Joey's Golf Bag

Michelle Wie won the Lorena Ochoa Invitational tournament today by two shots over Paula Creamer.

Let the Michelle Era begin!!!

Michelle Wie wins Lorena Ochoa Invitational | Tours & News | Golf.com

The Michelle Wie era has, at long last, begun. After years of injury and controversy, too much hype and money and not enough birdies, Wie won her first pro tournament Sunday afternoon at the LPGA's Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara, Mexico. Typical of Wie's highly melodramatic career, the win didn't come easily, as she survived a final round dogfight with a half-dozen of the game's biggest names, ultimately making five straight nerve-jangling pars and then a gorgeous birdie on the final hole to close out a two-stroke victory over Paula Creamer.

Along the way Wie displayed both her awesome talent and enduring starpower, reminding everyone what all the fuss was about in the first place. It was a deeply personal triumph, capping a period of tremendous maturation on and off the golf course.

If I could putt.

This morning, Jack, John and I played 18 at the Cowboys Golf Club. We went off at around 10AM and finished 4-1/2 hours later. The day was mostly overcast, without much wind, with temperatures in the lower 70s.

My score:

* Hit green in regulation.

Themes:

• Off the tee. I hit only 2 fairways and had three penalties off the tee, two on the 18th. I also hit 3 of the 4 par-3 holes in regulation, though.
• Approach shots. Today was a pretty good day for approach shots. I hit 4 GIR in addition to the 3 GIR on the par-3 holes. I had two penalties, one off the second shot on the par-5 13th hole, where I hooked one left into the hazard, and another hooked into the pond on the par-4 16th.
• Wedges. I hit a couple of good wedge shots, one of which where I got up-and-down for bogey after hooking the approach into the pond on the 16th (wedge to 3 ft). However, my putting wasn’t good enough for some of my wedges or chips.
• Sand shots. I was in two greenside bunkers and didn’t get up-and-down on either one.
• Chipping. I got up-and-down for par from deep rough on the par-3 15th hole. I also hit a terrible chip over the green on the short par-4 14th hole.
• Putting. In a word, terrible. I had four 3-putts on the front, but did better on the back. I hit only one of my eight birdie putts and had 37 total putts.

How good could the day have been if I’d hit more than one of my eight birdie putts? Still, 43 on the front is my second best score ever on a par-36 nine. I was still pretty happy with the way I played, considering I’ve not practiced since before my last GGA tournament.

Yesterday, I played in the AJ Harper tournament in the Grapevine Golf Association at Grapevine Golf Club. We went off in a shotgun start around 7:30AM in the second group off the 4th hole on Mockingbird. The weather was quite cold, and a heavy dew covered the course. Due to heavy rain previously, the cart-path only rule was in effect, and that made play especially slow. It took more than five hours to finish the round. By the 10th hole we played, the sun had warmed things up enough that I was able to strip down to short sleeves and enjoy the nice fall weather.

* Hit green in regulation.

Themes:

• Off the tee. I hit seven fairways, but unfortunately, none of the par-3 holes in regulation. I had two penalties off the tee, both balls lost in the woods on big pushes with the driver.
• Approach shots. Because the course was wet and soft, there was no rollout at all, so I was hitting longer clubs into the greens than usual. I hit only one green-in-regulation, the par five 5th hole on Bluebonnet. In many cases, I was just off the green, so things weren’t as bad as it seems. I did have one penalty on an approach, from the middle of the fairway, a ball lost in the hazard behind the green on #7 of Bluebonnet.
• Wedges. I hit some really nice wedge shots, and wasted nearly all of them on missed short putts. Really short putts.
• Chipping. I hit only a few chips, but got up-and-down only twice. I wasted some good chips on missed short putts. Really short putts. On the short par-3 #7 hole on Mockingbird, I hit a stellar, downhill chip in the rough on the mound to the left of the green to 2 ft, and missed the putt for par.
• Sand shots. I was in three greenside bunkers. On Bluebonnet #1, I hit a really nice bunker shot to 6 ft, and on another hole, hit a really nice bunker shot to two feet. I missed those putts. My third bunker shot was well past the hole, but it was a long difficult shot and I wasn’t really that disappointed.
• Putting. Ah, putting! How bad can it possibly get? I turned a round of 92 into a round of 99. I had a 4-putt, yes, a 4-putt, from 6 feet on #1 on Bluebonnet after a really good bunker shot. I ended up with an 8 on that hole. I had four other 3-putts to go with my 4-putt, and at least two of those I missed 2 foot putts. 40 putts total, how pathetic is that?

Equally inexplicably, I came in 4th on gross score and 3rd on net. D flight, of course.

Why do I play this game?