L.E.T. Deloitte Ladies Open. Camilla Carries On.

Camilla Lennarth carried on where she left off in the L.E.T. Deloitte Ladies Open maintaining her lead in the competition on The International Course in Amsterdam.

Camilla Lennarth / LET

Camilla had a second round of par, but her tournament score of -7 under par was enough for the rookie to stay ahead of the pack, albeit by only just one shot. It was another chilly day out on the course, Camilla still wearing her pink Beanie. She said she was very happy to be where she wants to be;

” It feels good and it’s a new experience for me. It’s where I want to be, but I will be nervous tomorrow. I will definitely be nervous because I haven’t played in the final group in such a big event like this. I’m very happy and obviously it’s where I want to be.”

Another rookie, Holly Clyburn is just one shot back at -6 under par, Holly said she had played solid golf, and was also pretty happy with her performance;

” It was pretty solid from tee to green and once I got on the putting green it was nice to roll some putts in. I was very happy because it was solid from start to finish.”

These two can not relax because there are three established Tour champions who are only three shots off the lead on four-under-par, Christel Boeljon, Melissa Reid and Carlota Ciganda,

Carlota is the defending Champion here, and has the chance to win again;

“ I played pretty good today despite a double on my second hole. On my back nine, I birdied one and had a few birdie chances so I’m happy with my score because I don’t think it’s an easy course. I’m happy that I have a chance to win again so I’m going to try my best.”

Christel has the support of the home gallery, and is looking forward to the challenge;

” I think on this golf course anything can happen so I’m looking forward to the final round.”

It will be interesting to see if either of the two rookies can hold off the challenge of the more experienced players, I look forward to it.

PURE SILK-BAHAMAS LPGA Classic. 1st Round Suspended, Darkness Falls.

The Pure Silk Bahamas Classic has had play suspend in the first round on the Ocean Course at the Atlantis Resort due to torrential rain. Some of the holes on the course are totally unplayable after 12 inches of rain fell on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. A very strange occurrence for a place named Paradise Island.

Darkening Skies / Gabe Roux

Course maintenance crews are working around the clock,  in an attempt to pump the extra water back into the ocean, but it is a time-consuming task.

The LPGA finally admitted defeat and canceled play on Thursday and also announced that 12 holes would be played on Friday for the first round. The schedule for Saturday is to play a second 12 holes. A decision will then be made on Saturday whether or not to play the full 18 holes or finish with a final 12 holes on Sunday. The twelve holes that will be played are;  10-6-7-4-5-11-12-13-14-2-3-8.

There are three Ladies tied at the top of the board at the moment, Mariajo Uribe,  Heather Bowie Young and Silvia Cavalleri are all level at -6 under par. This is only one shot ahead of those in second place in this shortened format of the game with only 12 holes being played.

LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan had this to say;

” When you have a situation like this, you bring everyone together that you trust and you make the decision. It’s fair if someone doesn’t like the decision we made, but I think this outcome is a lot better than any other alternative. Everybody who plays the next three days will play the same course.”

Juli Inkster thinks everyone should just get on with it;

” I think we need to try to play for Pure Silk and for Bahamas Tourism. This is something that has never happened before and it probably never will happen again. I think we should play, money should be official and everyone should get on with it.”

Stacy Lewis, the Rolex Rankings number two said there was good and bad to the situation;

” There is good and bad to the situation and you have to decide if your glass is half full or half empty. At the end of the day, we’ll all play the same holes, the same course and be scored the same way. That’s a golf tournament. It’s all about your perspective on it, If you go into it thinking, ‘this is dumb’ or ‘we shouldn’t play’ then you probably won’t play very well. I think, for the sponsors, we need to play. It’s a first year event and we need to get out there.”

Well spoken Stacy, lets play. Both Juli and Stacy are at -1 under par.
 

L.E.T. Deloitte Ladies Open. Rookie Camilla Lennarth Has 3 Stroke Lead.

The Ladies European Tour event the Deloitte Ladies Open has a rookie leading after the first round in Amsterdam. Camilla Lennarth of Sweden fired a -7 under par 66, on the par 73 lay-out, to lead by three strokes.

