[Carl Rogers]

So Yeon Ryu won.  Who knows anything about her?

[PCCraig]

Carl:

I don't know the slightest thing about her.

[jeffwarne]

everyone was watching women's football.......

[Dan Herrmann]

The golf course kinda bored me on TV.  I liked the Ross holes, but the RTJ Sr. holes seemed a bit pedestrian.

Unfortunately, the USGA, as it sometimes does, has identified "who?" type of champion.

[Bill Shamleffer]

I watched and was interested in the US Women's Open.  The Women's Open has always been my favorite LPGA event of the year.  Although now that there is also a Women's British Open, that even is now 1A for me with the US Women's Open.  I watched some of the Open on the internet, some tape delays on TV, and finally some live on Sunday night.  I did not even know it was still on TV on Sunday night until I was having my Sunday night phone call to my mom and she happened to mention that the women's golf was on TV.

Quite a few things worked against the Women's Open this year: the Women's World Cup, the frequent delays, the many new names at the top of the leader board, Tseng showing early on that this was not her week.  However, I did find the course interesting and if one was able to follow the tournament (which did take effort) NBC did a fine job of introducing Ryu and Seo to a country in which they are unknowns.  And in this case they truly are unknowns, as each primarily plays on the South Korea tour.

Per NBC, Ryu and Seo are the top 2 on the South Korea tour (not sure if this is accurate), Ryu is currently still in college while also competing on the pro tour, and finally, Ryu's caddie for the week used to caddie for Shin.  However, he was taking a break from caddying to care for his mother.  He was asked to caddie for just one week for Ryu during the US Women's Open, as that would be her one week on the US tour, and he ends up on the winning bag.

I was primarily interested in seeing how they handled playing on such a high altitude course.  But then when actually watching the golf I found most of the interest being in how the handled the greens, both on approach shots and putting.  They were often fooled by the greens, mostly underestimating the break.  I do not recall seeing much of the Senior Open at this course a few years back, so I am not sure if the Seniors were also having quite a bit of difficulty in realizing how much the greens would break.

The Broadmore looks as though it would be a fun though challenging resort course.  It looks as though it may be on the high end of difficulty for resort courses, although it looks as though a substantial portion of that difficulty comes from the very large and difficult to read greens.

And best of all for a resort course, the scenery looks spectacular.

[John_Conley]

Birdie Kim and In-Bee Park won the U.S. Open and pretty much nothing after that.  One friend told me someone hypothesized that the small Koreans have great tempo and are very accurate drivers, giving them a huge advantage on the U.S. Open style course.  There has to be some explanation.  If they were great players, wouldn't they win on the regular weeks like Tseng, Ochoa, Sorenstam, Pak, Webb, and Lopez?  Or maybe one-fifth as often?

Never heard of either of these two, but it was an amazing comeback on Monday.  There was a lot of ground to make up!  Well done to both.

[Garland Bayley]

Ryu is a physical education major debating whether she should play as a pro full time. My advice. Drop the physical education studies and do whatever. Anything but study physical education. The stuff I read said she was #4 on Korean womens tour. I don't know how Seo could be highly ranked on the Korean womens tour, as she has  been playing full time on the US tour. But then, full time on the US tour leaves plenty of free time.

[Garland Bayley]

Birdie Kim and In-Bee Park won the U.S. Open and pretty much nothing after that.  One friend told me someone hypothesized that the small Koreans have great tempo and are very accurate drivers, giving them a huge advantage on the U.S. Open style course.  There has to be some explanation.  If they were great players, wouldn't they win on the regular weeks like Tseng, Ochoa, Sorenstam, Pak, Webb, and Lopez?  Or maybe one-fifth as often?

Never heard of either of these two, but it was an amazing comeback on Monday.  There was a lot of ground to make up!  Well done to both.

Seo has one win on the LPGA tour. She won the inaugural Kia Classic last year.
Seo is known as the supermodel of the fairways. Don't know when she stole that title from Anna Rawson.

[Mike Benham]

   
US Women's Open - No threads? No interest?

Jay Flemma wrote a nice preview about it ...

[Bruce Wellmon]

2014 at Pinehurst.
I think its fair to say there is an identity crisis with the LPGA currently.
The back to back mens and womens opens at Pinehurst offers, imo, the chance for increased media exposure, compared to the "regular" open at a entirely different site. Perhaps this is a make it or break it event for the LPGA.

[Garland Bayley]

2014 at Pinehurst.
I think its fair to say there is an identity crisis with the LPGA currently.
The back to back mens and womens opens at Pinehurst offers, imo, the chance for increased media exposure, compared to the "regular" open at a entirely different site. Perhaps this is a make it or break it event for the LPGA.

Yes, but where are they in 2013?

[Terry Lavin]

Group snooze button apparently in working order.

