Live from the LPGA Tour – Kingsmill Championship

For the next two days, the Pinehurst Blog will be coming to you live from the LPGA Tour’s Kingsmill Championship, where last year Jiyai Shin needed nine playoff holes (NINE!) to clip Paula Creamer in easily the most exciting finish on the LPGA Tour a year ago.

We’ll give you a behind-the-scenes look at one of the LPGA Tour’s best tournaments of the season, where all 10 of the LPGA’s Top 10 players in the world are entered into the field. Outside the top 10? Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel, Cristie Kerr, Natalie Gulbis, Michelle Wie, Se Ri Pak, Laura Davies, Juli Inkster – they’re all here, too.

Also here are, heretofore affectionately known (at least to us), the Pinehurst 6. All six players on Tour who are previous North and South Women’s Amateur champions – Austin Ernst (2012), Danielle Kang (2011, Alison Walshe (2007), Tseng (2005), Pressel (04) and Brittany Lang (2003).

Any requests? Leave us a comment below and we’ll try to get to it. Let’s head to the tee.

TUESDAY, APRIL 30 PRACTICE ROUND

9:58 a.m. One of the very cool things to see when you hang around the practice green: the number of players’ caddies who walk up to the previous week’s winning caddie – in this case the looper for World No. 1 Inbee Park – to congratulate him. They’ve been doing that a lot lately.

Paula Creamer arrives at the Kingsmill’s practice green, much to the delight of the fans.

10:15 Paula Creamer arrives to the practice green. Fans had been lining up in the area as soon as her bag appeared in the area – some 20 minutes before she arrived.

Morgan Pressel tees off on the 10th at the Kingsmill’s River Course. This shot brought a loud sigh – and a re-tee.

10:32 As Creamer walks out, Morgan Pressel walks right on by, signing a few autographs for those who recognize her, as she heads from the 9th green to the 10th tee.

Lexi Thompson takes some time to visit with a young fan.

11 a.m.

THIS is what the LPGA Tour is selling. Their motto: “See why it’s DIFFERENT out here.” Lexi Thompson took a few minutes to hang out with a young fan.

11 a.m.-3 p.m. A few notes after spending four hours on the range:

• Creamer wasn’t scheduled to play a practice round until later this afternoon, but put in a full day’s work. She spent nearly two hours on the putting green, and then another two hours on the range. She’s methodical with her routine, taking time in between shots, but she was here to work. She’s a bona fide star in golf, and much of it appears to be well-earned.
• Also, Creamer usually has anywhere from 4-5 people around her at all times. She’s accessible to media and fans, but one thing is clear on the LPGA Tour – there are THE stars, and there’s a lot of everybody else.
• Michelle Wie is striking in person, and on the range Tuesday, worked through one of the more unusual practice routines. After working through her bag, Wie interchanged clubs with each shot, going from wedge to driver to long iron to fairway wood, or some combination of that. Seemed odd. And no one has as exaggerated a follow-through as Wie.
• Christina Kim is as hilarious on the range as she is on Twitter. Full force of personality. She’s fun to watch just practicing and interacting with players, caddies, volunteers and fans. You can’t help but root for her.
• In the four hours watching players come, hit and go on the range, no one – NO ONE – had as much power as five-time major champion Yani Tseng. Just a wow factor watching her hit balls. The sound off the club, her rocket-high ball flight and strength was unmatched. And it wasn’t close.
• Karrie Webb is a machine. Not saying that in a bad way. Just a gorgeous, tight, fluid – and repeatable – swing. No wonder she won seven majors – including two U.S. Opens – and is in the Hall of Fame.
• Wie spent a lot of time on her phone. She has the Instagram account to prove it.
• Coming soon – video interviews with Paula Creamer, Karrie Webb and Juli Inkster. Only 15 combined majors and five combined U.S. Open Championships there.
• Just because you’re too polite to ask…no sign of Natalie Gulbis…yet.

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[VIDEO] Curtis Strange talks Pinehurst No. 2, previews 2014 U.S. Opens

Curtis Strange knows a thing or two about Pinehurst.

The two-time U.S. Open champion knows a little something about Open venues as well.

So when Strange got his first look at the Pinehurst No. 2 restoration during the recent Liberty Mutual Invitational, the man who won two North and South Amateur titles while starring at Wake Forest in the mid-1970s could easily envision how the course and the championship would mesh together.

