Week of York, PA
August 9, 2001

The second to last event on the Futures schedule this year is the York Newspaper Classic. We play Briarwood GC and it is the only event on this tour that requires each player to have a caddy, like the LPGA Tour. I learned this week that York is the Factory Tour Capital. Since there is no 'so called' tourist attraction, they have created popular tours of the local large businesses: Harley-Davidson, Pfalzgraff, and Martin's Potato Chips. It was a very clever thing for York to do.

The area has had very little rain, but the course was in great shape and the tees, greens and fairways were very green. My pro-am team from the Farmer's First Bank was terrific. Don McCarty and Alan Over each got closest to the pin awards of $150 from a local jewelry store and our final teammate Karen Miller assisted us with her long drives at very opportune times. It was a great day, and they each received $70 gift certificates for our 6th place finish.

The first day I played quite well on our first nine, but made one poor swing, which led to a double bogey on #3. Having a 75 on a course which produced very low scores was a bit of a setback. I needed to have a good second round, as I was tied for about 80th.

I played great on the second day, hitting every fairway and 16 greens in regulation. With only 2 birdies and one bogey, I only finished with a 71. But it was a better day, and I did make some great 2 putts for par from 40 feet.

And the third day, like the day before, was very hot, humid and about 90+ degrees. I was very pleased to make 4 birdies and 2 bogeys to shoot 70 and finish in a tie for 34th. I made it back to even par, and our players are just playing so well, that 33 other players finished under par. No room for any high rounds anymore.

Next week is the final event on the Tour determining the three top spots for the year. It is called the Betty Puskar Futures Classic. These three players will get full exempt 2002 LPGA cards and finishers 4-10 get to advance to the Finals of the LPGA qualifier tournament in October at Daytona Beach. Fortunately, as an LPGA member, I can also go directly to the final tournament, without having to go to the semi-finals at Venice, FL or Palm Springs, CA in the next few weeks.

There are four people this week who are in similar positions to that which I was in last year - going for the top three positions. And as three will be very happy, one, like me last year, will miss out on that ultimate glory. They too will survive, and I think I will enjoy watching it from a totally different vantage point on Sunday afternoon.

Sue E.

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