Women's APL Blog

Last night, after everyone had left, I walked out of the clubhouse a little after eight into one of those rare and perfect moments. The sun hung on the horizon like a great orange and the golf course stretched out into the mist in a thousand shades of green. I stopped. Birds, left to themselves now, chirped and soared through the trees, looking for a few last morsels. The humble robins. The brilliant slashes of color on the red-winged blackbirds sailing through last light. Tiny chipmunks skittered over the grass and dove into clumps of yellow daylilies. Without the murmur of the players and the collision of club-heads and balls, the course seemed vast and empty in the dusk. The light kept fading and mist curled over the grass. Photographs or paintings can’t capture this glory. This is real, so beautiful that it breaks your heart. To borrow a line, “Is this heaven? No, it’s Indiana.” I walked to my car and drove away. Rhonda Glenn    

Normally, players don’t make many requests of reporters, but Martina Gavier couldn’t resist.

After two marathon matches on Thursday, culminating with a 21-hole quarterfinal round victory over Caroline Powers, the 21-year-old Argentinean was transported back to the clubhouse by a rules official where she slowly climbed out of a cart and was quickly cornered by a few reporters.

First, Gavier had a question of her own to the scribes: “Can we sit?”

No one could blame the rising senior at Kent State University for wanting to temporarily return to even the rudimentary solace of a golf cart. After all, she’d just played 41 holes to score two match-play wins, starting with a 20-hole triumph over Notre Dame junior and local favorite Becca Huffer in the morning round of 32.

For Gavier, the victories were taxing, both mentally and physically. In both instances, she had to answer 2-hole deficits on the second nine to force extra holes. She ended the match against Huffer by sinking a putt from the fringe, and then later holed a 16-footer for birdie to overcome Powers.  For Gavier, the overtime sessions were well worth the return, though “survive and advance” took on a whole new meaning.

“I was feeling pretty confident in the morning,” Gavier says, “but I started to feel tired and lose focus in the afternoon. I just had to grind it out.”

Gavier played eight more holes on Thursday than her quarterfinal round opponent tomorrow, Ellen Mueller, a senior at the University of Oklahoma, but the game plan is to sleep fast, be ready for her 7:50 a.m. match on Friday and, most of all, savor what’s already been a memorable ride.  

“This is pretty sweet. I love match play. I really do,” Gavier says. “To be in the quarterfinals of a USGA championship is pretty amazing.”

As if the already-fesity Gavier needs a shot of inspiration, she has something that will easily trump an extra hot, no foam, triple-shot latte in the form of Argentina’s quarterfinal round match in the World Cup on Sunday.

“I’m not superstitious or anything, but if I win, maybe that will mean something.”

It’s a thought. Ever gregarious, she pondered her victory as the latest submission to the Passionate Sports Fan Dictionary for a moment.

“No,” she allowed.

It will be back to the task in a few short hours; she’s one of eight players with their title hopes still alive.

“I’m 100 percent into this right now,” Gavier said. “I just love to compete and want to make the most of it. I’m very happy I’m here. I played two very good rounds of golf. Whatever happens, happens, but I’m just going to give it my best.”

-Andrew Blair 

 A $30,200 grant from the USGA is helping an Indiana golf program do its good work. In central-Indiana’s Hartford City, kids in the Blackford County Community Foundation golf program are learning to play golf as well as a lot about the benefits of the game. 

 Indiana, site of the 2010 Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship, has been a beneficiary of a number of USGA grants. Since 1997, the USGA Grants Initiative has given more than $1.1 million to Indiana programs and $65 million overall to golf programs in the United States. 

 USGA grants target golf programs serving economically-disadvantaged juniors and individuals with disabilities. More than 2.2 million people throghout he nation have benefited sine the Grants Initiative began 13 years ago. 

 With six of seven factories closing in Indiana’s Hartford City in recent years, local residents have suffered a financial squeeze. But for Hartford City kids, the Foundation’s junior golf program has provided a safe environment and a lot of fun. 