Few, in fact, could do it better.

And Curtis Strange liked what he saw.

“When I first see this, it takes me back to the 70s to my old North and South days, because it’s very similar to the way it used to be,” Strange said.

Strange is also a fan of one of the most significant changes to the USGA’s U.S. Open preparation of No. 2 – the switching of the fourth hole to a long par-4 and the fifth to a daunting par-5, complete with new back tee boxes.

“You know, the back tee, it looks pretty doggone good. I like it. I really do,” Strange said.

Pinehurst is a special place for the World Golf Hall of Famer. Strange won the prestigious North and South Amateur in 1975 and 1976 and earned his PGA Tour card in 1977 after qualifying on No. 2. Strange went on to win 17 times on Tour, including the 1988 and ’89 U.S. Opens, becoming the first man since Ben Hogan to win back-to-back Opens.

“It’s golf,” Strange said of Pinehurst. “If I had six days before the Good Lord took me, I’d want to come here and play golf.”

*Curtis Strange appeared at Pinehurst on behalf of Liberty Mutual Insurance.

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Arnold Palmer at Pinehurst [VIDEO]

When the King speaks, golf fans tend to stop and listen.

In advance of the 2007 celebration surrounding the centennial of Pinehurst No. 2, Arnold Palmer visited the area he so often enjoyed in his youth with his father, and took a few minutes to chat about his own special history at Pinehurst and on No. 2.

The King’s comments were captured on video, and have been rarely seen or heard.

Until now.

Palmer has a perspective on Pinehurst like few alive today. Not only is he one of the greatest and most important players in the game’s long history, Palmer’s fascination with Pinehurst is intertwined with the memory of his father Deacon, who visited Pinehurst often in the 1930s and 1940s. Arnold would occasionally join him and eventually enroll at Wake Forest College in the late 1940s, winning the Southern Conference Championship on Pinehurst No. 2 in dramatic fashion over Harvie Ward.

He recounts those memories here.

Stunningly, that college championship was The King’s only victory in Pinehurst. Palmer never advanced past the semifinals of the North and South Amateur, even losing 12 & 11 to Frank Stranahan in the 1949 event. He also missed the cut at the World Open in 1974 only days after being enshrined in the Golf Hall of Fame, then missed the cut again in 1975.

But those misfires never dampened Palmer’s love for Pinehurst and its most celebrated golf course.

“I have great memories of visiting Pinehurst in the old days,” he said in 1994. “For a kid from Latrobe to visit the golf capital of the world was a special treat.”

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Jack – and Jackie – Nicklaus at Pinehurst

Jack Nicklaus won the 1959 North and South Amateur a few weeks before claiming the U.S. Amateur. It was the start of a storied history with Pinehurst.

Jack Nicklaus turned 73 Monday, marking one year for each of his PGA Tour victories.

The standard-bearer for the game of golf worldwide – a pedestal that appears sturdier and sturdier with each passing year – it comes as no surprise Nicklaus has a distinguished history with Pinehurst.

And it is an interesting history, to say the least. His win at the 1975 World Open – a playoff victory over Billy Casper that counts as No. 59 on the Nicklaus PGA Tour ledger – is probably the least surprising of all. Nicklaus won at least one PGA Tour event in 17 consecutive years. Of course he won in Pinehurst.

Not that 1975 was a season to overlook in the Nicklaus canon. It proved to be one of his best, and Pinehurst capped it. He won five times and was named the PGA Player of the Year for the fourth time. Two of those victories were in major championships, including The Masters (his fifth) and the PGA Championship (his fourth), which came a mere 31 days before the start of the ’75 World Open.

Jack Nicklaus is forever adorned in Pinehurst after winning the 1959 North and South Amateur.

But Nicklaus had won in Pinehurst long before he toured Pinehurst No. 2 in 4-under 280 in September 1975. Just a few weeks before he made his signature splash on the golf scene with a victory in the 1959 U.S. Amateur, Nicklaus captured the 1959 North and South Amateur at Pinehurst, clipping Gene Andrews 1-up.

Nicklaus was 19. Stocky. With a crew cut.

Years later, he reflected on the victory.

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Pinehurst’s Top 10 of 2012 – The Honorable Mentions

At Pinehurst, we’re not worried about the Mayans.

Instead, we continue to look forward to bringing you the best golf America has to offer. And to celebrate a different kind of countdown – less than 18 months and counting until the 2014 U.S. Open on Pinehurst No. 2 – we would like to present what you felt was the best news, notes, photos and videos to come out of Pinehurst this year.