Camilla Lennarth / LET

Camilla was able to make the most of the warmer afternoon conditions after the bitterly cold start to this event in the Netherlands. She was able to post four birdies on the back nine, five overall to go with her Eagle for her -7 under par total. They are playing on The International course, which lies next door to Schipol Airport in Amsterdam. She said she was surprised to see the lead was only at -3 under when she teed off;

” Before I teed off I saw the leaders at three-under and I was a little surprised, I just aimed for a par on every hole and things went my way. I made some putts and that gave me some momentum. I was hoping for a better start this year, I played well at Q-School but I’ve been struggling ,so it’s nice that even though I didn’t strike the ball as well as I can, I got a great score out there. This is the best score I’ve ever posted in a tournament.”

Gwladys Nocera and Benedikte Grotvedt are tied in second place, three shots at -4 under par, is playing with confidence now after she had gone through a period of playing badly;

” I hit the ball pretty well. I was most of the time close to the pin, the right side of the green, so lots of birdie opportunities. Everything was good and the course was hard, so nothing to complain about. I’ve come from playing badly and losing so much confidence and now being able to play well again feels good so I don’t want to think about it. I just want to play golf, because that’s what I love.”

There are six players in a group at -3 under-par, of them only Melissa Reid and Line Vedel started early, in temperatures hovering around 7C for most of the morning.

Melissa said she was shivering while putting;

” It was so cold this morning that you couldn’t warm up and you were shivering putting your ball on the tee so the mental side was to get over that. When you’re freezing you have to keep your body warm and your hands warm and that’s the biggest challenge.”

It would take more than a pink Beanie to keep me warm at those temperatures.

 

Anchoring Banned, R&A and USGA Announce.

                            

 

The Royal and Ancient and the USGA made an official announcement on Tuesday morning, May 21, on their respective websites and at a press conference that they will add rule 14-1b to the official rules of golf effective Jan. 1, 2016, which will ban anchoring.

USGA President Glen D. Nager had this to say;

” Having considered all of the input that we received, both before and after the proposed Rule was announced, our best judgment is that Rule 14-1b is necessary to preserve one of the important traditions and challenges of the game, that the player freely swing the entire club. The new Rule upholds the essential nature of the traditional method of stroke and eliminates the possible advantage that anchoring provides, ensuring that players of all skill levels face the same challenge inherent in the game of golf.”

Peter Dawson, who is the Chief Executive of The R&A announced;

” We took a great deal of time to consider this issue and received a variety of contributions from individuals and organisations at all levels of the game. The report published today gives a comprehensive account of the reasons for taking the decision to adopt the new Rule and addresses the concerns that have been raised. We recognise this has been a divisive issue but after thorough consideration we remain convinced that this is the right decision for golf.”

The new rule as it will appear in the rule book;

14-1b Anchoring the Club

In making a stroke, the player must not anchor the club, either “directly” or by use of an “anchor point.” 

Note 1:  The club is anchored “directly” when the player intentionally holds the club or a gripping hand in contact with any part of his body, except that the player may hold the club or a gripping hand against a hand or forearm.

Note 2:  An “anchor point” exists when the player intentionally holds a forearm in contact with any part of his body to establish a gripping hand as a stable point around which the other hand may swing the club.

So it has finally arrived and I gather from all the posts on the Internet that most golfers around the World are in favor of this new rule.  The professional players will have plenty of time to adjust to conventional putting, or win as much money as they can between now and January 1st 2016, and then retire from the game.

Executive Director of Rules and Equipment Standards at The R&A, David Rickman, had this to say;

” This Rule change addresses the future and not the past. Everyone who has used an anchored stroke in the past, or who does so between now and January 1, 2016, will have played entirely within the Rules and their achievements will in no way be diminished.”

USGA Executive Director Mike Davis admitted that not everyone agreed, but he felt it was in the best interests of the game;

” The discussion around the Rule has been very helpful, and we appreciate that so many different perspectives were offered. We know that not everyone will agree with the new Rule, but it is our hope that all golfers will accept that this decision is reasoned and motivated by our best judgment in defining the sport and serving the best interests of the game.”

