Week of Morgantown, WV
August 16, 2001

We have just completed the final week of the SBC Futures Tour regular season. Morgantown is the site of the 10th annual Betty Puskar (pronounced PUSH'-Car) at the Pines CC. Betty, has been a loyal Futures Tour supporter, and the charity monies from the event benefit the Betty Puskar Breast Cancer Center at West Virginia University in Morgantown. She is a survivor, and is the "Dinah Shore" of the Futures Tour.

This week also determined the top three players who receive exempt LPGA tour cards for the 2002 season. Finishers 4 - 10 on the money list from the entire year receive passage to the LPGA finals of the tour-qualifying event in Daytona Beach in October, bypassing the 2 semi-finals in Venice, FL and Palm Springs, CA. As a 'Class A' LPGA member, I automatically have the ability to go directly to the finals in Daytona Beach too.

The week began Tuesday with a party every player anticipates for weeks. The tournament constructs a huge tent in the parking lot of the club and a live music stage. It is a huge buffet set up of shrimp, fruit, pasta, and desserts, and even has another large BAR tent. All were fully staffed too. I imagined with players, sponsors, and pro-am participants there would be 300-400 people served. Betty told me that they expected and paid for 720! What a bash!

This week's pro-ams were on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons. This allowed for practice rounds all day Tuesday and the mornings of Wed. and Thurs. We played nine on Tuesday and nine more on Wednesday morning, and then played Thursday's afternoon event. The weather that day was sunny, hot and humid, from 85-90 degrees. I had the pleasure of being invited again this year to play with The Dominion Post team hosted by Kathy Raese. Kathy decided to invite three of the best female amateurs in the state to increase our chances to win! Wow, we got to have Caroline Ramsey (the WV State Am Champ who will soon play in PA in the Sr. Women's US Amateur), Sue 'Goldie' Goldcamp (another amazing talent), and Stephanie Cox (19, and has 2 more college seasons to compete) to join Kathy and me as the favorites for the day.

We played great, finishing at -15. Thinking we would place quite high if not first, we soon found out that the event was NET only and that NEXT year they will present both net and gross prizes. Because their handicaps were so low, we had to add 5 strokes to our total, putting us back into the middle of the field! Ugh. Kathy's great team made great efforts - and our 2 eagles just didn't cash in. What a fun and memorable day.

The course was very soaked from night rains and the usually slick greens became bearable. Even the par 3 17th hole, a great 220 yard par 3 with three protective bunkers, was tamed.

The first day my 71 was in decent shape, about 28th as the scores were quite good in the calm conditions. I was paired with Ju Kim, who was in the critical #4 position vying for top 3. There had been an earlier rain delay prior to our start, so we did not get to finish, and came back on Saturday morning at 7 a.m. to finish the final 3 holes.

Since I had played well on the first round, our tee time would not be until 2:30 late Saturday afternoon. So Val and I went back to the hotel, rested for 2 hours, and came back for round 2. My 75 put me in about a tie for 50th. Many players again had to return Sunday morning to complete their 2nd round, and to determine the cut to 70 players and ties.

At 8 a.m. on Sunday, the players completed the round, and soon after, the rains began. We were delayed two hours for our scheduled 10:20 tee time and then at 12:20 we only played one hole before the rain made the course unplayable yet again. How nice a local restaurant had erected a tent with ribs, pasta, sub sandwiches and fruit and snacks. Everyone appreciated having food all afternoon. When the rain subsided, our staff squeegeed greens making the course playable, but just as they would finish the job it would rain again, and the saturated greens became unplayable. Finally, at 4:45 we resumed play (an additional 4 ½ hr delay) and we played until dark. Everyone would have to return Monday morning at 8 a.m. to continue. We almost got done - we only had two holes to play - a short par 4 and a par 3. Almost.

We checked back into our hotel and slept quickly. I was happy to par the first of my two remaining holes, and then to birdie the final hole, #9, making a slick downhill 12 footer. Nice to birdie the last hole.

Jenn Brody won the tournament; Beth Bauer, Angela Buzminski, and Jeon Yung Lee got the 3 exempt LPGA Tour cards, and Ju Kim, Jeanne Marie Busittil, Michelle Fuller, Jenn Brody, Mayumi Nakajima, Catherine Cartwright, and Miriam Nagl.

I followed Jenn Brody (a fellow MSU Spartan) the last 6 holes as we stayed to watch the final spots be determined. We then said our goodbyes, and got into the car and drove 715 miles to Quincy, IL to visit Val's family for 6 days. We will head to Bradenton early next week.

What a summer, thanks for joining us for the trip.

We will continue to keep the site up to date, so check in with us now and then.

Sue E.

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