Touramanet Blog - LSU/Cleveland Golf Classic
3/12/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
March 15, 2009 -- 8:00 pm
Sunday struggle.
This morning was a little more hectic than the previous days. We had to pack all of our luggage and golf bags and load them into the van since we were checking out that morning. Rain was still pouring which made it a lot harder. We thought that the final round was going to be cancelled due to weather, because we had less rain the day before and the tee time was delayed half an hour.
We carried on with our regular schedule heading to IHOP for breakfast. Our waitress was working again and when she saw us pull in she had our table set and ready for us. We got to the golf course just in time for Coach's meeting at 7:15 am to discuss the conditions of the course and the rules and regulations. We soon found out that the tournament will carry on with a couple of changes. They moved up numerous tees, to make the course shorter and playable. A couple of new rules were added to help the players get their balls out of casual water on the fairway. The course was playing at about 5,900 yards with no roll; a fairly short course for a college tournament. Unfortunately, none of us made any putts today except for Nannette, who played really well.
Since the course was playing short, the putting hurt us a lot more than usual because the scores were really low. Even though the team did not finish as well as we wanted to, Nannette had a good tournament and finished 4th. We are going to work a lot harder on putting and be ready to take on Virginia in our next tournament in Georgia. As long as we know our weaknesses and work hard at it, we know we're on the right track to winning the ACC and the NCAA Championships.
March 14, 2009 -- 10:30 pm
Demon Deacons grinding it out in the rain.
We were on the same schedule as the day before. Up at 5:30, back to IHOP for breakfast and served by the same waitress who has been serving us all week. She absolutely loved us, and had our table all reserved for us.
When we got to the golf course, we were told that the course is not ready to be played due to rain the night before, and the tee off time was now 9:00 am instead of 8:30 am. About quarter to nine, everyone on the team was ready to go. We all had about 2 hours to stretch, warm up, chip and putt and hit some balls on the range. We were off the same holes again on 1, 2 and 3. Unfortunately, we were not too lucky with the weather today.
By the 6th hole, it started to rain. All day, the rain came and went. At times it was raining so hard we could barely hold on to our clubs. As we took our stance to hit the ball or to putt, rain was dripping down from our hats onto our golf balls. It was a long miserable round. Coach said everyone did a good job in hanging in there and not getting frustrated. A little over 5 hours later, we completing the 18 holes and walked into the club house drenched from head to toe. We had a late lunch and talked about our round. Even though Virginia took the lead, we know we can beat them and we talked about ways to play better on Sunday.
At about 3:30, it was still pouring. Since we couldn't practice, we decided to head back to the hotel, dry off and get some rest. At about quarter to seven, we headed out to dinner with our Louisiana host family at a Cajun restaurant.
Most of us had the same thought in our heads, how often do you get to go to a Cajun restaurant that serves alligator and frog legs. We decided to give alligator a go but we passed on the frog legs. The restaurant had a live band and a dance floor. When the band began playing at about 7 pm, people got up and started dancing. A guy on the dance floor caught our attention. Dressed in navy blue shorts, orange sweater, glasses around his neck, baseball hat and was twirling older ladies all over the dance floor. We all dared Nannette to go dance with him. So when the song ended, as he was walking by our table, Nannette said "Hey, can I get the next song?" he was totally cool with it and gave her a high five. When the next song came on, as expected, he walked over and asked her to dance. Next thing we knew, he was twirling her all over the dance floor and at one point flipped her around his arm. Coach's expression was flabbergasted. Apparently that was his favorite move because he probably flipped her at least 5 times that night.
By the time our food arrived, Nannette was all dizzy and breathless in her chair. The food was really good. We each had a chance to taste Cajun style alligator, crawfish and many other varieties of dishes. We finally left the restaurant, two hours later, all tired and ready for bed. We had a quick team meeting, packed and headed to bed.
March 13, 2009 -- 10:00 pm
Demon Deacons in the lead after day 1!
Just like the day before, we were all up at 5:30 am and a half hour later we were all sitting in IHOP looking groggy. Our mind and bodies started waking up as warm food filled our stomachs and coffee in Coach Dailey's.
When we got to the golf course, it was still dark. We headed out to the range and the chipping green anyway. Due to bad weather conditions, we had a shotgun start this morning at 8:30. We went off on holes 1, 2, and 3. Surprisingly the weather held on for us all day. The rain did not come till later that day. We lucked out pretty good.
I guess I don't have to repeat how everyone played on here, since coach gave a whole recap on the write up. We finally got done with the round about 5 ½ hours later. We ate lunch and had a quick recap on each of our rounds and talked about what we did well and what we need to work on. Soon we were back out there on the range, chipping and putting green, each working on what they needed to.
We finally left the golf course at about 4:00 pm when the rain came. A shower felt good after that long day on the course. We managed to watch the first half of our basketball game at the hotel and decided to watch the second half at this seafood sports bar. After the game, we got some ice-cream to cheer us up and walked around the mall for a bit. We headed back to the hotel at about 9 pm and had our regular team meeting.
Apparently the weather would not be so kind tomorrow and we are definitely expecting rain, wind and it will be a little chilly tomorrow. We made sure we had all our rain gears and umbrellas. We were all happy with the way we played and took advantage of the weather. Coach reminded us to be patient tomorrow and not to get frustrated with the weather. Everyone is going to be playing in the same conditions therefore there is no point complaining about it and we will just have to suck it up and play. Go Deacs!
March 12, 2009 -- 10:25pm
Practice round at LSU!
At 5:30 a.m., the alarm rang. Since I was playing the college-am in the afternoon I did not have to wake up. Dolores and Natalie got dressed as quietly as they could and headed downstairs. They started on the 10th tee.
At 9:20 a.m., coach headed back to the hotel to pick me up. By the time we got back to the golf course, the team had already made the turn. I met up with the team briefly when they were done just before I teed off. All of them said they had a good practice round. Coach said all of them were hitting the ball really well and everyone's game was looking good.
The team headed off to lunch at California Pizza Kitchen and came back to the course to practice till about 4:45 that evening. I teed off at about 12:30 with four men who helped sponsored the tournament. We had a really good time. All the groups were able to finish just in time before the rain came. It was a long round and had to wait a numerous holes since we had 35 groups playing on the course at once.
The opening ceremony dinner was excellent and quick. We had a choice of steak or fish as the main dish. At about 7:15 we left the golf course and headed back to the hotel. We had our regular team meeting in coach's room for about an hour. Finally at about 9:00, we're in our beds catching up with work, relaxing, watching television, or talking to a family member on the phone. First round tomorrow. The weather is going to be really challenging, with heavy rain all day. Hopefully it will not be a cold rain.
Key reminder from coach for tomorrow is to stay patient and not to rush or get frustrated. Bright and early tomorrow! Alarms are set at 5:30am!
March 11, 2009
Travel Day
Spring break got cut short when we gathered at Coach Robin's new home on Tuesday evening for our pre-game/travel meal. Her new home was gorgeous with a mini basketball court in the back yard. Dinner was delicious as always with both our coaches as cooks. We all met at the golf center at 1 p.m. the next day to leave for Baton Rouge, La.
We drove to Charlotte and had a direct flight out of there to New Orleans. In New Orleans, we had a little trouble with our SUV's. The two backseats of one of the SUV were kind of detached from the car floor. When we finally had that fixed our stomachs were all growling from the long day of travelling. We headed to our favorite restaurant, P.F. Chang's. Then we drove about an hour to Baton Rouge and finally arriving at our hotel. We checked in and headed straight to bed. Early morning tomorrow for the team!
Tournament blog by senior Jean Chua
Players Mentioned