 

Dehydration While Playing Golf. Is This Your Problem On The Back Nine ?

This is a post from Ian Hardy, well worth reading. If you have not already caught up with Ian and his Blog, this is the link http://golfhabits.com/   Why you need to seriously consider drinking while playing golf Posted: 19 May 2013 02:31 PM PDT “I learned you can’t drink whiskey and play golf.” – John Daly By Ian Hardie Ever had a round of golf that the further you went The harder ‘work’ it seemed? You felt more and more tired as you went along You struggled to concentrate Your body temperature increased so much that you started to feel uncomfortable And no matter how well you were playing in your previous round or practice session Your technique and abilities seemed to have completely disappeared? A lot of golfers apparently do And it comes down to a simple thing Those golfers that experience what I have described above Aren’t drinking on the golf course Well actually to be more correct, it would be more like They are not drinking enough before they play and while on the golf course Turns out that drinking while playing golf Is incredibly important In fact I would go so far as to say it should be compulsory to Drink water while playing golf and lots of it! What did you think I was talking about? Before you go any further though – this is going to get a bit technical And potentially outside my area of expertise So make sure you read my Disclaimer before you go on The states described above are symptoms of something called Dehydration Which occurs when the body eliminates a greater quantity of water Or receives a lesser amount than it requires To adequately cover its needs during an activity Considering that most golfers either don’t take a drink or if they do They take one that would be less than a litre in size Most golfers potentially suffer dehydration to some degree Nearly every round they play Mainly because instead of keeping themselves fully hydrated during the round They generally only react to their feelings of ‘thirst’ Which apparently because they take a bit of time to come to us Only do so once we have water loss of around 1 – 1.5% of body weight And you might think that’s not that important Until you read the following; The elimination during a round of more than 2% of body weight by dehydration reduces our physical capacity by between 5% and 10% That’s a pretty big decline in performance! One that is basically influenced by our water intake during a round And it gets worse; More than 3% loss of weight by dehydration during a round lowers the capacity of muscle contraction by more than 20% and muscle cramps can begin The scariest fact that I found; If during a round you had more than 8% loss of body weight by dehydration there may be a serious risk of death I’m pretty sure that’s not ideal! So it seems there is a fine line between feeling thirsty on the golf course Which most experts will agree is actually too late to start drinking water And becoming badly dehydrated on the way around As for the effect that this dehydration can have on golfers performance I found this brief study summary ‘EFFECT OF ACUTE MILD DEHYDRATION ON COGNITIVE-MOTOR PERFORMANCE IN GOLF Smith M.F., Newell A.J., Baker M.R (2011)’ Which was done on 7 low handicap amateur golfers a couple of years back The numbers are pretty sobering It looks like they started by having the golfers perform three skill tests as a base line Target accuracy, distance control and total distance The study then induced a 2% dehydration in the golfers Which with the average weight of participants being 75kg Means the golfers lost 1.5kg from dehydration during their round They then tested the golfers skills using the same tests as prior to their round The average base line target accuracy was 4.1m before Which nearly halved to 7.9m after only 2% dehydration The golfers distance control of 4.8m Suffered similarly, moving out to a 8.4m variation The total distance of their shots (I’m not sure how this was measured) Went from 128.6m base line Down to 114.4m after 2% dehydration Does that go some way to explaining how sometimes on the golf course It just doesn’t go as you think it should? I’m going to cover how to work out the amount you need to drink while on the golf course And a few other things about hydration In ‘Why you need to seriously consider drinking while playing golf – part two’ soon Until then take some water with you if you don’t already And of course Drink it before you feel thirsty! Play well

Mobile Bay LPGA Classic. Jennifer Johnson Wins.

Jennifer Johnson won the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic at RTJ Golf Trail, Magnolia Grove, the Crossings Course, breaking the Tournament record with -21 under par score.

