International flavor or favor?
Qualifying in Japan an intimate gathering
They will gather in Cordova, Tenn., Monday, upward of 101 competitors. On the same day there'll be some 66 faces in Purchase, N.Y., and at two venues in Columbus, Ohio, the list of golfers will stretch past 210. Lake Forest, Ill.? There'll be 60 on hand and the entrants in Daly City, Calif., will number close to 85. And not to forget merry ol' England, where some 75 golfers will tee it up in Surrey.
All in all, more than 800 titanium-toting chaps will be spread across 14 sectional qualifying sites in hopes of securing precious few berths in the upcoming US Open. For most of them, the odds will be long and the patience short, but if they ever ponder the difficulty of their task, let us remind them that there was always the option of Osaka, Japan.
That's right, Osaka. A pricey trip, yes, but the weather's not bad this time of year and the competition wasn't going to be overwhelming. In fact, a mere 12 golfers teed it up and things grew thinner when one of them, Prayad Marksaeng, quit after the morning 18. That left 11 competitors vying for two spots into the US Open. Not bad odds, of course, but the question has to be asked: What kind of tournament has just 11 golfers signing scorecards?
It's the fourth year the US Golf Association has held sectional qualifiers in international ports to make the US Open more accessible to golfers in other lands. But whereas the site in England routinely attracts dozens of established professionals, the tournament in Asia has been thin. Only 17 teed it up in 2005 and similar numbers arrived the next two years (19 and 18). Each of those three years, the USGA generously awarded three spots. This year, when only a dozen golfers showed up, just two spots were granted, but Mike Davis, the USGA's senior director of rules and competition, said it would be wrong to criticize that situation.
In fact, through a USGA spokesman, Davis offered the opinion that the Osaka field was the strongest of the 14 sectional sites, with seven of the 11 finishers ranked within the top 250, and it's a legitimate point. There's also the fact that world golf leaders are committed to "growing the game," and extending opportunities to golf professionals in far reaches of the globe, men such as Artemio Murakami of the Philippines. In Osaka, Murakami, ranked No. 363d in the world, shot 69-69 -138 and tied former PGA Tour winner Craig Parry for medalist honors, and both players have their tickets punched to Torrey Pines in La Jolla, Calif.
The question isn't whether Murakami belongs in the US Open field. He certainly does. No, the problem is perception. When you take extraordinary steps to go outside your boundaries and graciously extend an opportunity for success, it would be nice if more than a dozen folks were involved. It smacks of being unappreciative, though Davis said injuries played a part in the small turnout. But regardless, a golf tournament involving just 12 players doesn't sound like a golf tournament; it sounds like the dew-sweepers going out for a $2 Nassau at the local muni on Saturday morning.
Just don't expect anything to change. The USGA is committed to these international qualifiers, small field or not. So if there's a guy in Purchase, N.Y., or Columbus, or Cordova who feels as if he got squeezed out by a large field, then perhaps he should consider a trip next May to Asia, where a cozier gathering of competitors will greet him.
Hanefeld, senior class put to test at Oak Hill
Kept on the sidelines for the first 10 Champions tournaments of the year, Kirk Hanefeld has suddenly seen things turn his way. When he shot 70 in pouring rain and 48-degree weather Tuesday, he survived a qualifier and will tee it up tomorrow in the Principal Charity Classic in Des Moines, thus giving him starts in three of the last four tournaments.Then again, cold rain probably felt good after the experience Hanefeld had at Oak Hill CC in Rochester, N.Y., in the 69th Senior PGA Championship.
"It was like nothing I had ever seen before," he said.
Consider that the director of golf at The International in Bolton and longtime New England PGA standout was a mere five strokes off the lead through 36 holes before he closed with rounds of 77-76 - yet he didn't fade completely from view. That's because Hanefeld's scores were about the norm as players had trouble keeping their drives in the firm, sloping fairways, and they never had a chance out of the 4-to-5-inch rough.
"I wouldn't say I enjoyed it," said Hanefeld, who finished at 18-over 298 to share 34th, "but it was one hell of a test."
How badly did Oak Hill hammer the field? Let us count the ways:
Of the 336 rounds played, only 12 were under par. Over the first two days, 23 of the 206 rounds were at 80 or higher. Over the course of four days, there were 67 rounds at 80 or higher.
The field average was 74.222.
Jay Haas won with a closing 74 to finish at 7 over. In 68 prior Senior PGAs, the highest winning score had been a mere 2 over.
So tough was it that a bad round didn't knock you out of it. To whit: Tom Watson opened with a 78, but came back with a 69 to make the cut. Ditto Bruce Fleisher (78-67), Lonnie Nielsen (81-70), Mike Hulbert (80-72), and the most dramatic of all, Jim Ahern (83-68).
On the other hand, Massy Kuramoto started 73-68 and was just one off the lead, only to close 80-82 and tumble into a share of 59th.
Tom Purtzer had the 36-hole lead after trips of 73-67, but a third-round 81 was his undoing.
You won't often see a guy shoot two rounds in the 80s and cash a check, but that was the case for Mike Barge, who went 72-80-80-77 to finish T-77.
For finishing T-34, Hanefeld earned $8,700, and further down the list, another former New England PGA standout, Rick Karbowski, earned $3,637 for getting into a share of 71st. It was a different story for two others with NEPGA ties, Mike San Filippo and Bob Darling, as they both missed the cut. So, too, did Dana Quigley, whose rounds of 75-78 led to just his second missed cut in 46 starts in the senior majors.
