Happenings at Carolina Trace Country Club: 6/1/09

The Women’s US Open Sectional Qualifying was a huge success. I had the privilege to spend a lot of time with a remarkable young lady. Yueer Cindy Feng is just thirteen years old and was one of the six girls that qualified for the Women’s US Open. The story started about a week before the qualifying round. Her Uncle called the Pro Shop and asked for the Head Golf Professional. He wanted me to show her the best way to play the golf course. We set up a time on Tuesday the 9th and Wednesday the 10th. I first met Cindy late Monday afternoon. She had come early to start to practice and become familiar with the greens. I was surprised as anyone to see how young she was. We briefly talked about the practice round and what I thought it would take to qualify. My guess was a few strokes over par. I knew how the course was set up and felt it was going to play long and very challenging for the ladies. Tuesday had arrived and when we got to the first tee I asked her exactly what she was wanting from me. She said she wanted to know what the best way to play the golf course was. We went through each hole and each shot. Example, I told her to always check the hole location before playing certain holes. Like #1, if the pin was in the back or the middle she needed to hit down the left side of the fairway to have a good angle at the pin. We talked about how certain holes will play longer or shorter than the yardage because of elevation changes. We spent most of our time around the greens. I showed her which would be a better side to miss on. I encourage her to always land her chips or pitches on the green so she would get a true bounce. A few of greens have a false front. We talked about the ball rolling out after it passed the cup. On Tuesday we didn’t know the hole locations so we had to look at the whole green instead of just the section where the flag would be. She hit the ball great, not very far, but very straight. Also one of the best short games I have ever seen. Cindy plays out of Champions Gate in Orlando Florida and her golf coach is David Leadbetter. Cindy and her father spoke back and forth to each other in Chinese the entire day. Cindy speaks very good English. I had in my mind I was going to keep my mouth shut on swing tips because I didn’t want give her a different thought just before the qualifying round. On Tuesday’s round she struggled on holes 11, 12 and 13. She would either miss it left or block it right. I finally said something to her on 13 tee box. Her stance was too open and the ball too far forward. If she made her normal release she would hit left or hold off the pull and keep the face open then the ball would go right. She made the change and hits some really good shots. On 14 her dad asked me to give her a routine to ensure consistency in her set-up. With her feet close together, I had her place the club face at the target, and then align her feet. This really helps with both ball position and alignment. She stayed with this routine throughout the reminder of the tournament. Her dad wrote down everything I said. We discussed in detail the greens, par 3’s and approach angles. I told her to always look back down the fairway before she would read a putt. Most of our greens will run in the same direction as the hole. Number 9 green breaks down toward the range, just as the hole plays. Wednesday we knew where the hole locations for the qualifying round would be. The committee will mark them with a small paint dot. This helped a lot; we could narrow the area to study on the greens down a bit. We talked about number six. I told her to feel the wind on five and it would be the opposite on number six. If the wind is blowing I told her to keep it below the tree line or take an extra club and hit it into the bank. During her first round she hit it off the bank, the ball bounced back onto the green to about eight feet and she made birdie. When we were finishing the practiced round we talked about getting off to a good start. She said she always plays better once the round gets going. I told her that six spots were plenty and she had a very good chance to qualify based on what I watched the last two days. I told her, out of the 39 girls, half didn’t belong there. Out of the other 19 girls about one third won’t play well and she really just had to finish in sixth place out of about 12 to 14 girls. Psychologically it is a good way to approach a qualifying round. She shot 76 in the morning round. As we looked at the score there were only about 12 girls in front of her. She told me she really only had one bad hole. She made a double bogey six on number 11. I encouraged her to stick with her game plan. She started the afternoon round on number 10 again. I watched her tee off and then didn’t have a chance to check on her until number 6. Her dad was very excited to see me. He pointed two fingers down. This meant she was two under for the round. She hit it to about three feet on six and made birdie. She made pars on 7 & 8. I watched her play the 9th hole. She hit her second shot to within two feet. Tapped it in for 68 and now had to wait to see if that would get her entry into the Women’s US Open. The scores came in and as each one went up her chances looked better and better. Cindy finished with a score of 144, even par and was third in the qualifier. The Women’s US Open is at Saucon Valley in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania July 9-12. I have decided to go and watch her play in the first round. The entire event was enjoyed by the players and the members. The ladies praised the quality and condition of the course. A great job was done by Tim Hart and his staff. At the end of the tournament, Tiffany Priest, CGA Director of Women’s Golf, asked if we would like to host it again next year. I said absolutely yes! I hope to hear from her in the fall on scheduling a date. I’ll keep you all posted.

The 2009 Tracer Member-Guest was a huge success. We dodged the forecasted rain and the golf course was in spectacular shape. Seven flights competed in the five nine hole match format. The tournament finished with the flight winners competing against each other in a shoot out that took place on the Lake Course. The shoot out provided plenty of drama with the overall champions winning the chip off. Dick Brown and Robert Groben(pictured first) won the 2009 Tracer Member-Guest. The flight winners were as follows: Flight One-Jeff Pecor and Luke Scala; Flight Two- Bill Guwang and Bill Gernhardt; Flight Three- Glen and Greg McGivney; Flight Four- Len Tulio and Jim Waas; Flight Five-Lew Andersen and Trent Crosby; Flight Six- Bobby Felicio and Joe Matties; Flight Seven- Arnold Mullings and Chuck Calhoun III.