in the scoring. Hannah more or less backed thi sup when she was in the booth.

 

The leaders didn't really separate themselves today, so there are plenty of players with a shot at winning this, including winless players and a few more successful players.

 

[Mellow]

Awesome report!

 

That's interesting about In Gee. Another piece in the puzzle. A lot of us always wondering and worrying about her and her game. She never struck me as particularly noise sensitive before.

Seems like you've picked one the best performances recently to follow her though, so that was great timing. It's really great to hear she's still her usual super fan friendly.

 

Mirim is on the list of players I wish we got see more on screen more often. Admit I don't know much about Sakura, this sounds good though.

 

> @fredogolfer said:

> I don’t know what I was thinking with my ambitious roll call.

 

lol it's exactly what I'd have wanted to try too!

 

> @Argonne69 said:

> In Gee and Hee Young both made the cut, so I'm a happy camper. Now they just need to move up the leaderboard and secure their positions on the money list.

 

Amen Feels like all that matters here. Super happy to see cut made. Now more hoping and praying for higher up. Gooooooooo!

[fredogolfer]

On the course now. Followed the first four holes of Gaby, Spilkova and Chien. Saw Brooke tee off. Brooke’s group has armed security walking inside the ropes with them. I have never seen armed security inside the ropes at an event before. Waiting for Kim, Lee 6 and Park.

[Stooch]

> @fredogolfer said:

> On the course now. Followed the first four holes of Gaby, Spilkova and Chien. Saw Brooke tee off. Brooke’s group has armed security walking inside the ropes with them. I have never seen armed security inside the ropes at an event before. Waiting for Kim, Lee 6 and Park.

 

We don't play around with our Canadian treasures lol

[Argonne69]

Jaye Marie separating from the field. -8 through 12 holes and a four shot lead. The closest previous winners (Sei Young and 6ix) are 7 shots back. This is definitely setting up for a first time winner.

 

[Argonne69]

> @Stooch said:

> > @fredogolfer said:

> > On the course now. Followed the first four holes of Gaby, Spilkova and Chien. Saw Brooke tee off. Brooke’s group has armed security walking inside the ropes with them. I have never seen armed security inside the ropes at an event before. Waiting for Kim, Lee 6 and Park.

>

> We don't play around with our Canadian treasures lol

 

Lol. It's Texas. They strap on a pistol to walk the poodle.

 

[Stooch]

> @Argonne69 said:

> > @Stooch said:

> > > @fredogolfer said:

> > > On the course now. Followed the first four holes of Gaby, Spilkova and Chien. Saw Brooke tee off. Brooke’s group has armed security walking inside the ropes with them. I have never seen armed security inside the ropes at an event before. Waiting for Kim, Lee 6 and Park.

> >

> > We don't play around with our Canadian treasures lol

>

> Lol. It's Texas. They strap on a pistol to walk the poodle.

>

 

Yeah definitely the wrong State to show up with bad intentions lol

[fredogolfer]

It was another hot one today. This is what i imagine having a USWO in the souther states was like before the USWO dates were changed. I went much better prepared today or so I thought. I have like 4 pairs of the same shorts I use to workout so I wore that and a t-shirt, hat and sun glasses. Lots of sunscreen. I had the players I wanted to follow so I was never going to follow Knight, Sharp, Altomare etc even though they were leading. I decided I would go along with Gaby Lopez, Spilkova and Chien. Chien is one of those players that seems to get in the top 10 of a leaderboard early but then fades so I was curious about that. Gaby stopped to hug a boy of about 7 and hugged him for a while she did. She seemed to know the dad and gave them waters and chatted with them a bit.

 

Alvaro Prada who is her usual caddie was not on the bag this week and it is a guy named Ryan. So Alvaro is either taking a break or no longer her caddie. Alvaro is the boyfriend of Luna Sobron who is likely going back to q-school.

 

In any case all 3 players hit solid drives on the 10th, their first but all 3 had pretty terrible second shots. Even though it never got super windy what little wind there was makes it tricky to know how much to risk. On a couple of holes a club length over can end up out of bounds or in the lake. Nothing really of note after the first few holes so I cut across and went to the first. Several groups were going to tee off in a row and thought I might follow one. Inbee, Sei Young, Lee 6, and a few other groups went off. However, I decided to follow Fassi, Hall and Hsu. What people have said about Maria is true and her score reflected it. It is either feast or famine with her. She hit her drive on the first the farthest of the 3 except it went out of bounds barely. Getting a rules official took a while so it held up play about 10 minutes. The issue seemed to be that it landed on a tv wire, so whether not that was an obstruction, what type. etc seemed to be the issue. Again Maria went to the left on the second and hit her second left of the green. Hsu holed out from about 30 yards which was cool and maria holed it down slope off the green. If Maria can harness her game it will be interesting to see her grow. However, a scorecard like today’s is pretty typical it seems up to now. Some of her friends from Arkansas followed her around and she would talk to them in between holes.