Curtis Cup member Walshe in her element at St. Andrews
You wouldn't want to make the trip to the world's most precious golf course and not get the full complement of flavor, would you? Of course not. That's why Alison Walshe of Westford probably wasn't bothered by the wind and rain that accompanied her in yesterday's practice round at the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland.Well, OK. Maybe it was a slight inconvenience.
"I think the cold is a little bit of a problem for anybody," said US Curtis Cup captain Carol Semple Thompson. "Then again, I think all of my players are quite experienced and will be able to adapt."
One of those players is Walshe, 23, the first Massachusetts woman to make a Curtis Cup team since Noreen Friel in 1978, and the fact that her opportunity arrives in conjunction with the first competition on the hallowed links of St. Andrews makes that much more of a thrill. It also puts an emphatic exclamation point on a collegiate career that had more twists and turns than she ever could have imagined.
Having started at Boston College in 2003-04, Walshe transferred to Tulane and had a standout sophomore season. It was at the start of her junior year, however, that life changed dramatically. Hurricane Katrina changed the Tulane landscape and one of the alterations was the elimination of the women's golf team.
Thus did Walshe transfer to the University of Arizona to compete as a junior in 2006-07, then capped out her senior year this past season.
It's hardly the way she would have drawn it up, but through it all, Walshe has remained focused on her golf game, which has prospered quite well. Already a serious contender for the Curtis Cup team, Walshe probably sealed her spot by winning the Harder Hall, thanks in large part to a pair of finishing 68s. She also won the 2007 North and South Women's Amateur and few collegiate golfers can lay claim to being named a first-team player in three conferences - the Big East, Conference USA, and Pac-10.
Now, however, comes the most special achievement. As a member of the Curtis Cup team, Walshe will try to help the Americans win for a sixth straight time and improve upon their 25-6-3 mark.
True, had the timing been different Walshe could be enjoying a true home game, but she can't complain about the hallowed links of St. Andrews - even if it is rainy, cold, and windy.
Etc.
'Perfect' stormA demonstrative Peter Alliss showed no back-up when his critical analysis on BBC apparently angered some players at last weekend's BMW PGA Championship at the Wentworth Club in England. "I thought it was disgusting," said Englishman Nick Dougherty, one of several players to react to Alliss's critical words.Shrugging it off, Alliss repeated his main points for the Times of London, being especially harsh with players who talk of how tough things are for them these days. "I had two bloody rounds of golf in a [British] Open at St. Andrews and drove home through the night to give Mrs. Anderson a lesson on Saturday morning at the club," he said. "Don't tell me how hard it is." Alliss's bone of contention is simple: Players today have it easy. "If it is not all perfect now, they all complain. They are so thin-skinned nowadays," he said. "It is quite extraordinary."
Full-bodied, with a bitter aftertaste
Then again, it's not hard to side with Alliss, because there are times when the excessive riches seemingly have dulled competitive fires. Consider the message on Ernie Els's website in the aftermath of his poor performance at the European Tour's PGA Championship (75-73 to miss the cut) on a course he helped re-design and where he has a mansion. While he acknowledged how disappointed he was, Els wrote: "On a brighter note . . . [there was] some good news from the International Wine Challenge in London, which is the biggest wine fair in the world. We clinched three silver medals for some of our Bordeaux-style reds; the 2004 Ernie Els, the 2006 Cirrus, and the Lapa Cabernet Sauvignon, a decent result." Somehow, I don't think Ben Hogan could relate . . . Els had Memorial Tournament officials shaking their heads. Having committed to that event, Els wrote on his website that his next tournament would be the St. Jude Championship June 5-8, so Memorial folks figured he had withdrawn. Not quite. The next day he made a correction, saying he definitely would play in Jack Nicklaus's tournament.
Championship dreams
Tickets to the sixth annual
Winner's circle
Ryuji Imada, fresh off of his first PGA Tour win (the AT&T Classic), has confirmed he'll tee it up in the Travelers Championship June 19-22 at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn. Imada joins a handful of other PGA Tour winners this year - Boo Weekley, J.B. Holmes, Johnson Wagner, Brian Gay, and D.J. Trahan - who have committed to the festivities outside of Hartford . . . How windy was it at the NCAA Women's Championships in Albuquerque? Consider that Duke's standout junior, Amanda Blumenherst, had to do some extra bunker work after her round when a hat blew off the head of her coach, Dan Brooks. It went into the bunker and she had to retrieve it. Why? Because NCAA rules forbid coaches from going onto putting greens and into the bunkers.
Major letdown
Annika Sorenstam learned during yesterday's pro-am that Lorena Ochoa, ranked No. 1 in the world, dropped out of the Ginn Tribute this weekend to be with an uncle who'd fallen ill. "Sorry to hear that, but the family comes first," Sorenstam said. "We all have our priorities in life." One of Sorenstam's had been to challenge for the title at RiverTowne Country Club, where the tournament bears her name, in her last year of competitive golf. "I am very sorry to have to withdraw," said Ochoa, who last played May 18, when she won the
Familiar touch
Taking advantage of a playing opportunity, former LPGA Tour member Pam Kerrigan, 43, returned to the competitive landscape and shot 74-74 at the
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
