Report from the Solheim Cup

[Willie]

Unfortunatly I only got to go Thursday and Friday. Had passes all week but had to get back to work. As Blue said, if you wanted to see any close-up action you had to jump ahead several holes and wait. In the am round while watching from #16 tee, Michelle's dad was inside the ropes, but didn't see her mom. Most parents inside, I'm sure because there is no way they could see anything if the followed outside the ropes. In the pm round got to#7 green when the girls were on #4 and was only 2 deep in the gallery and had a great view. Too bad we had 2 groups in the water there. While we were there Betsy King and Christie Kerr came by and Christie was trying to fire up the crowd. Then jumped to #12 green and was 2 deep in the gallery. Had a good view of #13 also. Left the grounds after Mcpherson's group went through 12 and had no trouble exiting the parking lot. I don't think there is much they can do about getting cars in and out of the parking area quicker. A 2 lane road and they are expecting 30,000 people each day. Shuttle buses would have been nice. They added quite a few porta potties which helped the lines, food lines are long at certain times, but that is to be expected when everyone is on 4 holes. Not a fashion expert at all, but thought our girls outfits could have been a little more patriotic with red, white and, blue. Overall it was great to see and a great golf course. Hope they can pull off 10 more points.

[MarinePaul]

Great reports, Blue. Thanks for the insight.

[Saint-Just X]

Originally Posted by Blue

I left out the Fashion Report. This is for Saint-Just-X.

USA: Another unfortunate day. Royal blue pants, shorts, or skirts, the shorts with white top-stitching to make them look like jeans. Baby blue shirts with poofy sleeves. There was an optional vest than had a white band at the bottom that gave the effect of looking like the shirt was untucked. I had one of these in junior high. That was a long time ago.

Europe: Boring, but safe. Black bottom, with white and black color block shirt -- I think that's what it's called.

Blue,those shorts were atrocious.

They looked like cut-off 'mom' jeans.

Those poofy sleeves looked a bit cumbersome for playing golf in,too.You could imagine wanting to hitch the top of those sleeves up all the time.

Today's 'check' shorts looked like a tea-towel,incredibly unflattering ;don't the players have some kind of input into this ?

Curiously,although the shorts looked hideous,I thought that the skirts,in the same design,looked very good...

Pax Vobiscum
Saint-Just X

[Whistling Straight]

From what I've heard, the players have 100% involvement in the fashion.

[Saint-Just X]

Originally Posted by Whistling Straight

From what I've heard, the players have 100% involvement in the fashion.

Helen Keller could have put together a better ensemble...

Pax Vobiscum
Saint-Just X

[IceCat]

Originally Posted by Blue

Special note to IceCat: I took Southwest from Logan to Midway. They just started flying this week. It was very efficient.

Southwest's gates are all together in one area, are they? As I recall from having flown Northwest before they moved across to Terminal A their gates at Terminal E were in two different places: some in the main part of the terminal and the others in the mezzanine annex between E and the old Terminal D, beneath which is the taxi rank. It kinda sucked if your flight was in the annex but if the security checkpoint leading to it wasn't open you had to go through the checkpoint leading into the main part of the terminal and go down one level and through a confusing passageway to reach your gate. I believe that WN's gates are in the annex (if you were to walk down the hall beyond them you would come upon AirTran's gates in the old Terminal D), but when you come back you'll have to go down one level to reach baggage claim, which I hope they've spiffed up because the last few times I went through there it looked a little shopworn.
Since my occupation is primarily bringing people to and from this airport I keep up with a lot of the things that happen there. I absolutely dread having to negotiate Terminal B, especially after midnight when the state troopers aren't patroling and thus not keeping people from clogging up the arrivals road, and inside that terminal it's just as cramped. It's basically a parking garage except for the two airside areas slapped onto it. Please people, for the sake of your sanity, DO NOT fly into or out of Logan via any of the carriers that use Terminal B (Air Canada, American, Spirit, US Airways or Virgin America) if you can absolutely help it. Terminal A (Alaska, Continental and Delta/Northwest) on the other hand is a breeze, Terminal E (primarily the international terminal) hopefully has improved with Southwest's arrival and they're working on improving Terminal C (Cape Air, AirTran, JetBlue, Sun Country and United).