 

I overheard some talk from what I believe is a reasonable source who had some not so nice things to say about a player who is a mom on tour and it isn’t CK. Essentially, this player no longer says hi to former college teammates and somehow thinks having a baby now makes her better than others.

 

On the 7th, Georgia hit her drive into a patch of tall grass. She punched out to the other side of the cart path. All in all she managed to get bogey which was pretty amazing.

 

I kind of fanboyed with Georgia lol. There was a time I was just standing there looking at her and I feel like I was obvious lol. I just remember that picture of her being raised into the air after winning the British and then she’s like 2 feet from you, it’s kind of weird. She also has really interesting hair. Random observation I know.

 

After that I packed it in. Had you told me it was going to be warmer in October than the last time the event took place on May, I would have said you were lying. It was over 100 on the course.

 

While walking the whole 2 days I just kept thinking how tough of a life this is, traveling week to week sometimes traveling multiple time zones but at the same time most of the players have prepared their whole life for this. I enjoyed myself and here’s hoping next time brings some true October weather, if so, that would make an enjoyable experience.

 

 

[Enduro59]

> @fredogolfer said:

> It was another hot one today. This is what i imagine having a USWO in the souther states was like before the USWO dates were changed. I went much better prepared today or so I thought. I have like 4 pairs of the same shorts I use to workout so I wore that and a t-shirt, hat and sun glasses. Lots of sunscreen. I had the players I wanted to follow so I was never going to follow Knight, Sharp, Altomare etc even though they were leading. I decided I would go along with Gaby Lopez, Spilkova and Chien. Chien is one of those players that seems to get in the top 10 of a leaderboard early but then fades so I was curious about that. Gaby stopped to hug a boy of about 7 and hugged him for a while she did. She seemed to know the dad and gave them waters and chatted with them a bit.

>

> Alvaro Prada who is her usual caddie was not on the bag this week and it is a guy named Ryan. So Alvaro is either taking a break or no longer her caddie. Alvaro is the boyfriend of Luna Sobron who is likely going back to q-school.

>

> In any case all 3 players hit solid drives on the 10th, their first but all 3 had pretty terrible second shots. Even though it never got super windy what little wind there was makes it tricky to know how much to risk. On a couple of holes a club length over can end up out of bounds or in the lake. Nothing really of note after the first few holes so I cut across and went to the first. Several groups were going to tee off in a row and thought I might follow one. Inbee, Sei Young, Lee 6, and a few other groups went off. However, I decided to follow Fassi, Hall and Hsu. What people have said about Maria is true and her score reflected it. It is either feast or famine with her. She hit her drive on the first the farthest of the 3 except it went out of bounds barely. Getting a rules official took a while so it held up play about 10 minutes. The issue seemed to be that it landed on a tv wire, so whether not that was an obstruction, what type. etc seemed to be the issue. Again Maria went to the left on the second and hit her second left of the green. Hsu holed out from about 30 yards which was cool and maria holed it down slope off the green. If Maria can harness her game it will be interesting to see her grow. However, a scorecard like today’s is pretty typical it seems up to now. Some of her friends from Arkansas followed her around and she would talk to them in between holes.

>

> I overheard some talk from what I believe is a reasonable source who had some not so nice things to say about a player who is a mom on tour and it isn’t CK. Essentially, this player no longer says hi to former college teammates and somehow thinks having a baby now makes her better than others.

>

> On the 7th, Georgia hit her drive into a patch of tall grass. She punched out to the other side of the cart path. All in all she managed to get bogey which was pretty amazing.

>

> I kind of fanboyed with Georgia lol. There was a time I was just standing there looking at her and I feel like I was obvious lol. I just remember that picture of her being raised into the air after winning the British and then she’s like 2 feet from you, it’s kind of weird. She also has really interesting hair. Random observation I know.

>

> After that I packed it in. Had you told me it was going to be warmer in October than the last time the event took place on May, I would have said you were lying. It was over 100 on the course.

>

> While walking the whole 2 days I just kept thinking how tough of a life this is, traveling week to week sometimes traveling multiple time zones but at the same time most of the players have prepared their whole life for this. I enjoyed myself and here’s hoping next time brings some true October weather, if so, that would make an enjoyable experience.

>

>

 

I'm certain her initials aren't GP either. I don't think there are any other UTEP alums on the LPGA anyway. Hmm,where did Fassi go to college?

[Argonne69]

Maria went to the University of Arkansas.

 

[Argonne69]

Interesting leaderboard. The top four are looking for their first win, with Sei Young and 6ix in the hunt. Can't say with any certainty that the four will hold a lead. Alena and Stephanie both faded from contention today.

 

I don't see a player at -6 getting to the top. Cheyenne is going to be the fan favorite, but I'm still liking my pick of Brittany.

