The U.S. Women's Open - Final Day

Annika Sorenstam's eagle three at the 18th hole.(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Sunday Kelsey and Brooke and I met Lorie, Donna Lynn and Barb Loesch to watch the action. We walked around a little bit before settling in on the grandstands on the 18th green at 11 a.m. We had seats even with the flagstick--about ten rows up--and thought we better grab them when we could as they would fill up during the early afternoon.

We saw everyone finish from the third group of the day until the tournament was over at 6 p.m. Of course the highlight of the weekend was watching Annika's eagle three on the par-5 18th hole. Everyone went crazy when her ball hit the stick and fell in the hole--high fiving and cheering everyone around us. When Annika reached the green, she took her ball out of the cup, kissed it and threw it into the stands about five rows in front of us. We narrowly missed the keepsake of a lifetime.

It was a thrill to watch so many great players up close. The state of Minnesota can now look forward to the PGA Championship next year at Hazeltine Golf Club in August.

~Le Ann

The U.S. Women's Open

(Brooke in the lime green tee shirt carrying the standard)

It was a great weekend at the U.S. Women's Open at Interlachen Country Club in Edina, MN. On Saturday, Brooke was the standard bearer for Paula Creamer, Helen Alfredsson and Jeong Jang. Brooke knew with the second to last tee time of the day, she would have leaders or contenders. At one point on Saturday, both Paula and Helen were co-leaders. On the 18th green, Paula signed her golf ball she had used that round and gave it to Brooke--complete with a big Pink Panther logo on it--since her nickname is the Pink Panther. It was a thrill for Brooke to watch her and be "inside the ropes" with three great LPGA players.

We plan to attend again Sunday so it will be a great finish to a great event!

~Le Ann

Breakfast at Ikea and another round of golf...

Another sunny and hot weekend in Southern Florida complete with afternoon showers. I have learned to get outside and play golf early in the day for two reasons: 1) It’s cooler in the morning and 2) It rains every afternoon!

Saturday a friend from work and I motored down to Ft. Lauderdale. Pam had never been to Ikea so we decided to go there for breakfast and shopping. On our way back, we drove A1A along the coast from Ft. Lauderdale to Lake Worth. By the time we got back mid-afternoon, the rain and lightening moved in.

We decided to go out to dinner at Smokey Bones and five minutes after we got there, the lights went out. Once they came back on, we were asked by the management to evacuate the building as they saw smoke and had called the fire department. (Good thing the place wasn’t burning down since the fire department arrived 15 minutes later.) Turned out it was a light fixture that shorted and smoked, but it closed the restaurant for a few hours—so we went elsewhere for dinner. Gives new meaning to the name Smokey Bones!

Sunday I played the Champ course in the morning and just as we finished the rain, lightening and thunder arrived. Makes it hard to keep the car clean with rain every day!

I’m off to Minnesota next weekend for ten days at home and I am looking forward to attending the US Women’s Open! More from Minnesota…

~Le Ann

Orlando, Disney and Bay Hill

Hard as this may seem, I spent another weekend in Florida on the golf course!

Saturday I played in our PGA HQ staff league at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, playing the Wannamaker course. Our event was a two person net best ball and Kathy Wilkes and I scrapped out a three-under par 69—only to get lapped by a 63 and a 66. I shot a three-over 75 and won four skins, earning myself some gas money for my weekend road trip.

After golf, I headed north on the Turnpike to Orlando to see my cousin Ed and his family at Disney World. I hadn’t seen my cousin for ten years and his mom, my aunt, since about 1981. We had a great time talking and catching up over dinner and sharing stories from years ago. After dinner we watched the third round of the US Open since it was on TV during prime-time! Good thing Ed’s a golf nut like me!

Sunday Ed and I played Arnold Palmer’s Bay Hill Golf Club. We were told the King was in Pennsylvania for Father’s Day, but we still enjoyed seeing all the memorabilia in the clubhouse. There were tons of signed photographs of Arnold with all kinds of celebrities—Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Bob Hope, Dinah Shore, Michael Jordan, Celon Dion and golfers Tiger Woods, Sam Sneed, Nick Faldo and Nancy Lopez. We also saw the Master Card trophy that Tiger won this year. Lots of history inside and outside the clubhouse.

