By Ann Miller
Advertiser Staff Writer
KAPOLEI — Given the outrageous natural elements, the most shocking golf element in yesterday’s Cup Noodles Hawaiian Ladies Open first round was not all the LPGA players the wind left scattered over par across Kapolei Golf Course.
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| Scotland’s Catriona Matthew sinks a par putt at the 18th hole for a first-round 67 and a two-shot lead.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser |
The most shocking element was how Catriona Matthew could possibly shoot a 5-under 67, and rookie Hue-Won Han could follow with a late-afternoon 69, in a wind tunnel of a tournament.
With the breeze blasting non-stop up to 35 mph, golf balls were transformed into whiffle balls. Anything close was exquisite. Every hole was an invitation to disaster.
When it ended after dark last night, 11 players had yet to finish, including Cindy Schreyer, who has a 20-foot putt on the final hole to shoot a 70. Of the 133 who did finish, only Matthew, Han, and Mhairi McKay, Leslie Spalding and Vicki Goetze-Ackerman — all at 71 — were under par.
Matthew and McKay are from Scotland, home of links golf and lashing winds.
"It was too warm to be home," Matthew said with a grin, "but it was windy enough. I’m used to it. This is the kind of wind I grew up in. But I don’t play in weather like this now when I’m home. I’m too spoiled."
She was simply too good yesterday. While all around her golf games crashed and burned in the bluster, Matthew was magnificent.
She played the front nine in three under, hitting a trio of approach shots within six feet. On the back, she missed birdie putts from within 10 feet on 15 and 16, then drained a five-footer for eagle on 17, and saved par from four feet to finish.
She "punched" every iron shot but one, boring the ball low into the cross wind, and missing just four greens in regulation.
"I think I hit only one ‘normal’ (iron) shot," Matthew said. "You just have to try to keep it a bit lower in the wind."
She reconsidered: "In the gale," Matthew said, shaking her head.
Han, a 22-year-old from Seoul, was the 1998 Japan LPGA Rookie of the Year. She won two JLPGA events the next year, and tied for 19th here playing on a sponsor’s exemption. She returned last year, shot the same score (1-under 215) and tied for 47th.
Han became an LPGA member at last year’s Qualfiying School, where she finished 27th to earn "non-exempt" status.
She was a Monday qualifier last week at the Takefuji Classic, and missed the cut. She was a Monday qualifier this week and outplayed nearly everyone yesterday, bogeying her second hole then sinking four birdie putts between 5 and 25 feet on the final 14; three were downhill, downwind and slam dunks.
"I just tried to touch it, roll it down," Han said. "I didn’t think about anything but hitting it soft."
Meanwhile, everyone else was simply trying to keep their sanity. Caps and visors morphed into lethal weapons, flying down the fairway alongside palm fronds. Balls left alone on exposed putting greens stopped and started again. Water hazards resembled rapids.
Spalding, who had not come in under par here in nine previous rounds, reached three under and double bogeyed the last hole. McKay bogeyed it. Cristie Kerr, third last week, triple-bogeyed the 17th and finished with a 74.
Players clawed their way into red numbers, only to stagger back. A 1-over-par 73 was in the Top 10. A year ago, even-par wasn’t good enough to make the cut.
SHORT PUTTS: The 11 players who did not finish last night will pick up where they left off at 7:15 this morning. ... Pros Grace Park and Susie Redman, and amateur partners Hirohiko Ito, Haruo Iida, Ryohei Katano and Kazunori Iwai won Wednesday’s Pro-Am with a 16-under-par score. Sophie Gustafson’s team (Roy Kitagawa, Bob Peterson, Joseph Hartzman, Ken Simon) was second with the same score, losing a match of cards. ... Kris Tschetter and Marisa Baena, who finished ninth here last year, withdrew yesterday, suffering from sore backs.
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