And so beginning on Dec. 21 – take that, Mayans! – we’ll reveal on Facebook and Twitter  a countdown of the Top 10 Pinehurst Resort Blog posts and the Top 10 Pinehurst Resort Videos from 2012.

The top 10 is determined by your visits, views and comments.

To whet your appetite (and to tempt those pesky Mayans even further), here are some honorable mentions that didn’t quite make the cut.

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60 years on, Pinehurst still connects father and daughter

Lili Geehr points to her father’s name, M. Pierpont Warner, on the North and South Amateur Champion Wall of Perpetuity at Pinehurst Resort.

When Lili Geehr visits Pinehurst, she can feel her father’s presence

BY ALEX PODLOGAR

Pinehurst Resort

VILLAGE OF PINEHURST, N.C. – It doesn’t take long.

Lili Geehr walks to the North and South Amateur’s Wall of Perpetuity in the distinguished hall of the Pinehurst Resort Club and has little trouble finding the name.

M. Pierpont Warner. 1932.

Geehr pauses, her right hand coming up to her face before she extends it to the bronze nameplate on the wall. Her eyes fill with water and her voice breaks ever so delicately. She rubs the plate.

“Hi Dad.”

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1951 Ryder Cup at Pinehurst – In Skip Alexander’s Hands

Skip Alexander (left) and Ted Knoll at a PGA tournament in Naples, Fla. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, BY http://floridamemory.com/items/show/75778

BY ALEX PODLOGAR

Pinehurst Resort

LOOK CLOSELY AT THE BLACK-AND-WHITE PHOTOS in the hall of the Pinehurst Resort Clubhouse. The ones aged by time and history. The winning United States team at the 1951 Ryder Cup played on Pinehurst No. 2 stands together, smiles wide on their faces and nattily attired in light suits befitting the American South culture.

Captained by Sam Snead and led by Ben Hogan, the U.S. team had little trouble with their counterparts from Britain. The Americans won handily 9 ½-2 1/2, as The Wardrobe, Jimmy Demaret capped perhaps the greatest Ryder Cup career in the game’s long history.

Wedged between Snead and Hogan is Skip Alexander, a rising star on the fledgling PGA Tour and a former All-American from nearby Duke University. At 6-foot-2, 200 pounds, Alexander can’t be missed, his hair slicked back in the fashion of the day, his glasses crystal clear.

Hidden, though, are Alexander’s hands.

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The North and South Locker Room — Golf’s Greatest Are Here

The North and South Locker Room in Pinehurst, NC.

The North and South Amateur is one of America’s most prestigious amateur events. It is the longest consecutively running amateur championship in the United States and boasts some of the greatest names in golf as its past champions.

One of the perks to winning the legendary tournament is not only possession of the coveted Putter Boy trophy, but also a permanent spot in the North and South Locker Room inside Pinehurst’s Resort Clubhouse. Here’s a look at some of the most distinguished lockers in the game of golf.

George C. Dutton won the first North and South in 1901, beating A.J. Wellington. A century later, as Pinehurst celebrated 100 years of the North and South, Dutton’s son George took part in the festivities.

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Pinehurst’s Kelly Mitchum — At the PGA Championship

 

KELLY MITCHUM ON MONDAY — DAY 1 AT THE PGA

KELLY MITCHUM ON TUESDAY — DAY 2 AT THE PGA

KELLY MITCHUM ON THURSDAY — ROUND 1 OF THE PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

Pinehurst Resort’s Kelly Mitchum is just days away from competing in his fourth PGA Championship, and first since 2006. Mitchum, as we chronicled here, finished tied for second in June’s PGA National Championship at Bayonet Black Horse in Seaside, Calif., punching his ticket to professional golf’s fourth and final major championship of the season.

And we’re going to take you with him.

Over the last few weeks, Mitchum has been readying himself for the treacherous Ocean Course at Kiawah, S.C. (The Ocean Course ranked 5th in Golf.com’s recent “Top 100 You Can Play” for 2012, two spots behind Pinehurst No. 2.) And now, beginning with Monday’s practice round, we will provide daily reports and updates of Mitchum’s progress on Pinehurst.com and here at the Pinehurst Resort Blog, getting comments from the highly regarded Pinehurst Golf Academy instructor following each day’s events.

