Players have been saying all week that the final six holes on the course were going to be tough, with birdies few and far between.
Unfortunately for half the field in the opening two rounds of the 2001 U.S. Women’s Open, the back nine is their opening nine. Included in the players starting on hole 10 Thursday in the opening round were four of the six players who call North Carolina home.
Amber Marsh of Jamestown was one of the two players who got to start on the first hole, but it didn’t help her much. She finished with a 12-over 82. She is one of 20 amateurs in the 150-player field.
“The front nine is where you have to score,” she said. “You expect to make bogeys on the back.”
That’s what Donna Andrews did. Starting on the 10th hole, the Southern Pines resident bogeyed 13 through 17 on the way to carding a 40. She posted two more bogeys on her second nine and ended the day at 77, seven over par.
“I parred the first three holes, but I didn’t hit many solid shots,” she said. “Finally, I started to relax on the back nine and hit a lot more solid shots and started to score better on the back side.”
Nina Foust, a teaching pro out of Morehead City, matched Andrews’ 77. She also started on 10, and went four-over on 14 through 18, including a double bogey on 17. She qualified for the tournament with a 65 at Brentwood Country Club, her first competitive round in four years.
Brenda Corrie Kuehn, the amateur golfer who has caused such a stir because she is pregnant, entertained the media after her round of 79. Starting from hole 1, where she recorded a double bogey, her round was the opposite of those of the other in-state players. She encountered her troubles on the front side, not the back.
She ended the day with a birdie on 18, bouncing back from a 43 on the front side to card a 36 on the back.
“You would think it would be on the back side where I’d get tired,” she said. “But, no, it was the front side. I was nervous. It took me a while to get it going … On the back side I was getting tired, but I was excited because I was actually playing a little bit better.
Talking about her pregnancy, she said, “It’s not a big deal to me, it’s a big deal to everyone else.”
She found out she wasn’t the only one in her threesome expecting. Jennifer Greggian, who also shot a 79, is about five months pregnant. Kuehn said she had an inkling that Greggian was pregnant, but she didn’t want to ask her directly.
“It was so nice to see somebody else pregnant,” Kuehn said. “I knew she already had a little one in child care. So I said, ‘I hear you have a little one.’ And then she volunteered that ‘I have another one on the way.’ I didn’t want to ask.”
Kuehn didn’t seem too upset about her 9-over effort.
“That’s why we stay amateurs,” she said, “we play for the fun of it. We amateurs play a different game than the professionals do.”
Marcy Newton of High Point joined Andrews as one of the three professionals in the field from the state. She also started on the back side, going four over par. She rebounded on the front, carding an even-par 35 on her way to a 74.
Deborah Harmon, a Pinehurst resident, started in mid-afternoon on hole 10. She went out in 39, ending with an 80.
