2012 U.S. Womens Open promises exciting golf on pristine course

Although the 2012 U.S. Women's Open Championship week officially begins on July 2nd with flag-waving events planned for the entire week, I'm not sure how many people are aware of the history, kickoff, players or even knowledgeable about the beautiful Blackwolf Run golf courses. Allow me to brief you so that you will want to tune in and cheer on the ladies!

To be brief, the U.S. Women's Open is the oldest championship (63 years) open to women professionals and amateurs. This year's "Kohler Experience" in Wisconsin hopes to recreate a sudden death playoff that epitomizes the "Open" feel which occured thirteen years ago at this venue between Se-Ri Pak and amateur golfer Jenny Chuasiriporn.

The River and Meadow Valleys Course will merge for the 2012 U.S. Women's Open to recreate the Original Championship course, a sort of "composite course" of the two very challenging layouts.

The "Snake", first hole of the River Course, may get you on the green in two with a solid drive but you must favor the right side of a deep green to avoid the bunker and river on the left.



No matter how scary "Snake" might look, it is not the official starting point of the U.S. Women's Open Championship: golfers will have to wait until the tenth hole to feel it's bite.

The first hole will officially make the girls "Quiver".  Normally the tenth hole of the Meadow Valleys Golf Course, Quiver is a Par 4, 348 yard hole "with a daunting tee shot across the Sheboygan River to a fairway that narrows as you get closer to the green. Favoring the middle to left side of the fairway from the tee with a driver or 3-wood will open up your approach to the green. The approach shot requires an additional one to two clubs into an elevated green."


View great pictures of the Championship Course on the official U.S. Women's Open Facebook page.

With regards to the ladies, the group of entrants ranges from newcomer (and Tiger Woods' niece) Cheyenne Woods to more familiar faces Natalie Gulbis, Paula Creamer, Michelle Wie, Morgan Pressel and world-ranked number-one women's golfer Yani Tseng. The U.S. Women's Open Championship is always an exciting event with the outcoming not being a runaway but I'll lay my odds on Yani Tseng as the eventual winner. Who is your choice to win?

Watch first and second-round coverage of the 2012 U.S. Women's Open July 5, 6, from 4-8 pm on ESPN2. NBC will air live third and fourth round coverage from 3-6 pm on Saturday and Sunday.

Voice your opinion on Twitter @Golf4Beginners and friend on Facebook.

Posted via email from stacysolomon's posterous

Michelle Wie "out", Creamer "in" as new face of LPGA?

In his recent blog, Chuck Curti said that, as golf fans are waiting for Michelle Wie to live up to her potential and become the "Tiger Woods" of the LPGA, Paula Creamer may be stepping in to become the next "heroine" of women's professional golf.

"We’re still waiting." Curti woefully conveyed. "Wie has not yet lived up to her potential, and her performance at the U.S. Women’s Open last week was nothing short of putrid."

Where the Wie conundrum is certainly true, Paula Creamer, the girl who up until her win this weekend at the U.S. Women's Open never won a major, has now "earned the right to be the face of women's golf?"

Although Paula Creamer has nine career wins and is still a youngster at 23, how many golf fans have watched the LPGA  golf to get a glimpse of the Pink Panther making a tremendous save? How many more will do so now that Creamer is a major winner?

Perhaps Creamer's career "incentive" of working through a thumb injury to perform at the level it takes to win at Oakmont will be her "aha moment" and create the stuff of legends.

Creamer's thoughts?

"It just shows, you know, how much the mental side of golf can really take over. You know, I believed I could do this. I believed I could do this when I had a cast on my hand.

That's what I just kept thinking about was Oakmont, Oakmont, Oakmont."

Michelle Wie's take on the U.S. Women's Open MC? “A complete fail,” Wie said, adding, “There are a lot of things I need to work on.”

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Michelle Wie says "Tomorrow is a Whole New Day" at U.S. Open

Here is the Michelle Wie transcript after an apparent first round golf meltdown at the U.S. Women's Open. At least Wie remains positive and when you are positive there is still hope!

Will Michelle Wie make the cut? Oakmont is not allowing for easy scoring and the current projected cut is +11!

MICHELLE WIE
Q. You found yourself 8 over after eight holes. Must be dejecting. What do you say to yourself? It's not easy to make birdies and make up that ground.