[Mike_Young]

 

[John_Conley]

When I typed my previous post I forgot to mention that it was impressive to see both young girls conduct their post-round interviews in English for U.S. television.  Well done ladies.  Most of us aren't bilingual so it isn't fair to require or expect you to be.

[Mark Chaplin]

John I'm guessing big $$$ encourage language learning.

[Bill Shamleffer]

2014 at Pinehurst.
I think its fair to say there is an identity crisis with the LPGA currently.
The back to back mens and womens opens at Pinehurst offers, imo, the chance for increased media exposure, compared to the "regular" open at a entirely different site. Perhaps this is a make it or break it event for the LPGA.

Yes, but where are they in 2013?

Sebonack Golf Club.

[Dan Herrmann]

Bivens was the worst commissioner in the history of sport.   The LPGA will need decades to recover.

[Bill Shamleffer]

See if this changes the snooze button Terry.

So with all due respect the problems are mainly two things:
Koreans and lesbians

I think you are out of date on these issues.

With players like Tseng and Shin playing some outstanding golf and rising above the rest; the general public is beginning to appreciate some of the individual coming out of Asia and joining the crop of talented Americans and Europeans on the LPGA.

And the issue of someone’s sexual preference as far as being a hindrance per corporate interest in the LPGA has been diminishing for the last couple decades and is now almost a non-issue except for a very few limited backward thinkers.

[Tim Martin]

See if this changes the snooze button Terry.

So with all due respect the problems are mainly two things:
Koreans and lesbians

I think you are out of date on these issues.

With players like Tseng and Shin playing some outstanding golf and rising above the rest; the general public is beginning to appreciate some of the individual coming out of Asia and joining the crop of talented Americans and Europeans on the LPGA.

And the issue of someone’s sexual preference as far as being a hindrance per corporate interest in the LPGA has been diminishing for the last couple decades and is now almost a non-issue except for a very few limited backward thinkers.

I could only imagine a meeting of the USGA Executive Committee when one of the honchos throws out "Gentlemen if we can just solve the lesbian and Korean issues I think we would have a winner going forward". You have to give Mike Young credit for not pulling any punches,huh?

[Rory Connaughton]

I try to watch as much as possible each year.  This year it was impossible for the tournament to build any momentum given the weather delays.  What I did see, especially from the leaders on Sunday, was some very entertaining golf.  I have never been to the Broadmoor but my impression is that there may have been limited camera angles as the course seemed to have a lot of elevation that was difficult to discern from the broadcast.

I do not recall much pre event advertising from NBC but given that the chalk in the field come from all corners of the globe, it would probably be useful for NBC and the Golf Channel to start educating the public on who these golfers are.  We certainly don't mind that McDowell and McIlroy won the men's Open. Of course they are different beasts but if the avid golf fan knew more about the Asian players interest would be higher. They certainly seem to be quite charming.

[Paul OConnor]

I had particular interest in Ms. Ryann O'Toole.  She's athletic, and very easy on the eyes.  Wish she would have gotten more airtime.  The LPGA needs to sell players like her.

[Bryan Drennon]

The women's open needs 2 things. First and most importantly, a superstar. She doesn't have to be an American, just have looks and some kind of personality. I know it sounds sexist, but if an Anna Kournikova look a like came along and won at an Annika/Tiger pace, she could be bigger than anyone on the mens tour. Second, and more important to us at gca, why not put the US open at some of the courses the men couldn't use (for different reasons), ie. Cypress, Pine Valley, Seminole, Chicago etc. I know with some of those choices, you would lose revenue because of the size and restrictions of the venue, but the wow factor might make up for it. I don't know if it's feasible, but it would have more of my attention than any mens tournament.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Another poor venue choice by the USGA given the known weather problems there at this time of year. The Broadmoor is a great resort and is an excellent venue in the early fall.

As Rory just stated, it was impossible to follow this event given the weather delays. I caught some by accident on Sunday while flipping channels.

I still think the LPGA has an Asian problem with US TV audiences.

[jeffwarne]

I had particular interest in Ms. Ryann O'Toole.  She's athletic, and very easy on the eyes.  Wish she would have gotten more airtime.  The LPGA needs to sell players like her.

I hate it when they waste that airtime on those pesky leaders playing great golf 
(for the record Seo is pretty easy on the eyes as well)

[Doug Wright]

Carl Rogers,

For what it's worth, I started a thread on this topic last Thursday because I have some familiarity with Broadmoor East.

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,48811.0.html

Althought I was interested in the tournament, I didn't attend or watch that much due to the bizarre weather that disrupted the event.

Regarding the venue/timing, the USGA got a bad break in the form of a clockwise weather system that has brought a monsoon flow of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico through Colorado the last week. This is very unusual in my experience here in Colorado. Yes there can be afternoon thunderstorms but they suspend play for an hour and that is it; this system is different and persistent, causing the lengthy delays they experienced this weekend. I guess we'll see if the USGA thinks enough of the venue to give it another try; my sense is they and the players like it due to the hotel and facillities. 

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