 Kids in the program receive a free set of golf clubs and membership at a local golf club. To help the junior golfers stay on track, adult volunteers are trained to recognize youngsters who may need one-on-one mentoring. 

 The Blackford County Community Foundation program offers youngsters not only a chance to play golf, but to also learn the valuable life-lessons the game offers, such as age-appropriate mature behavior and sound judgment while adults with the program provide positive reinforcement. 

 Twenty-five Indiana golf programs have received USGA grants, including the Parks and Recreation Department of South Bend, which is just a few miles from this USGA national championship now underway at Notre Dame—Rhonda Glenn 

 Her eyes are wide. Her smile is bright. Kelli Oride, 16, of Lihue, Hawaii, is living her dream. “I’m excited,” she said. “I’m excited because I just won, and I’m here, and this is my first USGA championship and I’m working to accomplish my goals.” 

 Oride had just walked in after defeating Shamira Marshall of Macedonia, Ohio. She didn’t have far to walk. It was a good, tight match and Oride won on the 17th green, 2 and 1.  

 Oride played quite well and was the equivalent of three over par for the match but the other element of excitement is that she’s just a few hundred yards from her heart’s desire – The University of Notre Dame. Just over the horizon the spires of the university rise into the sky and for Oride, an incoming senior at Kauai High School, Notre Dame is where she wants to go to college. 

 “I made a few informal visits here,” she said. “I wanted the academics and the golf. That was important to me. So, when I visited schools, that was what I was looking for.  

 “I knew from the moment I got here that this was where I wanted to continue my education.” 

 Oride’s father is an eye doctor and her mother helps with his practice. She has a 4.0 grade point average. Combined with her fine golf game, she would no doubt be welcomed at any school she chooses. But she chose Notre Dame. 

 “A lot of my friends want to stay on the West Coast to be closer to home,” said the Hawaii resident, “but you’re never going to have the opportunity to live your life in a new environment if you don’t choose a school further away.” 

 Oride plans to study business wherever she goes to school. It just interests her more than other fields of study. Golf is important too and she plays in Hawaii junior tournaments, recently finishing second in the Hawaii State High School Championship. In the summer she comes to the mainland to play in other events. 

 She’s been successful on the golf course and off. Oride won a number of junior tournaments and was honorable mention for 2009 Rolex All-American honors. She was on the 2009 Scholastic Junior All-American team and won the 2010 Hawaii Leadership Essay Contest. For that last one, she was made Mayor for a Day. 

 Right now her future is bright and Oride is on top of the world – a national championship, a match-play win, and Notre Dame right next door. – Rhonda Glenn

The WAPL field, like an army, moves on its stomach. The food at the Warren Golf Course is just right for players. Plenty of protein. Lots of fruit. During today’s three-hour weather delay, players nibbled and snacked, munched and lunched to help pass the time. Grilled cheese, sliced baked potatoes, soup and watermelon. Salads and cold cuts. Competitive golfers don’t seem to mind what they eat, as long as they get enough of it. Playing burns a lot of calories and food is fuel. Serious golfers in general aren’t picky about their food. I once played with friends at The Bear’s Club, Jack Nicklaus’ fabulous course in south Florida. Told a non-golfer friend about our great day. “Did you have a nice lunch in the clubhouse?” she asked. Well, no. She envisioned us all sitting down to a huge spread in the lovely clubhouse at The Bear’s Club. Grilled salmon, perhaps. Fabulous salads. What she could never understand is that we all had jumped out of the car, tied our golf shoes as we ran to the tee, and ate a banana half-way round. To true golfers, there is only the golf.

Rhonda Glenn

 Some contestants here are young. Very young. One of the players is 12. Another is 11. This poses some interesting little situations, such as keeping score. An official in one of the scoring tents said one of wee ones had a little trouble adding up her score. It can happen. Ask Jackie Pung or Roberto DeVicenzo. “Just make sure the score for each hole is right,” the official told the young player. “We’ll add them all up.”      