Before he headed south on Sunday, we had a chance to catch up with Mitchum at the Golf Academy, and it’s no surprise what he’s been thinking about in those moments between giving lessons these last few days.

“I’ve had the Ocean Course on my mind about every day,” says Mitchum.

“And I know how it’s going to play — it’s going to play hard,” he adds. “It’s going to be a challenge. The golf course is very penalizing all the way around.”

Mitchum knows the Ocean Course well, and shot a 67 on it in a sectional championship. But that day the course played at 6,700 yards. PGA officials have said the course will likely play around its Ryder Cup length of 7,600 yards. He will tee off in the championship’s first tee time at 7:20 a.m. on Thursday with playing partners D.A. Points and Marcel Siem.

While completing in the PGA Championship isn’t unfamiliar to Mitchum — the 1993 North and South Amateur champion has played in several PGA Tour events over the years and played the PGA Championship in back-to-back years in 2005-06 — the task of competing on the major championship level is a daunting one. No club professional has made the top 30 since 1992 and four times in the last 15 years no club pros even made the cut.

Mitchum isn’t worried about any of that, however, and is eager to get to Kiawah. Just a few hours south, Mitchum will have plenty of support in his gallery, and his wife and two children will travel with him.

“It’s exciting to have another chance to play in a major championship,” Mitchum says. “I’m just ready to get to it.”

And Pinehurst.com and the Pinehurst Resort Blog will take you with him every step of the way.

For more coverage, get more frequent updates by following Pinehurst Resort on Twitter and Facebook.

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Battling Pinehurst and dyslexia with grace, Lucas shares lead at 110th North and South Amateur

Diagnosed with dyslexia at 16, Illinois grad and 2-time Academic All-American puts together tidy 3-under 69

BY ALEX PODLOGAR

VILLAGE OF PINEHURST, N.C. – Her playing partners Kyle Roig and Ayaka Nakayama were still seated at the scorer’s table, several minutes after they had finished the second round of the 110^th North and South Women’s Amateur.

Not to be rushed, Nora Lucas took her time, carefully going over her scorecard with her caddie Jon Klein. They meticulously went over the numbers, then went over them again. And again.

“I’ve signed a ton of incorrect scorecards in my life,” Lucas said. “I’m not good with numbers.”

And she will tell you she’s not good with reading, either. Diagnosed as a dyslexic at 16, the graduate of the University of Illinois has struggled with the learning disability for as long as she can remember.

“It’s a pretty severe case of dyslexia, unfortunately,” she said, “but we all have our issues to deal with. Now the role I’m playing is to tell kids who are like me you can still be successful. You can still do well in school. It might take you a little bit longer, but you’re still just as smart as everyone else. It’s just a different way of learning.”

It’s a tough road, no doubt. But she’s making golf look easy.

A native of Glenview, Ill., and diehard Chicago Cubs fan, Lucas carded one of the best rounds of Amateur on Wednesday, finishing a bogey-free round of 3-under 69 to move to 4 under and the top of the leaderboard on the second day of stroke pay at Pinehurst No. 8.

And golf’s a welcome respite for Lucas, who will work as a researcher this year at the University of Chicago while she prepares for law school. A double major in History and English while at Illinois, the two-time Academic All-American has always found solace on the links, even at the difficult 6,546-yard Pinehurst No. 8.

“Golf is something that obviously doesn’t involve numbers or reading,” she says with a laugh. “I don’t have to read anything, screw up the words or something.”

A walk-on at Illinois before earning a scholarship as a sophomore, Lucas wasn’t heavily recruited coming out of high school and was never anywhere near the phenom first-round lead leader Jaye Marie Green is. But the perseverance from dealing with her learning disability had an added effect on her maturation as a golfer.

“I’d try so hard and still get B’s, and I thought that’s how it was for everybody,” Lucas said of high school. “But I think that taught me a lot, especially with golf. If you really work hard at something, even with a disability, you can still compete at the highest level no matter what’s going on.”

And now she’s competing with several of the best amateurs in the world. Everything was right in line on Wednesday as Lucas opened her round on the back nine and carded two birdies on 13 and 14 before a string of eight pars. She then birdied the par-3 5^th hole – her 14^th of the day – before closing with four more pars.

Some of those pars were hard to come by, but with a red-hot putter, Lucas managed to salvage a few strokes with par saves from 10 and 20 feet.

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