MICHELLE WIE: Oh, yeah, it's like I'm playing fantastic right now. It's a great day. But, I felt a little better. Hopefully tomorrow will be a lot better.

Q. What are the things you need to improve on tomorrow?
MICHELLE WIE: Everything. (Laughing.)

Q. That's a tall order.
MICHELLE WIE: Hopefully I can pull it off.

Q. What kind of positives can you take away from today?
MICHELLE WIE: Positives? You know, I'm trying to find 'em. You know, just had a couple of good shots out there. I say a couple. Not many. But hopefully tomorrow will be a whole new day and hopefully I'll play a lot better.

Q. It's a tough not to get frustrated?
MICHELLE WIE: I was trying not to today. It's kind of one of those days where nothing goes as planned. But, you know, I felt better coming in, so tomorrow hopefully start off on the right foot.
Try and make up for a couple birdies and try and have a good weekend.

Q. Was it more your game or more the golf course that was troublesome?
MICHELLE WIE: Oh, it was definitely my game. I didn't play well at all today.

Q. You missed a lot of fairways.
MICHELLE WIE: Yeah, you can't really do that. Mostly I think it was just the putting that got me. You know, I felt like my irons were good. My wedges were good. I just need to put it in the fairways so I can hit those.

Q. (Indiscernible) After that, how do you settle yourself down?
MICHELLE WIE: There was nothing I could do. You know, I try my hardest and things didn't really work out. I just try to move forward.

Q. You played better on the back. Does that give you any hope for tomorrow, you know, a little bit of momentum going into tomorrow?
MICHELLE WIE: Tomorrow is a whole new day. I'm just going to go out there and try to shoot my best.



The U.S. Women's Open First Round Notes and Transcripts for the following golfers can be found here.  
Brittany Lang, -2
M.J. Hur, -1
Amy Yang, -1
Inbee Park, -1
Mhairi McKay, E
Sakura Yokomine, E
Cristie Kerr, +1
Paula Creamer, +1
Kristy McPherson, +1
Song-Hee Kim, +1
Eun-Hee Ji, +6

NOTABLE TEE TIMES:

---

Morning tee times

7:00 a.m.         (a) Kelli Shean*, (a) Jaye Marie Green, Esther Choe(# 1 tee)

7:33 a.m.         Natalie Gulbis, Inbee Park*, Pat Hurst (# 1 tee)

7:33 a.m.         Stacy Lewis, Amy Yang*, Alexis Thompson (# 10 tee)

7:44 a.m.         Juli Inkster, Jee Young Lee, Christina Kim (# 1 tee)

7:44 a.m.         Cristie Kerr, Yani Tseng, Anna Nordqvist (# 1 tee)

8:06 a.m.         M.J. Hur*, Helen Alfredsson, Katherine Hull (# 10 tee)

8:28 a.m.         Brittany Lang*, Momoko Ueda, Seon Hwa Lee (# 10 tee)

Afternoon tee times

12:30 p.m.       Mhairi McKay*, Brittany Altomare, Charlotte Majorkas (#1 tee)

1:03 p.m.         Ai Miyazato, Jiyai Shin, Michelle Wie (# 1 tee)

1:03 p.m.         Morgan Pressel, Maria Hjorth, Candie Kung (# 10 tee)

1:14 p.m.         Angela Stanford, Suzann Pettersen, Paula Creamer (# 1 tee)

1:14 p.m.         Brittany Lincicome, Sakura Yokomine*, Heekyung Seo (# 10 tee)

Interesting to see Ai Miyazato paired with Michelle Wie and that Wie already started Round 2 with a bogey!

MICHELLE WIE Live Scoring

Rnd 2  Rnd 1# 39 43 82  Status +12 +12 ROUND 2

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Michelle Wie sings the U.S. Open blues

Round one of the U.S. Women's Open is underway and it looks as if Michelle Wie is already struggling to stay above the cut line! Yet another climb to mediocrity for the golfer who was once on everyone's lips as the female Tiger Woods!

 

The LPGA leaderboard currently has Wie's score at +9 with three double bogeys, several bogeys with a few pars thrown in to add a little spice to the mix. Perhaps it would have been better if Michelle would have failed to qualify as it was during the 2009 Open where Wie wound up missing the cut by one stroke.