 In the 2000 WAPL. Michelle Wie had qualified for the first time. She was 10 and qualified for match play. The starter handed her the scorecard and told her to keep score for the match. “Do I have to?” Wie asked. “Do you have trouble adding” the official asked, a natural enough question to ask a fourth-grader. “Of course I know how to add,” Michelle said. “I take algebra in school. I just don’t like to keep score.” Somehow, they worked it out.

It may go down as the loudest suspension of play in USGA history.

No, an official’s air-horn didn’t malfunction with a lot of noise when lightning halted the first round of match play at 11:02 a.m. Wednesday morning.

For awhile, competitors holed up in the Warren Grille, took a break from clock watching and turned their gaze toward the television and the United States’ World Cup soccer match against Algeria.

First, a ricochet toward the mouth of the goal sent oooooh and aaaaahhh through the masses in the dining room. A momentary hush was quelled when Landon Donovan’s return shot found the net. This room shook and it wasn’t a result of thunderstorms. High-fives were exchanged and there were a few mixed-in murmurs of U-S-A, U-S-A! And you thought golf was a quiet sport.

WAPL competitor and Rollins University senior Joanna Coe, a former golf and soccer standout as a prep at Oakcrest High School in Mays Landing, N.J., was helping to lead the cheers.

“That,” she smiled as Team USA advanced out of Group C, “was awesome.”

 Coe estimates the same game plan for success in the World Cup will be needed to navigate through the rigors of match play at this week’s national championship.

In order for the U.S. to keep winning in coming weeks, which Coe predicts “will be tough,” she says the World Cuppers will need to “limit stupid mistakes and keep creating good opportunities.”

“It will take a lot of heart, but you never know,” she says.

Brittany Altomare, a University of Virginia sophomore, provided some postgame commentary.

“Great game, she said, “but [the U.S.] should’ve scored five times before that.” 

It’s going to be a long day as a result of the weather delay, but a win by the home team has a way of brightening the outlook.

“What are you going to do? Better to call in the players and be safe,” said Rules official Terry Wise. “That was fun to watch.” – Andrew Blair

 The Luigs are here, Joe and Marcia of Carmel, Ind. Marcia is a past chairman of the USGA Women’s Committee. Joe won the USGA’s Joe Dey Award for meritorious service as a volunteer. They’re here to work as rules officials. With 32 first-round matches being played today, a rules official is needed for every match. Marcia is with Match 3, Joe is with Match 4. “We were setting up the course for the Women’s Amateur qualifier in Fort Wayne,” Joe said. “This was only 100 miles out of our way, so we said, ‘Why not?’” These two have been among the USGA’s most loyal rules officials. Like the other officials, it’s on a volunteer basis and they pay their own expenses. The Luigs have officiated at USGA championships all over the country. On Monday, in fact, Joe has to run a U.S. Senior Open qualifier. We asked them why they do this. Joe, who tends to sarcasm, said, “We’ve been doing it for so long that at this age we don’t know what else to do.” Joe and Marcia Luigs, by the way, were both inducted into the Indiana Golf Hall of Fame for their contributions to the game. “They were desperate that year,” Joe said. 

Rhonda Glenn

Rule 11-5: Match Play

We don’t normally write about Rules infractions because in a championship with 156 players, there are many. Most of them are small and, frankly, boring. Environmentally sensitive areas and lateral water hazards, for the most part. But a unique Rules situation came into play this morning. Player A and Player B completed the sixth hole. Player A was 3 up and had the honor. Player A teed off and hit a nice long drive down the center of the fairway. But there was a problem – wrong tee, wrong fairway, wrong hole.

Player A had teed off on the 16^th, not the seventh. Here’s how it happened. Player B lost the sixth and, inadvertently, she and her caddie walked to the wrong tee. Player A, her caddie and the rules official followed. Player A teed off. A spectator told them, “This is the 16^th hole.” Great consternation.

 Several things then happened. The two players were walking merrily down the seventh fairway, thinking Player A had lost the hole, when the Rules official arrived and said, “Hold on.” Stephanie Parel, a USGA Rules official, told them it was a simple violation of Rule 11-5, “Playing from Outside Teeing Ground.” Player B may require Player A to tee off from between the correct markers. No penalty.

