Week of Westminster, Colorado
May 10, 2001

We've had some great feedback on our 'before and after' pictures from Colorado. Glad you all enjoyed them. We played our Tuesday practice round in shorts (87 degrees). Overnight, the temperature dropped more than 50 degrees and by Wednesday morning it was snowing. Val and I were among the very few to brave the elements and play nine holes. We lost a white ball or two, as the rough was covered with snow. Of course we believed the snow would quickly disappear as we attended the pro-am dinner at the Westin hotel. Players, volunteers and the community were excited to start the event at the Legacy Ridge course - but the snow kept falling.

Thursday's pro-am shotgun start was canceled at 10 a.m., the temperatures remained around 32 degrees but the wind chill was 15. With 3-5 inches blanketing the entire course, Friday's round too was canceled. There was still a chance we could complete 54 holes as the Futures Tour Staff had reserved Monday as a snow/rain date 3 weeks prior. We all laughed and knew it would never snow in Denver in May. But it turned out to be a great backup plan.

On Friday at 6 p.m., the staff stated they would announce the plan for Saturday, and about 5:30, the snow came harder than before. So it was pretty easy to determine that Saturday would also be canceled. Friday night after the snow, the temperatures warmed some and it rained the entire night. By this time, there were about a dozen withdrawals from the event as some players were planning to qualify for the Women's US Open on Monday and Tuesday in various locations around the country and chose not to wait it out. The Futures Staff then decided to re-pair all players remaining in 4-somes for Sunday instead of the posted 3-somes. Then after Sunday's first round, we would wait at the course, re-pair by score, and continue play for the second round until dark.

Since our schedule for the event was so haphazard now, the staff decided to dismiss the cart driver volunteers, and just let the players ride. In fact, like the Patterson, CA event, the players are REQUIRED to ride, and caddies may only ride in between holes. This meant that Val had to run after I teed off, and catch up to us, and could only hop on the cart after the hole was complete. She got quite the workout, and we are very grateful that this format is rare and not the norm.

My 77 on day 1 was good except for 2 poor holes, which put us in the second group to go off again at 5:11 p.m. Sunday. We got out, played 1 hole and were suddenly called in as lighting was striking very nearby. We waited about 30 minutes, and then went back out. By #5, again lightning was in the area, and we were called in for good. Darkness would be here soon, so the staff said we would resume in the morning at 9, so we marked our balls in the fairway with tees, and left the course to get a quick dinner.

We also had to pack up from our hotel and check out early on Monday. Before we knew it 9 a.m. arrived and we got back in carts and off to the #5 fairway. Play resumed as scheduled and we all made good shots into the green. I made 2 bogeys on the front to turn at 39, and was quite disappointed. When we made the turn we had to wait about 20 minutes because we ran into the groups who had just teed off on the back nine to begin their 2nd round. It was very slow as we waited every shot with 4-somes in front of us, but the time was well spent, and I finished that 9 at -1 = 35. So my 74 moved me up from 39th to 25th, and it was finally the end of a long week. It was a pleasure to finish so steadily after a very crazy and choppy week.

I will tell you about a few holes on this golf course. In fact, the normal golf rounds on this course must be very slow. On #6, you lay up to the 210-yard area off of the tee. Then you hit a fairway wood over a ditch, but the ditch is covered with brush, and trees on both sides. It is like kicking a field goal, and everywhere around the goal is trees and bushes, and you cannot see where it lands. A total position hole, requiring you ONLY hit it straight. #11 had the very same field goal situation but off of the tee. You must carry the tee shot 190 yards over a similar zone, you cannot see it land, and fortunately, they had a marshal on this hole. Then the last wild hole is #13 that you saw in the photos. It is another 210 carry over the junk, and the entire fairway leans left toward a hazard. If you are too far left, you have no shot, if you hit too far right, there is a leaning tree that will block your shot. I was very pleased to have hit perfect tee shots here both days. I would say, these holes must pose problems everyday for their average player, and it would not take much to make them fairer holes with some brush removed.

Back to Monday afternoon… we now had to get back to Dallas, a day later than planned to catch our Tuesday afternoon flight. We had 23 hours until flight time, and about 16 of it would have to be driving. That would leave us little time to sleep, and to return our rental car. Slow traffic in Denver and Colorado Springs made it a very slow start, but we drove 430 miles after our round Monday, and stopped at midnight. (Southern Colorado, Northern New Mexico, and the North Texas plains are very quiet, no cities, and you are grateful for a dependable car. We saw many deer, and Val even saw camels!?! I must have been asleep). We did our final 'packing for the plane' magic", (fitting everything back into the suitcases) and slept for only 4 hours. We left at 5:30 for the final 360 miles to DFW airport, and got there safely with a couple of hours until flight time.

We returned our reliable Ford Taurus, and then nearly missed our flight. We sat at our gate awaiting our 2 p.m. flight and Val realized we were NOT going to the posted city - Las Vegas. Since we had gotten there so early, we did not know they had changed our gate from C-6 to C-17, so we were very lucky to make our flight at all. Thanks Val for noticing!

The 2-hour flight from Dallas to Tampa was very fast, and Beth and Dave Salzman had conveniently parked my Mazda at the Tampa airport for us. They had only one day earlier flown from Tampa to New Hampshire for the summer, and devised the plan to use the car for their trip and then ours. Very smart! Glad to be back - have already been to the Lido beach for the sunset, taken a walk to see the latest construction in the neighborhood. Wow.

There is no place like home. I will be here until Friday, May 27th, and then will make way to the event in Ann Arbor. Thanks for the e-mails; it is nice to know you are out there, and so interested.

Sue E.

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