Jennifer Johnson / Getty Images

Jennifer fired in a final round -7 under par 65, for a tournament total of -21 under par,  to become a deserved Rolex first-time winner at the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic in Mobile Alabama. She confessed to being a little shocked at the result;

” I’m a little shocked, I didn’t even realize I shot 65. The whole back nine was kind of like a; I don’t know, I don’t know what was happening.  And yeah, the birdie putt on 17, that’s when I started to think a little bit more about winning the tournament, on 17.  A little bit on the front nine, but you can’t afford to think about that. Before I hit my birdie putt on 17, I saw that Pornanong was tied with me at 20 and I didn’t want a playoff so I was like, I’m going to make this thing. The putter has kind of been the missing link all the tournaments because I’m hitting the ball so well and when they go in, it really helps score. Before this week I had experimented with more of a forward press and it just doesn’t fit my style of putting.  So I worked with my coach on making it kind of more like a pendulum and this new putter that I put in play really emphasizes that, and so I can like stroke it easier and I don’t have to work as hard to get it like rolling on line.”

Thailand’s Pornanong Phatlum raced up the leaderboard with a run of five birdies on the back nine,  including three-consecutively, to close out the round as the clubhouse leader at -20 under par.

Tied with Pornanong at -20 under par was Jessica Korda.  Pornanong had three putted the first hole, three days on the trot. She said it was something about that 1st hole;

“  I think like the 1st hole I three‑putt like, yeah. every day, three‑putt. Just the thing about the 1st hole, just keep going with what I have to do. I just concentrate on my game and do what I have to do and try my best, yeah, and putting very good today, so like just didn’t have pressure on myself today.”

There was a whole bunch of ladies at T4 on -19 under par, Jiyai Shin, Ariya Jutanugarn, Karrie Webb, Anna Nordqvist and Chella Choi.

Defending Champion Stacy Lewis finished T6 at -18 under par, and said she had just been concentrating on making birdies all day;

” I was just trying to make birdies.  It wasn’t really until probably the last five or six holes that I really started paying attention to what people were doing.  You just try to make as many birdies as you could.  It was fun there at the end, though, because Jennifer was making putts and I don’t think she realized what she was doing.  I told her when I hugged her, I said, I think you just won yourself a golf tournament, and she’s kind of like, what?  It was really cute.  But she played great today.”

As the final scores show, this was a hotly contested tournament, all credit to the professional Ladies of the LPGA.

Mobile Bay LPGA Classic. Chella Choi Trumps Anna Nordqvist.

Chella Choi has the third round lead at the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic, at the RTJ Golf Trail, Magnolia Grove Crossings Course in Alabama.

Chella Choi / AP

Chella shot a second consecutive round of -6 under par 66, to take the lead in the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic by just one shot at -17 under par for the tournament.

Anna Nordqvist had an amazing third round of -11 under par 61, which catapulted her up the leaderboard, sharing second place with Jessica Korda at -16 under par.

Jessica had a more modest third round of -3 under par, 69.

Karrie Webb is in fourth spot, she also had a -3 under par 69 in the third round, for her total of -15 under par.

Stacy Lewis, the defending Champion had a wonderful third round of -9 under par 63, which has put her well and truly into contention for this tournament, and retain her title as Mobile Bay Champion. Stacy is now in fifth place at -13 under par, four shots back of the leader.

Mobile Bay LPGA Classic. Korda Climbs to the Top

Jessica Korda climbed to the top of the leaderboard at the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic with second round of -7 under par 65, for a total of -13 under par.

Jessica Korda / LPGA

Jessica said she felt comfortable;

” I feel really comfortable out here, this is definitely one of the stops I wanted to come back to and I hope we can keep this event as long as possible out here because I really like it. I feel good. Today actually I didn’t have one shot where I was kind of;  kind of windswept or anything so it was good, it’s definitely moving in the right direction. I saw Sydnee, I saw she was like -8 under through 12. Like dang, that’s getting it done today. But no, not really, I kind of just went out here with really no mindset. Just come out here, try and hit good shots and convert when you can and kind of take your punishments when you have to.”