Player B actually could have required Player A to finish the seventh hole from the 16^th fairway. That would have been interesting. They’re both par-4s, across a creek, down to a landing area, up to beautiful, well-bunkered greens, except that the two holes are separated by several acres of deep forest.

So, this story ends with Player B asking Player A to hit another drive, from the seventh tee. Player A complied. The players were calm and walked down the fairway giggling at the mistake. The hole has yet to be completed. Play was soon called because of threatening weather.

 Player A, by the way, is Kimberly Kim. Player B is Simone Hoey. Joan Caldwell, the USGA Rules Official with the match, said, “It’s one of those things you hope never happens. But we recovered.”

 Rhonda Glenn

Perhaps no player was more thrilled with her round Monday than Nicole Zhang, 18, of Canada. Zhang shot an even-par 71 and was particularly happy because Warren Golf Course, the championship site, is where she’ll play a lot of golf next year as a member of the Notre Dame women’s golf team.

Nicole’s brother, Dustin, is a member of the Notre Dame men’s team. Nicole, who has qualified for the upcoming U.S. Women’s Open, was with the early wave of players who sat out a 1 ½ hour weather delay.

“About 40 of us, players, caddies, friends and parents, waited it out in the varsity team facility, which the Notre Dame team uses,” Zhang said. “We ate a lot. My friend’s mom had oranges, chips and cookies, so those gave me energy and made me happy too.”

Zhang hit 17 greens Monday but familiarity with Warren G.C. wasn’t a factor. Until this weekend’s practice rounds, she had played only a few holes here when she made an informal visit to see the school. Her parents are here and her mother, Jen, is her caddie.

“She lines up my shots for me and makes me laugh,” said Nicole. “Today was cool. I feel good about going into tomorrow. I’ve been playing pretty solid.”  

As an industrial design major at Notre Dame, Becca Huffer is learning how to shape products to illicit a lasting visual impact on the conscience of consumers.

“Cars, shampoo bottles, you name it,” she says.

Huffer, a rising junior on the Fighting Irish golf team, will likely need the same thinking-person’s approach as she routinely takes to the classroom. After all, on the Warren Course, the reward comes from subtly shaping shots to targets on a track that values precision over power. Notre Dame’s women’s golf program uses the layout at its home facility, and it’s a safe bet that no competitor in the 156-player field knows the course’s curves better than Huffer, a voracious worker. Huffer says she welcomes the pressure of playing a big game at home.

“I expect myself to play well because I know the course,” she says. “I really like the course; it can be challenging, but very scorable if you’re in the right places. There can be a few bad places, too.”

The possessor of an enviable natural, syrupy swing and Notre Dame’s stroke average leader as a sophomore, Huffer by now might be due at the national championship. This will be her fifth-straight appearance in the WAPL and she made match play the past two years, but a match-play victory has somehow eluded her grasp. Part of it can be attributed to the dynamics of match play where success is determined by holes won and not aggregate score; she shot the stroke-play equivalent of one under par in last year’s opening-round match, but fell to Yueer “Cindy” Feng, 3 and 1.

But the Denver, Colo., native and former Colorado High School Female Athlete of the Year knows the value of adapting. She remembers arriving in idyllic, simple and – well, flat – northern Indiana as a newcomer and thinking, ‘This isn’t Denver.’

“I had to buy a hat and glove,” she remembers.

At least South Bend’s snowy winters had some familiar characteristics. Sort of.

“The snow doesn’t stick around in Denver like it does here,” she laughs.

Admittedly, Huffer has been pointing to the national championship since last summer when she found it was going to be staged in her own backyard. As a sophomore, she performed like a player ready for a next step, finishing out of the top-20 only once in 11 tournaments.

Huffer says one of her most memorable golf moments came last year when she visited Ireland and played Ballybunion, Tralee, Old Head, Waterville and Kilarney. Poised to shine on the national stage, she enters the WAPL with her share of confidence, having advanced past sectional qualifying for the national championship.

“Hopefully things will go my way this time,” she says.

Huffer has designs on it.

By Andrew Blair