Kevin

[Blue]

Day 2 Report

First to answer a few of the questions posed above ...

All of the Southwest gates at Logan are now in the same area of Terminal E.

I didn't know that the players had any input in the Solheim clothing. What I heard is that vendor presented designs to Beth Daniel and she had final approval. The players had their own shorts, pants, etc. cut to their fit specifications, but they didn't dictate the design. At least that's what I heard.

Yes, many family members, but not all, were inside the ropes. It makes sense in a tournament like this. This does not mean they should be jumping up and down and screaming. Only one inside the rope VIP that I saw did this.

There were less people at the course today. At least it seemed less crowded. I got to the course about 10 minutes little earlier than yesterday but the parking lot was probably 1/3 as full. I'm not sure about the traffic since I took an alternate route. The thing about this format, obviously, is that there is only action at four holes at a time and in the morning the groups are all playing consecutively. This means almost all the fans are concentrated in one area of the course. So the crowds concentrate there and then move to the next area. They also tend to concentrate in areas where there are bleachers.

I think one thing that may have kept people back today or kept them in the PING pavillion is that this course is a tough course for spectators. It's a long walking course and the holes are very spread out. Just getting from the entrance to the any hole other than 1, 18 or 17 is probably 3/4 mile.

I think that answers all the questions.

This morning I followed the second group, Stanford and Lang, from the 5th hole to the 12th hole and then hung at the 13th tee where I could see the 12th green, 13th tee, 13th green, and 14th green. Highlight was Kerr holing out on 12. She high-fived everyone on the way to the 13th tee. Beth Daniel was on the 13th tee apparently with a pad of paper that apparently had the afternoon pairings. She was with Kathy Whitworth. They called Alison Nicholas over who was nearby on a cart with Laura Davies and showed the paper to her. Alison took notes. As Kristy McPherson and Brittany Lincicome's group came to the tee, she called Kristy over and appeared to show her where she'd be playing in the afternoon. She didn't say anything to Brittany because, as we know, her plan was to not to have anyone play all four first day matches so it was a given that Brittany would be sitting. Kristy greeted Kathy with a big hug. I'm guessing this was not the first time they had met.

Laura D. did not seem super happy but who knows. I heard she wasn't happy about being benched for all of Friday. This is just a rumor.


Brittany Lincicome hit it further than anyone I saw all day on the 14th hole. I'm surprised that Anna Nordqvist doesn't it the ball further considering how tall she is. I knew this from her stats but was surprised to see it at the US Open and now again here.

Saw the Wie-Kim group finish up on 14, winning 5&4, after which Kim stayed to do antics to the crowd and Wie tried to join in. Kim is a bit more of a natural ham and cheerleader.

As we've discussed, lots of the parents, friends, etc. are walking inside the ropes to avoid the crowds, though not all. Brittany Lincicome's father was outside the ropes. Some of these parents are not in the best shape and this is a long course. Christina's father and Michelle's mother both seemed to be struggling a bit on the way up the hill on 14, especially Christina's father who has put on considerable weight since his caddying days. I was glad to see that he was driving a scooter in the afternoon.

I was on the 7th hole in the early afternoon and then jumped ahead to the 15th. This is probably being discussed in another thread, but I'm not sure if Beth did the best job with the pairings. I don't know why she didn't at least a) keep Wie and Kim together b) play either Creamer or Inkster in the morning if she was going to pair them in the afternoon. They both came out cold in the afternoon for obvious reasons.

A few observations form the afternoon -- A lot of fans bailed. I'm not sure why. Maybe the weather, or they were bored, or they went home to watch the Bears game. More room for the rest of us.

Gulbis and Kim: not having a good day. Kim was melting down both physically and emotionally. This seemed like a clear case of bad chemistry. I'll try to say this in the best possible way: Wie and Kim play well together in part because they both share a certain immaturity. Beth Daniel should not have broken this up. The won the match, but it went until 7:30 pm and it probably didn't have to.

