The Salas Effect

Brittany Lang, Brittany Lincicome, Stacy Lewis, Brooke Pancake, Lizette Salas,
& Jennifer Song ready for the Women's Health Classic Pro-Am at Stony Point.

The Self Regional Healthcare Foundation Women's Health Classic is in full swing at The Links at Stoney Point even though the tournament action is still three days away.  The topiaries that will reappear at the Festival of Flowers in about 6 weeks are artfully placed around the clubhouse, the leaderboard is up and waiting to record the action on the course, the spectator seating is where it needs to be, and the months of planning and hard work are behind Jim and Denise Medford.  Show time started at 7:30am Monday morning with the first of three Pro-Am events.

Sunday at Pinehurst Belonged to Michelle Wie

Michelle Wie teeing off Sunday at the US Women's Open.  Photo credit: USGA

The 69th playing of the US Women's Open has taken its place in golfing history.  It's an Open that belongs now to twenty-four year old Michelle Wie, once a teen phenom who labored at her craft for a full decade in order to achieve the Sunday afternoon pinnacle victory.  It was a well-played and truly-earned win.

A Walk Around Pinehurst No. 2

US Women's Open Trophy

In many respects Lucy Li and I are polar opposites -- she is young and I am old, she lives on the West Coast and I live on the East Coast, she is an amazing golfer and I struggle to occasionally break 90 -- but on one core matter we are rookie sisters.  This is our first US Women's Open, and as I walked the course today, beginning my day by following Laura Davies, then turning to Lucy's group for a time, and finally picking up Stacy Lewis, Inbee Park, and Emma Talley, I reflected on the extraordinary power emanating from the tee boxes and fairways and greens at Pinehurst No. 2.  Perhaps this is an artifact of my rookie blogger status, but I think not.

US Women's Open: Remembering The Babe

Babe Didrikson Zaharias, 1911-1956

In 1954 the United States was in the grip of the Cold War and being held in thrall by Joe McCarthy's Red Scare, and it seemed like only Edward R Murrow and Fred Friendly were going to take exception to McCarthy's madness.  Love was in the air and so was radioactivity: Monroe married Dimaggio and the first hydrogen weapon exploded over the Bikini Atoll.  The nation was poised on the brink of a cultural revolution, pondering but not yet able to envision the post-Brown v Board of Education social landscape.  Texas Instruments launched the transistor radio and Burger King launched its proletarian hamburger challenge.  The first issue of Sports Illustrated appeared on newsstands.

This was the year Babe Zaharias won the US Women's Open for the third and final time, defeating Betty Hicks (for the second time) at the Salem Country Club in Peabody, Massachusetts.  It was her 48th and final victory on the links.

Own The Shot -- Good or Bad

Stacy Lewis, 2014 ShopRite LPGA Classic Champion, wins
after an embarrassing 3-putt on the par-3 17th hole on Sunday.

Having watched soon-to-be world #1 Stacy Lewis three-putt from inside two feet on the par-3 17th hole on the Seaview Hotel Bay Course at the ShopRite LPGA Classic Sunday afternoon, I'm feeling a bit better about some of my own golf gaffes.

Chicks With Sticks: 2014 Forecast

Paula Creamer's Instagram Shot. Courtesy LPGA.com

With the 2014 season just days away from tee-time, I'm going to stick my neck out and make some predictions.

Lucky Shots, Big Girls, & Little Girls

Here it is, Shanshan Feng's lucky 2nd shot on the par-5 18th hole at the Pine Valley Golf Club in Beijing, China that gave her an eagle and an upset victory over Stacy Lewis, and then set off that storm of sour grapes tweets this morning.

Shanshan wasn't the only lucky golfer yesterday.  Lefty did it too, sending his ball crashing into a tree and skipping across a pond, all from a grossly uneven lie.

Bad Day on the Links? Want to Quit?

When I game back to golf after a 30 year sabbatical I was faced with some serious problems.  I remembered that I had once played a respectable game of golf, but all those small skills sets that fit together to make a competent weekend golfer had left me.  My swing was flat.  My feet were flat.  My back and my knee joins were 30 years older than the last time I'd held a golf club. I'd forgotten how to keep my head down.  I'd forgotten how to keep my feet still when I putted