 

[Stooch]

Yeah, Britany is solid and a good putter she should hold up best under the pressure. Sei Young could go one of her heaters but most likely her agression will bite her on a hole or two at this course. On the other hand if you believe in history repeating itself, than the last time Jaye Marie Green led after 3 rounds 6ix went on to win the tournament.

[fredogolfer]

I agree, the ones in the hunt are going to feel it tomorrow. One could hold it together or all could just as easily implode. The only ones with a realistic chance of winning who have won before are Lee6 and Kim.

[Newinup]

I need some help guys as I'm confused with this "Top 100 on money list for this tournament" as your last chance to keep your card. Does this mean people like Maria Fassi, Clariss Guce and Dottie Ardina are destined to go to last stage in QSchool after this tournament as they seem to be languishing on the 120-130 ranking? Seems like it but I don't know the intricacies of these things... many thanks

[Stooch]

> @Newinup said:

> I need some help guys as I'm confused with this "Top 100 on money list for this tournament" as your last chance to keep your card. Does this mean people like Maria Fassi, Clariss Guce and Dottie Ardina are destined to go to last stage in QSchool after this tournament as they seem to be languishing on the 120-130 ranking? Seems like it but I don't know the intricacies of these things... many thanks

 

Fassi should be safe by making the cut, Guce and Ardina are in trouble and will have to go back to Q-school as they are at 73K and 49K respectively and 100th spot is 117K right now.

[18majors]

> @Stooch said:

> > @Newinup said:

> > I need some help guys as I'm confused with this "Top 100 on money list for this tournament" as your last chance to keep your card. Does this mean people like Maria Fassi, Clariss Guce and Dottie Ardina are destined to go to last stage in QSchool after this tournament as they seem to be languishing on the 120-130 ranking? Seems like it but I don't know the intricacies of these things... many thanks

>

> Fassi should be safe by making the cut, Guce and Ardina are in trouble and will have to go back to Q-school as they are at 73K and 49K respectively and 100th spot is 117K right now.

 

@Newinup

 

For players outside of Top 100 official money; this is the last 2019 tournament for them since they're unlikely to qualify for Asian Swings or the CME Tour Championship.

Players from #101 to 150 will go directly to Q-Series; players who're outside of 150th will start with Stage II.

 

 

[ALIF]

Wow, a non-Korean might actually win!

[Raving Shanker]

So what the seers and sages of GWRX say? My pre-tournament pick was Brittany Altomare (proof in page 1 of this thread!). If it comes to pass, it will be my first ever pick (n LPGA) remotely congruent with reality!

 

So we have four potential first time winners at the top. Altomare obviously brings a deeper, richer vein of form into this situation, and she remains my pick. Even when Jay-Marie Green was at her hottest, Altomare was rolling along nicely. Her game has been building steadily all season. She must feel she has an edge on the other contenders with a season of steady play behind her.

 

I don't think Lee6 or SYK can get past 4 front-runners.

[ChronicSlicer]

> @"Raving Shanker" said:

 

> I don't think Lee6 or SYK can get past 4 front-runners.

 

Not a ton of experience on top, a few bad holes could make things change pretty quick, if of course Six and Sei Young are playing well.

[ChronicSlicer]

> @fredogolfer said:

 

> I overheard some talk from what I believe is a reasonable source who had some not so nice things to say about a player who is a mom on tour and it isn’t CK. Essentially, this player no longer says hi to former college teammates and somehow thinks having a baby now makes her better than others.

 

>

 

Not the first time things like this have been said about her, I assume you are referring to Stacy Lewis.

[fredogolfer]

> @ChronicSlicer said:

> > @fredogolfer said:

>

> > I overheard some talk from what I believe is a reasonable source who had some not so nice things to say about a player who is a mom on tour and it isn’t CK. Essentially, this player no longer says hi to former college teammates and somehow thinks having a baby now makes her better than others.

>

> >

>

> Not the first time things like this have been said about her, I assume you are referring to Stacy Lewis.

 

Well since it’s not the first time.... Yes, the source said current/former Arkansas players go up to her and try talking and she blows them off but interestingly if you walk by and say Hi Stacy, and just casually keep walking she replies. She also apparently walks around with the baby and will go up to groups of people and insert herself and start talking about the baby so people will focus on her. Even if she wasn’t invited into the group she invited herself, the term was using the baby as a “social tool.” The only way to get her to have a conversation one-on-one is to apparently get her attention which is hard to do and then just keeping asking her questions about herself. When asked if it was always like this with her, they said no but since she’s a celebrity now, she’s not who she was when she was at Arkansas or even after the first couple of years on tour.

 

If true, like I always say, fame and money in my opinion always bring out traits already present in that person.

 

I think Altomare has the best chance of the 4 potential first timers but 3/4 will likely implode shooting 2-3 over and one will hold steady or shoot 3-4 under. This will be key to who wins holding steady or going low. Either Kim or Lee 6 will shoot 4-5 under. Another player maybe at 6 or 5 under will do well to finish in the middle of the top 10.