 

Sure Oakmont Country Club is a tough test but major tournaments are meant to bring out the best golfers and everyone is playing under the same conditions so, since there is plenty of golf left to play, get busy Michelle.

“It’s always a grind,” Wie says of the national tournament. “It’s a tough golf course. I just have to play the best I can and come out on top.”

 

Recent tweets by Michelle Wie ("themichellewie"):

On Oakmont CC  10:08 AM Jul 6th: So excited for the US Open this week! We are playing at Oakmont CC, so challenging but so beautiful! http://fb.me/AWfNyiHT

 

Is the U.S. Open all about the shoes for MW?   8:50 AM Jul 7th:  As for Check out my US Open surprise shoes from Nike Golf! I loveee them!!! http://fb.me/sxRa1SXi   via Facebook

 

Really want to get to know Michelle Wie? Check out her blog: http://ablackflamingo.blogspot.com/

Posted via email from stacysolomon's posterous

Can Michelle Wie and Natalie Gulbis find happiness outside the ropes of the U.S. Women's Open? Also weight shift drill

Click here to listen.

After watching the struggles of both Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson (among the other great golfers) at the 109th US Open, it can be said that this was the year of the initiate, not the veteran. Lucas Glover, who had only won once in his career on the PGA Tour astounded and amazed the crowd with his steely gaze, focus and lack of emotion while both Woods and Mickelson fell short of the basic skills needed to get the job done.

One can almost compare Glover to the lovely Natalie Gulbis who has also had a single victory but who, along with Michelle Wie, failed to qualify for this year's U.S. Women's Open and may be watching from the sidelines. Will either be offering Twitter commentary? Not likely!

What separates golfers who qualify from those who don't?

When John Daly missed qualifying for the U.S. Open, he remarked that his feet were tired and the greens over in Europe were much slower than those in the States adding, "talk about not even sniffing a putt!" Solid putting, therefore, is the single most important part of any player's golf game.

Glover, who had missed the cut in three previous Opens acknowledged that his lead "can be attributed to putting and patience" and is currently "ranked seventh in putts made from between 15-20 feet."

Now, considering why Michelle Wie, for example, did not qualify for the Women's U.S. Open, she revealed that she was swinging really well but "just couldn’t get anything going, and some of the putts didn’t drop."

Should the USGA bend the regulations to assist the LPGA (and NBC) retain a slipping fan base or are the rules the rules? Originally, the policies stated that the top thirty golfers would be admitted to the U.S. Women's Open but now only the top ten automatically qualify. Well, the USGA says that it is for the good of the game...

You certainly wouldn't need to bend the rules at the U.S. Open to accomodate Tiger Woods or Phil Mickelson because of the excitement factor of the entire field but, for the U.S. Women's Open, it could be the difference between increased ratings and hearing crickets chirping in the distance.

Would it have mattered if Gulbis and Wie played in the U.S. Women's Open? Not likely as both missed the cut last year. Michelle's quintuple bogey on the ninth hole at Interlachen said it all.

Golf for Beginners also discusses a weight shift drill which will allow you to stop that 'reverse C' and point your club more directly at the target.




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Inkster, Creamer insist practice makes perfect, Lorena Ochoa just wants to have fun. Buried lies and easy to avoid DQ Rules

Click here to listen.

Although an announcer during the U.S. Women's Open mentioned Young Kim's swing thought of "fairways and greens", it's much easier to think it than it is to bring it to fruition. The simple practice of envisioning what you want to achieve is sometimes the key to a positive round.

Basically, if you think happy thoughts, chances are you won't throw your seven-iron in anger!

On the flip side, the average weekend duffer tends to clutter his mind with either what he has learned or needs to practice instead of a simple meditation geared to a positive outlook. The result tends to aggravate instead of calm.



With the golf season being in "full swing", Golf for Beginners looks at the thought processes of LPGA golfers during a major tournament. Don Huebscher asked several of the brightest stars on tour their thoughts in the heat of the moment and what helpful hints they can offer to weekend warriors after an encounter during the pro-ams.

Is regular practice more important to a solid round than a good mental game?

We also discuss gnarly grass which thoroughly surrounded my golf ball this week and how I managed to get out of it. With superintendents allowing longer rough on the Publinks, it's really important to learn how to get out quickly, take your "medicine" and get your ball back in play.