Karrie Webb is alone in second place after her magnificent round of -9 under par 63, gave her a tournament score of -12 under par.

Karrie,  played alongside of Jessica, and remarked she would need to keep up with her bogey free rounds, to keep up with her opponent, she is just one shot back at -12 under.

” I think I’ll need to do that for the weekend playing with Jess, she played really solidly for two days. I’m not sure the last time I had a bogey‑free round, so I’m really happy about that. That’s sort of been my problem is I have bogeys at the wrong time and it really kills momentum. That’s what happened yesterday, I turned at 2‑under and then doubled 1 and bogeyed 2 and all of a sudden I’m at 1‑over. I just was really happy with that fight back yesterday to finish at 3‑under and I think that really carried over into today and it was nice to play today without any bogeys.”

Chella Choi occupies third spot, a second round of -6 under par 66 lifted her clear of the bunch on -10 under par. She is dreaming of her first win;

” Maybe my first win, I’m just kidding. My shot is really good, my shot is really good and my distance is better than before than last year. My putting it’s not bad, but bad then last year, so I tried really hard on my putting, focus my putting like 80 percent putting, just 20 percent shot. So shot is same, my condition is same, shot, everything same, but putting is much better than before, last tournament.”

Stacy Lewis could only manage another -2 under par round, and is now at -4 under par, nine shots off the lead, she admitted she made too many mistakes;

”  I just made a bunch of birdies and just didn’t ; made too many mistakes and you can’t do it when people are shooting lights out.”

Notables missing the cut, which was at even par;

Moriya Jutanugarn, Brittany Lincicombe, Felicity Johnson and ex wonder kid Michelle Wie.

 

 

Mobile Bay LPGA Classic. Lexi Thompson & Eun-Hee Ji Share 1st Round Lead.

Lexi Thompson and Eun-Hee Ji share the lead after the conclusion of the first round in the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic, played on the RJT Golf Trail Magnolia Grove, Crossings Course, in Alabama.

Lexi Thompson / LPGA

Lexi Thompson and Eun-Hee Ji both shot first rounds of -7 under par, 65, to share the lead at the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic. They lead by just one shot from Jessica Korda, who had a -6 under par, 66 and is in third place alone.

Lexi said she was working on her momentum;

” I love the par fives here, I get to hit pretty much driver on every hole out here so it’s definitely an advantage for me. I definitely had some momentum, I made a few birdies at the end of my first nine. I was hitting it pretty close and I drained a few putts. So I was just taking one shot at a time, not trying to get ahead of myself because it’s golf, anything can happen, and I was lucky enough to make a few more birdies on the second nine.”

Lexi finished her round on the ninth hole, with a birdie. She was happy to regain the shot she dropped on the 1st;

“ Yeah, that was a good shot to end on, I just had a three‑quarter pitching wedge and just committed to it. I actually came out of a shot on the first, and the last hole and just scratched that.”

Eun-Hee, the 2009 U.S. Womens Open Champion, said she had a good day putting;

” I felt really good with my putting today, if I had 5- or 10-foot putts, I felt like I could make it. So I was really focused on it and I was really positive with my putter. I just like a really fast green, this is really fast and in really good shape on the course. I just like it.”

Defending Champion Stacy Lewis was upset that nothing seemed to go her way today;

” I didn’t really have anything go right today. I had one ball hit the sprinkler and go in the trees and one hit the cart path and go in the trees.”

I know that feeling well, amazing how it all goes wrong, all day.

 

First Win with White Dragon Putter

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have just heard that a White Dragon Putter customer has recorded a win in a competition.

New Zealand, Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club member Brent Hartridge, won the Sunday Stableford competition, with a points score of 41 with a round of 86. Congratulations to Brent, who when speaking in the members lounge after his round said;

” I did not three putt once today”

Another good report came from Steve, in London, who put a message on our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Whitedragon/150707995082605

Message read;

“Using White Dragon putter superb will not be going back to Ping putter”

Thanks for the Likes on our Facebook page, if you are a fan of White Dragon Golf please go and click on the like button while your checking out Steve’s message.

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