Before we played I noticed LPGA Tour Player Suzanne Petterson putting on the practice green. She is a member there and was practicing for the upcoming Wegman’s tournament in Rochester, NY, followed by the U.S. Women’s Open in Edina, MN. Being the shy person that I am, I walked up to her and introduced myself and visited with her for a few minutes. We asked her to join us, but she was there to practice and take a lesson. She is ranked #3 ranked player on the LPGA Tour so it was cool to talk to her.

The course was a slight disappointment as it wasn’t in very good shape—but that said, I shot a one-over par 37 on the front side from the men’s tees. The back side wasn’t as nice to me, but I carded a 77, so I was pleased. We basically had the course to ourselves so we cruised around trying to beat an incoming rain storm. (Welcome to Florida summer afternoons!)

Following a quick stop to Downtown Disney for Pizza Uno, I headed south to Palm Beach Gardens to catch the end of the US Open on TV.

~Le Ann

Another weekend with 45 holes of golf

Friday I drove from Palm Beach Gardens two hours to Naples, FL for an EWGA Pro-Am tournament at the Naples Ritz-Carlton and the Tiburon Golf Club. The weekend kicked-off with a silent auction and party for all participants at the Ritz-Carlton. The tournament began Saturday morning with an 8 a.m. shotgun, followed by a lunch back at the Ritz. My team had very few stellar shots and finished one over par with a 73. Our score earned us “Most honest team” honors and a sleeve of three tennis balls…our yellow lab, Roxy will love the prize!

Sunday I played 18 holes at the Champ course at PGA National before going across the street for lunch and 9 more holes at Mirasol. The hot pastrami hand-carved sandwich was awesome, however, with temps in the 90s and humid, I could tell Sunday night I had played TOO many holes of golf this weekend. Looking for another beach therapy weekend. With the Florida heat in full swing, the place to be on weekends is near or in the water!

~Le Ann

Finger takes 33rd at state

From the June 5, 2008 Northfield News

By JEFF WALD

COON RAPIDS — Brooke Finger couldn’t have predicted a much better ending to her spring golf season than Wednesday’s final round at the Class AAA Girls State Golf Tournament.

The freshman carded two birdies, and for the most part, stayed out of trouble on the way to firing her lowest score of the season. Finger shot an 8-over par 81 to finish with a two-day 171, which placed 33rd overall in a field of 88 players.

Moorhead’s Ali Nelson took medalist honors with a two-day score of 150, which included a 1-under par 72 Wednesday. New Prague’s Steffi Neisen, who was in the lead after shooting a first-round 71, shot 82 on Wednesday to finish in a tie four fourth at 153. Woodbury won the team championship with a two-day 678. Forest Lake was second at 692.

It was fitting for Finger to end the spring with her best score of the season on the state’s biggest stage, especially after shooting a 90 on Tuesday that could’ve been lower.

“It was a fantastic day, she just played wonderfully,” said Raiders coach Brian Stevens. “For her to bounce back, she’s such a determined golfer. She made some shot selections on Tuesday that were based on trying to make her best score. Wednesday, she never had herself in a whole lot of trouble. For her to take 33rd at the state tournament as a freshman is a huge accomplishment.”

“I missed a par putt on No. 18 for 80, but it was a good round,” Finger said. “It was definitely a fun way to end the season. I kept pretty focused and didn’t have a number in my head that I wanted to shoot. It was a pretty decent score. I was glad that I didn’t shoot high like the day before, it showed what I can do.”

Finger started Wednesday with a 1-over par 38 on the West Course. She hit six of seven fairways on the side and had two birdies. The round also included 32 putts.

“Her play on the West Course was unbelievable,” Stevens said. “There’s three par-5s on that side, and she played them in 2-under par. It was a thing of beauty to watch. She just ate that side up and was laser-focused on that side.”

“My tee ball wasn’t the greatest, but my chipping and putting really saved me,” Finger said. “I came back with my irons, tried to get on in regulation and have a putt for par.”

It looked like things might go south as Finger made the turn. Her first three holes on the East Course consisted of two bogeys and a double bogey. What followed were three pars and three bogeys.

“She got to a point where she had a chance to break 80 in a state tournament, so maybe she didn’t pay as much attention to executing shots,” Stevens said. “When you get to that point, you hope this great round isn’t going to get away from her. She just held it together really well, and it was a testament to her. Things unraveled a little bit on her on Tuesday, and she kept things together.”

The key to Finger’s round in Stevens’ mind was the par-5 No. 6 on the East Course, Finger’s 15th hole of the day. Her tee shot went in the water, but she regrouped and saved a bogey.

