Making the cut–or not
June 19, 2015
The second round at a professional golf tournament provides more pressure-packed moments for more golfers than any other day of the competition.
That’s because there’s a cut in almost every three- or four-day event.
A predetermined number of golfers, typically the top 70 and ties, qualify to keep playing after the second round, and thereby have a chance to earn a nice check. Otherwise, there’s no money for the first two days’ play–which explains the pressure.
On Saturday, May 30 I joined the first threesome on the first tee at 7:00 a.m., for the second round of the 2015 ShopRite LPGA Classic, presented by Acer.
Mika Miyazato won the 2012 Safeway Classic, but has not won an LPGA event since then. She shot a two-under par 69 in the first round, so if she matched that score on the second day she was likely to make the cut. Before the tournament, she was 47th on the 2015 LPGA money list.
Jaye Marie Green is in her second year on Tour, and was 88th on the money list before the tournament. The Boca Raton, FL native shot 2-over the first day, and posting the same score on Saturday was not guaranteed to be enough.
Demi Runas is a Symetra Tour graduate and LPGA Tour rookie. She started the second round at 6-over par. Runas had to go low on Saturday to have any chance to play on Sunday and improve on her 129th place on the money list.
The threesome hit good tee shots into the foggy mist, which was just clear enough to see the green for their second shots on the 345-yard par 4. Miyazato and Green had routine pars, but Runas flubbed a chip shot and putted poorly for a double bogey. Not what she needed or wanted.
None were pleased at the three horn blasts a few minutes later, as the entire tournament had to endure a fog delay for just over an hour.
Once cleared for play, Runas’ troubles continued, with another bogey on the difficult 420-yard par-4 second. Green and Miyazato parred it, which was a half-stroke better than the tournament average for the hole.
Green had the first birdie of the threesome, on the third hole. She added to her birdie totals with another one on the 6th hole. Miyazato and Runas enjoyed their own first birdies on the eighth hole, and Runas added another one on the tenth.
After routine pars, Green sank a 15-footer for birdie on the 13th, and made a 20-foot bomb on the 419-yard par 4 14th. Miyazato made her first bogey on 14, and double-bogeyed the 16th. She bounced back with a birdie from two feet on the 115-yard par-3 17th.
Runas couldn’t keep a string of pars going, bogeying the 15th and 16th, ending any chance she had to make the cut. Her pars on 17 and 18 were nice, but the wind had already left her sails. She finished with a 9-over 151 total, far down the list.
Miyazato and Green ended the day tied for 11th place at 2-under par, well above the cut line no matter how well the afternoon threesomes performed–mission accomplished.
Miyazato chatted with Japanese media after posting her score, while I talked with a still-buzzing Jaye Green and her equally excited brother/caddie, Matt. “It was a good round. Left some putts out there, but that’s golf,” she said. “I felt really good, really steady.”
Green had a point. She never hit into a bunker, and her only real trouble shot was a three-wood on the par-5 18th that landed in a thick patch of rough about 70 yards from the green. She whacked a wedge halfway to the hole, and then hit a great pitch shot to one foot past the hole, for a one-putt par.
We also discussed her putting routine. Green walks to a spot about halfway to the hole, faces it, and then shifts her weight from right to left. “It’s part of Aimpoint Express. I don’t use my fingers like some players do, but it helps me determine the break. Your eyes can tell you the wrong thing sometimes. I have a really good sense of balance in my feet, and if I change the pressure I can feel the slope. I do it all the time now,” Green said.
On Sunday, Miyazato shot par, tying for 33d. Green shot one-over par, with a birdie on the 18th, to finish in a tie for 42d.
Cape Region teams come in first and second in 2105 WPGA Team Matches
A talented team from Kings Creek Country Club won this year’s edition of the Women’s Peninsula Golf Assocation Team Matches. The WPGA includes 20 teams from Delaware and Maryland golf courses.
In the gross score championship, held June 9 at River Marsh Golf Club in Cambridge, MD, the KCCC bunch edged a spirited group from The Rookery. Diane Herndon and Wendy Bunce of KCCC defeated Linda Kauffman and Ann Reed 10-8, while Rookery teammates Diane Stetina and Lisa Dillon tied Anita Pettitt and Judy Wetzel 8-8.
Kings Creek members Marilyn Hewitt and Deb Ward beat Sonya Dilworth and Helen Hardblower 10-8, but The Rookery’s Barb Thompson and Becky Caprano won 10-8 over Linda Outlaw and Vicki Tull.
Local Club Competition Results
The Kings Creek CC Ladies Golf League held their Step Aside Scramble June 4. Linda Outlaw, Barbara Wisneski, Robbie Monkman, and Rita Musi won first place, with Wisneski also taking the closest to the pin honors. Tricia Ritthaler, Sherry Pie, Prabhat Karapurkar, and Pattie Magee took second place.
The same league held a Cha Cha tournament June 11. This format uses the lowest score on odd-numbered holes, and the two lowest scores on the even-numbered holes. Wisneski, Atom Irwin, Karapurkar, and Trish Galioto won first place, followed by Jeannine Doane, Beth Magnus, Melanie Pereira, and Magee. Faye Slatcher, Katie Heintz, Denise Stewart, and Joanne Yurik took third. Cory Warther won closest to the pin for the day.
On a hot, humid June 15, the Kings Creek CC Ladies 9 Hole Golf Association played a Criers tournament. That’s when a player’s four worst scores are converted to par minus the player’s handicap strokes for those holes.
Carole Ellison won first place, followed by Nathalie McGregor in second, Carolyn Shriver in third, and Sally Horvath in fourth. Evelyn Vanderloo made closest to the pin on the 11th hole, with a shot ending only 1 foot 10 inches from the pin.
The Sussex Pines CC Ladies 18 Hole Golf Association held its Member-Guest tournament June 15. Two teams tied for first place gross: Terry Daisey, Daisey Hudson, JoAnn Zorb, and Ana Dittel; and Linda Townsend, Mary Palmatary, Brenda Lewis, and Ann Reed.
Sandy Harrison, Hazel Pusey, Kim Brooks, and Faye Slatcher won first place net, with second place going to Susan Shockley, Debbie Corrado, Susan Brady, and Dee Prillaman. Brenda Lewis had the closest to the pin shot among the members, while Ellen Sobieski won the same honor for the guests.
Daisey Hudson was closest to the line among the guests, and Terry Daisey led all members in that competition. Sue Brady had the longest drive of all the members, with Mary Berl hitting the longest shot of the guests. Katherine Gordy, Pat Short, Madelyn Macklin, and Retta Rose Frampton had the best “poker hand”.
The Sussex Pines 18 Hole Ladies held a Hybrids and Irons competition June 16. Sue Brady took first, with Terry Daisey in second and Susan Shockley in third.