Your Primer For The LPGA At Royal Melbourne
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Mark Hayes previews the course from the player's perspective, with Suzann Pettersen's comments standing out.
"This is the one course where I am hardly hitting any drivers. It is (about) putting the ball in a good spot on the fairway. You can literally try to hit to the middle of the green on every hole.
"You can take your chances when you feel you have a decent club in your hand (but) the risk-reward here can be quite painful if you are too aggressive.
"The bunkers are a true hazard this week. In the US, a bunker might be better than short-siding yourself in the rough.
"Here, the way they are designed, the ball ends up sitting down in the middle and it is hard to spin it. If you short-side yourself, you most likely will have to make a long par putt.
"You have to play whatever the course gives you. I think it is a great test."
Royal Melbourne East Course's par-3 16th, the 14th hole on the Presidents Cup Composite Course but not in play this weekMartin Blake profiles Pettersen and also shares this about the course:
Royal Melbourne's composite course, hosting the women's Open for the first time, is not as fiery as it was for the Presidents Cup, but it will present a stiff challenge for the women this week. Reid was surprised that the greens were softer than she expected, but the superintendent's staff ran out of time to roll the putting surfaces yesterday; they will surely be slicker today, running around 11 on the stimpmeter.
Here's Melissa Woods on Morgan Pressel's impressions of the place.
"We play a lot of nice courses on tour but we don't play a tremendous number of truly the best courses.
"To play a course like this is definitely a treat for us."
Randall Mell previews the key players and their tee times, and also provides the Golf Channel tape-delayed telecast times (12:30 ET Thursday/Friday, 10 a.m. ET on the weekend).
As for World No. 1 Yani Tseng, Steve DiMeglio profiled her for USA Today and she says she's focusing more this year on playing and less on talking to scribblers. Because she only won 12 times last year.
"Last year I did a lot of media, so this year, I want to organize the time better so I can still talk to the media and still have time to practice. I will find a better balance. I learned last year. I will get better. I know what I need to do to make things better for me and everybody."
Chris Barclay on this being the biggest stage yet for 14-year-old Lydia Ko.
As for the course, I have posts from last fall here, here, here and here that offer some glimpses of this masterpiece.