“It was her big hole of the day,” Stevens said. “It was a fantastic bogey after a tough tee shot. I was more impressed by it than the birdies. I knew after it that this was going to be a pretty special round for her.”

“I started to think about what my end score would be, that’s what cost me on those couple holes. I didn’t know initially that my drive went into the water, and when I got up there I was pretty disappointed. I just had to get my next shot somewhere close to the green so I could chip on and two-putt for bogey.”

It’s a nice way for Finger to end the season, especially considering that the Raiders were a couple shots from getting the team to the state tournament. Stevens said the potential is there, and that’s the goal for next spring.

“We’re hopeful that this will propel some of the other kids on the team to want to get there,” Stevens said. “We were two shots away from the team going, and if we continue to improve, there’s no reason why we can’t do it as a team.”

A decent start

From the June 3, 2008 Northfield News

By JEFF WALD

COON RAPIDS, Minn. — Take away two holes, and the first round of the Class AAA State Golf Tournament was a complete success for Northfield freshman Brooke Finger.

Finger shot a 17-over par 90 on Tuesday at Bunker Hills Golf Course in Coon Rapids, Minn., and is in a group of eight players that are tied for 48th place in the 88-player field.

New Prague’s Steffi Neisen shot a 2-under par 71 Tuesday and has the individual lead heading into today’s final round. Woodbury shot a 345 in the team competition and has a one shot lead over Forest Lake.

For Finger, one quadruple bogey on each side prevented her from breaking 90 in the first round of her first state tournament. Turn each of those into a par and she fires an 82, which would be in a tie for 17th.

“I got off the 18th green and I was pretty upset,” said Finger. The ninth hole on the East Course (her 18th of the day) was one of two 8s on her scorecard. “I didn’t really know how good my score was going to hold up. Once I saw the rest of the scores, it was a little better. But I definitely left a few shots out there.”

“For her first competitive round at a state tournament, she played solid,” said Raiders coach Brian Stevens. “There are two holes she’d like to have back. She hit nine fairways and hit eight greens in regulation. She was on the three par-5s on the West Course in regulation. It was a good learning experience for her.”

One of the hardest shots for any golfer in their first state tournament is their first tee shot.

Finger said she was nervous, but the results didn’t show it. She nailed a drive into the right half of the fairway and ended up with a bogey on the hole.

“She hit a great drive on the first hole,” Stevens said. “She put it right where she needed to, and that first hole is about 380 yards. Bogey is a great score there.”

“I was a little nervous,” Finger said. “I’m not used to having parents and other spectators around watching. It wasn’t all that bad, it was just different. I was just glad I hit a good drive.”

If the general pressure of playing at state wasn’t enough, the group suffered a 20-minute delay during the round. One of the players in Finger’s group needed a ruling on the course, and it took considerable time to get an official to the situation.

“It affected Brooke, but it took everyone out of their rhythm,” Stevens said.

“That was hard, especially because I like to play fast,” Finger said. “It probably affected me more than it should have.”

Finger finished with a 10-over par 47 on the West Course and a 7-over par 43 on the East Course for her 90. The round included 35 putts.

“She made a lot of four to five footers for par,” Stevens said.

She finished with eight pars, seven bogeys, one double bogey and two quadruples in the round.

Finger’s first quadruple came on her seventh hole of the round. Her tee shot was close a tree and water hazard. She got the ball up in the air too high, hit the tree and the ball went into the hazard.

“I had one blow-up hole on each side, and it’s pretty much what cost me both sides,” Finger said. “I wasn’t expecting to be among the contenders, but I could’ve played a little better. I’m just going to go out tomorrow and play. I’m not going to think about what I need to shoot to get in a certain spot. I’m going to play smart, that’s for sure. It’s a course you can’t be too aggressive on.”

Finger will tee off at 7:35 a.m. Wednesday in her final round of the high school season.

Another hot weekend

This weekend saw record high temperatures in Southern Florida. Temperatures were in the low 90s so being inside air conditioned was the preferred activity. Saturday we had our company picnic at Lion Country Safari and the animals were just as hot and tired as our employees.

Sunday I had beach therapy from 11 am to 4 pm--grabbed a new book, my iPod, sunscreen and lawn chair for a day at the beach. Today marks the official start of the 2008 Hurricane Season--I have my pantry well stocked with food and beverages, flashlights, batteries, first aid kit and other various required supplies. Hopefully I won't need those items, but I'm ready nevertheless.

More updates this week from the Minnesota State High School Golf Tournament.

~Le Ann