Finally, we mention a couple of simple DQ rules you might take for granted.


Send your golf questions and comments to golfforbeginners@aol.com.

Subscribe to our weekly podcast through this RSS feed: http://feeds.worldgolf.com/stacy_solomon or through iTunes. Nextel/Sprint cell customers type http://www.mymbn.com/podcast/ in your browser and click on "sports casts". Our station number is 1955.

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Photo Credit: AP Photo by Lynne Sladky

No "gimmees" for Michelle Wie at 2008 U.S. Women's Open and how to tee it up for an iron

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Michelle Wie has spent countless hours preparing for the 2008 U.S. Women's Open with coach David Leadbetter in the hopes of reversing the downward spiral which has been her albatross since last year. Although Wie recently commented that she felt herself "re-emerging as a new player, a new person," she also reluctantly mentioned what has gone before, asserting, "I'm not ever going to think about before I broke my wrist. That was then and this is now."

Perhaps Wie has been going through a metamorphosis of sorts since her dismissal from the columns of many a golf writer who believed her to be washed up by her eighteenth birthday.

Her recent victory of sorts, a sixth place finish at the Ladies German Open as well as a genuine qualification into a major event instead the ritual "gimmees" offered to her by sponsors, has put Wie back on track. Now that appearance offers are no longer easily forthcoming (2008 Sony Open, 2008 Ginn Tribute hosted by Annika Sorenstam), Michelle seems to be developing a sense of humble graciousness, coming to the realization that it takes talent, not youth or the appearance of ability, in order to gain recognition in her chosen field.

"It's been a long time since I had to qualify for something, and it made me want it even more," a seemingly more grown-up Wie stated. "I think going through that qualifying humbled me a lot as a player, as a person. Sometimes, you have to go back to your roots to become a better player and a better person."



This week's Golf for Beginners podcast discusses Michelle Wie's potential to pick up where she left off, before the wrist injury. Can she let go of her past and focus on the future? We'll know more after the 2008 U.S. Women's Open!

We also offer golf tips on hitting an iron flush off the tee.

Send your golf questions and comments to golfforbeginners@aol.com.

Subscribe to our weekly podcast through this RSS feed:http://feeds.feedburner.com/golfforbeginners or through iTunes.

Subscribe to our newsletter!
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"Shiny Tech" courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)"

This podcast is supported by Grand Bahama Vacations, 1-800-422-7466.
Vharness Golf.

Photo Credit: Houston's Clear Thinkers

Does Michelle Wie stand a chance at the U.S. Women's Open, dealing with adversity, proper drop technique and more!

Click here to listen.


Lorena Ochoa will be heading into the 2007 U.S. Women's Open exuding confidence after her sudden-death victory at the Wegman's LPGA this past weekend. She has also successfuly knocked Annika Sorenstam off of her perch as the number-one golfer in the Rolex Rankings. Congratulations Lorena!

Michelle Wie will also be in attendance at the Open (since this Golf for Beginners broadcast was produced) but we believe, with less self-assurance than in previous years. Wie has decided to skip the PGA Tour's John Deere Classic due to the length of the course so it is uncertain how she will fare at Pine Needles. Confidence is everything in a match-up where ladies like Ochoa and Kraft Nabisco winner, Morgan Pressel, are tuning up their games seeking the coveted title.

Barry and I offer you our predictions this week as to whom we feel has the right stuff to hoist the trophy.

We also discuss how we fared on our rounds and the lessons we have learned from them. Barry and I played about two holes of twilight golf when darkness appeared and the sky opened up. The following day, both of us played in different groups. My foursome included a guy who tried to teach me the game in the middle of my swing. The game lies in your mental fortitude, folks!

During Barry's round, one playing partner had to take a drop but did so improperly. He could have received a one-stroke penalty had Barry known this Rule of Golf for proper drop technique. You can't be expected to know every rule, so keep a copy of the book in your golf bag.

Subscribe to our weekly podcast through this RSS feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/golfforbeginners or through iTunes. Nextel/Sprint cell customers type http://www.mymbn.com/podcast/ in your browser and click on "sports casts". Our station number is 1955.

"Shiny Tech" courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)"

This podcast is supported by Pioneer Golf and Florida Golf Travel.

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