Week of Wichita, Kansas
May 1, 2001

We have just completed the Coleman FUTURES Classic in Wichita, Kansas. It was a first year tournament that had formerly hosted a Nike event. The area still hosts the Buy.com tour, but at a different club. It was obvious that they had run events before, as there were many sponsor banners, a huge sponsor/player hospitality tent on the 18th green, and a volunteer stationed at every position on the course. It was very first class with only one little glitch: on day 2, our cart driver had never been on a golf course before. After she ran over Diane Irvin's ball on our 2nd hole, it sort of set Diane's mood for the day, and the volunteer was kindly replaced at the turn. I am so very lucky and grateful to have Val caddy. Just having the predictability prevents us from having an occasional rookie volunteer cost us shots.

Coleman has its worldwide headquarters in Wichita (Kansas' largest city. It makes products that I had no idea - porch and pool furniture, hot tubs, as well as its standard coolers and camping equipment. They gave each player a 12"x 12" x 12" collapsible cooler - a nice gift for all 140+ of us. They had a huge NASCAR-like truck and trailer display set up in front of the clubhouse showing off its deck furniture and a hot tub. They said at Daytona, they filled the hot tub, and had many people hop in with clothes on, so they just left it empty for the golf tournament. Coleman hosted the pro-am downtown at the Hyatt and introduced their 13-year-old contestant in the tournament, Susan Wang. She did shoot 79-80, and considering the course length and the conditions, it was a good event for such a promising youngster. Watch for her in the years to come.

Let's just say I have played in a lot of wind, and Saturday and Sunday were 30 mph from the time we started to the time we finished. Every shot was a battle to decide which club, how hard to hit it, and how would the wind affect it. My 73 on day 1 put me in fair condition, scores were very low with slight wind. But day 2 our 70 moved us past many people from 40th to about 11th. I had 4 birdies and one double bogey, so I really was pleased in that wind to have hit 15 greens in regulation. The last day, our 75 was still in gale force winds, but dropped us to only 14th. I really had it going, but making a few bogies near the end made it so close, and a bit disappointing. Val continues to be her steady and rock solid self, and battled the wind while carrying the 30 lbs of bag, clubs, and equipment. We both agreed that "WILLOW-BEND" was a good name for the course.

Have any of you ever driven from western Kansas to Denver? It is one of the most remote places in the U.S. I have ever seen. If we had not stopped at the Dairy Queen in 'wherever' Kansas to eat and get gas, we may have missed our chance for another 200 miles! Sure glad I was not alone on this trip. Sometimes we choose to leave Sunday afternoon and drive half way staying along the way that night. But we drove the 520 miles here to the Denver suburb of Westminster in the daylight and did not see a motel at all, so we're glad we didn't try it at night!

Westminster is a new and pretty NW suburb of Denver. The course Legacy Ridge is very green and lush and we heard they had snow here only 10 days ago. It is a beautiful subdivision of upscale homes, and we'll try and take photos today during our practice round for you to see.

Our hotel is only 3 miles from the course, last week we had only 1 mile from hotel to club parking lot. Having a short commute is great, but next week we will drive the 11 hours back to Dallas, return the car, and fly home to Sarasota for the two-week break.

Every car dealership here it seems is owned by John Elway. The hockey fans are pretty excited about their Avalanche. We're looking forward to getting to know the course during our 2 practice rounds, and getting to enjoy this pretty place.

Thanks for your interest and your e-mails. I love this means of communication.

Sue E.

Back to Weekly Letters home