My view at the end of the day was not very happy. I was happy to be at the tournament, but to only win two matches in the afternoon and have them both go to 18, while the Europeans won 4&3 and 5&4 is not encouraging. I'm blaming Beth on the pairings because I think we're a better team than that.

It was interesting to see the US team reaction on the 18th green at the end of the day. A few players seemed kind of happy, or at least trying to put on a good show (Pressel, Wie). Others very subdued (Kerr, Kim).

Criste Kerr and Michelle Wie didn't seem to have good chemistry. They were walking down the fairways 20 yards apart. They were very business-like. Kerr was lining up all of Wie's putts and seemed to be putting herself in a teacher role, showing her where to hit. After Wie missed the putt on 18, Kerr seemed really annoyed.

While we were waiting for play to start in the afternoon, I watched them cut the new holes in the greens. The guy who was doing it had a golden retriever with him.

Also, when play ended it was almost totally dark. There were some large TVs set up behind the 18th green showing the Golf Channel and it looked much, much lighter on TV.

I also saw our board buddie Wienuts, very noticeable with his red cap with "Michele Wie" embroidered on it.

[MarinePaul]

Nice report, Blue. I really enjoy reading your eye witness accounts.

On TGC, they interviewed LD, and she was not a happy camper.

Thanks for the report Blue. I know you were there and you don't get the feel of what's happening if you are not - but I do disagree with some of your conclusions:

1. The 2 pairings that lost - Creamer/Inkster and Kim/Gulbis. It's all very well blaming Beth for the pairings. It's a bit like being wise after the event. But these were foursomes winning pairings on Friday who really gelled. Creamer has played with Inkster before as well and said after that match on Friday how she always liked playing with her.
   .
2. I'm not convinced at all by your claim of Wie/Kerr not having good chemistry. Yes I know you were there. But:
   
   When you said Kerr seemed annoyed at Wie for not making that last putt on #18 - I thought Hmm - you really think that? Maybe she was annoyed at herself for leaving Wie at the edge of the green and not nearer. I have my doubts that you maybe saw what you wanted to see there though. That putt would have been amazing if it had gone in and it looked like it was going in until right at the end. You don't get annoyed at your partner for missing something like that. You're just ecstatic if she holes something like that. The cameras were right on Cristie when Wie was putting and jut after. And that's the way she was. She thought it was going in as well. And of course it's a no brainer her faced dropped when she missed. But no way was she annoyed at Wie.
   
   As for Cristie bossing Michelle around - well we didn't see that on TV - but if she did it certainly didn't adversely affect Wie's play. Amazing. And they both looked pretty happy with each other with the shots we did see of them.
   
   And in any case they won. So if you pick two pairings that win their match and the other two were the two that did great and won their foursomes the previous day - it seems a bit "after the event" to criticise Beth on her pairings.

I am more interested though on the European team. I was wondering if you had any observations or views on Alison's pairings. I really don't think she should have picked Helen for the afternoon after her drubbing in the morning and I think it showed in her play. I think Diana Luna really deserverd more than just the one doubles match which she played in the morning and played well.

Didn't see Laura Davies looking unhappy whenever they showed her or when they inteviewed her - but she can't have been able to look happy about it all the time throughout the day. So I'm not surprised if you saw her looking unhappy. But it had to be right to leave her out. Whatever her feelings - you have to select what is your best chance for the team.

[Blue]

Waldorf --

I'm just reporting what I saw and heard with my own eyes and giving you my opinion whether we think it should happen or not.

Kerr was annoyed. I didn't say she was annoyed at Michelle. I said she was annoyed after the missed putt. Maybe she was just didn't like the format and wanted to be in control of the putting. Or, since she gave Michelle the line, maybe she was annoyed that she gave it to her wrong. Who knows. I'm just telling you what I saw.

I also think Beth's pairings weren't great. That was the mood of a lot of the other fans at the tournament as well. Sure it's armchair quarterbacking. That's what we all do here. I didn't get not sticking with the winning team of Wie and Kim again in the afternoon and I didn't get resting Creamer Saturday morning.

Sorry, I wasn't as focused on the European team.