Solheim Cup Diaries with Stewart Craig - Days 1 & 2
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INSIDE THE ROPES DAY 1 This is my diary of the 2009 Solheim Cup from Rich Harvest Farms Golf and Country Club, Chicago, Illinois from inside the ropes. Easy like Sunday Morning? Today started with a 3.45 a.m. alarm call for my pick up to go to Glasgow airport. As everyone knows I am great in the morning but even for me this is ridiculously early. Alan (Brewster the bear) picked me up as promised at 4.15 a.m. and transported me straight to Glasgow in a very smooth 40 minute journey as the roads seemed to be very quiet, he was remarkably chirpy for someone who had only had 3 hours sleep but no doubt he went straight back to bed.
My flight from Glasgow was delayed around 15 minutes which is hard to believe when it was virtually the first flight of the day but BMI seemed to be really surprised that 132 turned up so early to fly to Heathrow on a Sunday morning, strange really because you would have thought that if they had looked at their booking system they would have seen the flight was full and had more than one check in desk open!!!!! Still I’ve travelled so much in the last 3 or 4 years that nothing surprises me anymore.
A smooth transition through Heathrow, surprisingly with a couple of hours to wait in the lounge and met up with Becky and her caddie Craig (cool as a cucumber) Barber-Bell, the calmest guy on the planet. If Craig was any more laid back he would be horizontal but probably the most important attributes of a first class caddie.
The flight to Chicago took off pretty much on time and was a fairly straight forward flight until about 1 hour from Chicago when the Captain announced that there were severe storms over Chicago O’Hare Airport and he was sure we were going to have to divert to Detroit (250 miles away). We maintained our heading and around 10 minutes later the Captain announced that we had a chance of still landing in Chicago but we were going to slow down and go into a holding pattern to see if the storm would clear enough for us to land. After 25 minutes of circling really slowly we landed into Chicago with some very angry looking skies all around. A swift transportation to the golf course to collect our credentials and then to our respective hotels had us dead beat, I had been up for approximately 21 hours at this point, so a quick bite to eat and then off to bed the fun will all start tomorrow!!!
INSIDE THE ROPES DAY 2 Practice Day 1 - Monday After a fantastic night’s sleep it was a 9.30 a.m. start on the range with Becky. Some of the American based European Team opted for early practice sessions on the course but for the Europeans who had flown in the day before a bit of stiffness combined with a little jet lag meant just easing themselves into this very demanding week was just what the Captain ordered.
A light session on the range just to iron out one or two small things which have crept in since I saw Becky last was very productive with Becky really hitting it good towards the end of the session, including one drive which exited the bottom end of the driving range Oooooops!!!!!. Becky was joined on the practice range by Anna Nordqvist, Diana Luna and Gwladys Nocera who were all also trying to work out the stiffness.
We finished around 11.30 a.m. on the range and headed to the team room for some lunch prior to playing the back 9. The team room is an excellent place with a lounge area, restaurant and leisure area complete with pool table and table tennis table. After a quick bite to eat and a quick thrashing for Becky at table tennis we headed for the putting green for some putting practice.
The practice putting green is possibly one of the best surfaces I have ever seen, it is like velvet which could prove advantageous for Becky as her putting has become the backbone of her game over the last couple of months. Becky really rolled the ball amazingly well today and as we went through her routine on the green a number or her European team mates stopped by to admire what is surely one of the purist strokes on tour. Helen Alfredsson, Catriona Matthew, Janice Moodie and Gwladys all commented on how good it was looking. We headed out to the course shuttled on European team buggies by Captain Alison Nicholas and Vice Captain Joanne Morely to the 10th tee to get our first look at this magnificent golf course.
The golf course at Rich Harvest Farms is quite something. A spectacular golf course and visually stunning at the same time. The story of how the course came about is quite unique. Jerry Rich bought some farm land in Sugar Loaf Illinois and had a plan to build one, yes one, spectacular golf hole for himself to play on. However as we all know as golfers’ one hole is never enough and before long Jerry had bought all 9 of the surrounding farms and set about building another 17 spectacular golf holes. The uniqueness of the story doesn’t finish there however, Jerry did not seek the help or advice of a major golf course construction company or famous golf course architect he simply employed the services of a local contractor and worked with him to create what has now become one of the most stunning golf courses in the US.
We played the back 9 and saw firsthand the cleverness of the design of the course. Length is very important on the back nine but accuracy is also absolutely essential. This is typical American golf from the point of view that if you can hit it long and into very specific positions the course will yield birdies and in a Solheim Cup birdies are the order of the day. Becky played and hit the ball very well this afternoon and as I said before her putting was awesome, but it was great watching Becky and Craig carefully plotting the most efficient route around this demanding golf course and it’s the part of the week that many amateur golfers never see and yet it’s probably the most important part. The best lines of the tees, the ideal landing areas, how to take the trouble out of play and negotiate the hole in the easiest way, where are the best places to miss the green and where can you definitely not miss it. The other part which is very important is the mapping of the greens and noting of the slopes again identifying the areas of the green that you don’t particularly want to land in.
Becky and Diana finished their practice round and after a good 15 minutes worth of autograph signing they were whisked off to change for a team meeting. So its dinner and early to bed for me as we have an early start in the morning with team practice beginning at 8.30 a.m. |
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