Poppie's Pond Made Family Friendly, Complete With Oft-Requested Clear Bottom

Larry Bohannan with a look at the newly christened Poppie's Pond off Mission Hills' 18th green, welcomed into use for this year's event with help from Amy Alcott, who originated the Nabisco's traditional post-victory lake leap.

You may recall that the winner last year, Stacy Lewis, saw her mother get injured during the Nabisco's trademark winner-leap into the lake. But the tournament officials say that was not behind the addition of the special new leaping pool.

“It’s not really in response to (the injury),” said Gabe Codding, tournament director of the Kraft Nabisco. “It’s something that we looked at. Anything that we had to do, it felt like the appropriate thing to do, to have a jump zone and have an area where a mishap couldn’t happen again. It was important for us to address that issue.”

But it wasn't in response to the injury!

Poppie’s Pond is a cemented, fresh-water area cut off from the rest of the lake around the 18th green at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club. It was initially built to end concerns about players jumping into the murky brown water of the actually lake inhabited by fish, ducks, coots and algae.
Codding said the changes in Poppie’s Pond make the area safer for winners and whoever joins the winner in the pond.

Germs!

“It’s completely vertical now, where are before it had a two-foot ledge then it was sloping. They built it originally to where it would look natural.

The pond is 5 feet at the center but is now just over four feet deep where the pond begins.