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Although her scorecard was a bit more normal on Friday, it was not because
she was hitting tons of greens and making easy putts. She was bombing
her drives, including a 288 yarder on her front nine. In fact, her whole
game gave her quite an advantage on this course. Her drives, because of
her huge carry, enabled her to bypass the sometimes wet fairways that
were bogging down a lot of other players. As a result, she led the field
by the end of the week in driving. But her main advantage was the great
height she gets on her irons. This enabled her to put her shots down gently
on the greens, which helped a lot on a course which was so hilly that
players were forced to hit up to greens often.
Despite these seeming advantages, Grace had some trouble hitting fairways and greens, which meant she got a lot of practice getting up and down for par. On her front nine (she started on hole ten), she had only marginal success, notching two bogeys against two birdies. But after the turn, she improved, missing only the eighth green en route to a three birdie, no bogey performance. And just like that, Grace had moved into a tie for the lead at 7 under par with Mexican rookie Lorena Ochoa. Musing on her crazy first two rounds afterwards, she said, "Maybe I will go to Busch Gardens and do all of the rides and get it done there and get it over with." But the fun was only starting for Grace...
Grace greets the crowd during round 2
Daily Press/Dave Bowman
A chip in round 2
Reuters/Brendan McDermid
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On Saturday, Grace had the experience of playing as the leader
for much of the round, an experience she had not had for quite some
time. Paired with Lorena Ochoa, she watched as Ochoa fell apart,
then regrouped and pulled herself up to 6 under par by the end of
the round. Meanwhile, Grace had a lot of top players breathing down
her neck. Cristie Kerr had been playing well, as had Suzann Pettersen.
Both were just a few shots back. As well, the top two players in
the world, Se Ri Pak and Annika Sorenstam, were paired together
and were only a couple shots back as well. Grace had a lot to worry
about.
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Her front nine was more of the same up and down stuff she had been experiencing all week. She managed the singularly embarrassing trick of hitting only one green in the first 6. On the first hole, she chunked an approach from 110 yards, but got up and down from 20 yards out. On 2, in the bunker, bogey. 3 was a par 5 birdie. 4 was another clutch up and down, while 5 was one she didn't make, notching her second double bogey of the tournament. After that, she started to get into a groove, birdieing the par 5 7th to move back to +1 on the day.
On the back nine, Grace was in another universe, playing by far the best golf of anyone on the course. While Pak, Webb, Ochoa and Sorenstam struggled to stay in it, Grace was on fire, hitting every green but one, and giving herself one legitimate birdie opportunity after another. The galling thing is, she couldn't make them! At one point she got so frustrated she kicked her bag, something we haven't seen her do too often this year. Still, she gave herself so many opportunities that she was bound to make a few, and she did, birdieing 11 and 15. Coming into the long and tricky 18th hole, she was still tied for the lead with Cristie Kerr at 8 under, two shots clear of anyone else in the field and three shots ahead of Annika and Se Ri, who had both shot 70 in their pairing. Grace's drive was awesome, if perhaps a tad too left. This particular hole is 390 yards and cuts diagonally across an imposing lake. You don't want to hit it left, that's for sure, but go too right and risk landing in some unforgiving rough. The green was also not a prize: a two tiered monstrosity that produced the occasional humorous result. The flag today was on the lower tier at the front of the green. Sorenstam had put her shot in such a position that if she wanted to get it anywhere near the flag she would have to roll her putt over the upper tier and back down; or, she could avoid it and leave herself a 15 footer for par. She chose to go over the tier, but left it up there, and was darn lucky to walk off with bogey.
Get in there!
So for the first time in two years, Grace had the lead going into the final round. She chose to remind the reporters that she had never lost a tournament, dating back to her junior years, when in such a position. I recall her mentioning the same thing *after* she won the Office Depot in 2001; there, too, she had the lead going into the final round and held on to win. To do it before her round, however, showed she was willing to tempt the golfing gods. Would it prove a curse?
