Karrie goes in blind, now she's clear

BY Liz White | ALPG Tour | 2009 Women's Australian Open | Round One | 12 Feb 2009

Ignorance is bliss, just ask Karrie Webb.

Until yesterday’s pro-am, the 34-year-old was playing blind, having surprisingly never swung a club at the par 73 Metropolitan Golf Course in Melbourne.

Today she played it with all the guile of a local, shooting a masterful 7 under 66 to set up a three-stroke lead after the first round of the Australian Open championship.

Vying for her third Open title in a row, the world number 9 made a mockery of the course, firing off 8 birdies and one sole bogey on a track many consider the toughest ever for the Patricia Bridges Bowl.

The 7 under round has set Webb up for a promising tilt at title number five, holding a solid three shot lead over 28-year-old Spaniard, Tania Elosegui.

“It’s one round of golf I am definitely giving myself a few pats on the back because it’s a vey good score around here, whatever state my game is in,” she said after playing the course, astonishingly for only the second time.

“I guess if you’d have told me I would shoot seven under today I almost probably wouldn’t have believed you.”

Earlier in the week, Tournament Director, Trevor Herden predicted Metropolitan would be a sterner test than last year’s Kingston Heath layout, which Webb won with a final score of 9 under.

Webb acknowledged she was one of the lucky ones today, hitting off early when the wind was at it’s calmest.

“The wind has just progressively got windier and you know it’s pretty brutal out there now, I was pretty glad to get in,” she said.

While Webb worked out during her eight-week layoff, however laconically admitting: “It’s probably not as strenuous as some,” she believes it did pay off, with some of her shots today reminding her of the glory days of yore.

It was a memory sparked after the Queenslander said she watched some archival footage of herself playing the ANZ Ladies Masters during last week’s 20-year anniversary celebration. The vision was of Webb holing putts from everywhere, drilling irons into the green at will.

“I thought ’I just don’t do that as often as I used to,’” she said.

“Today it really felt like that. I was pretty dialled in, I hit a lot of good shots with the wind, against the wind and I think I only missed two greens, so that was pretty good out there.”

Webb’s sole bogey came on the third last hole of the day, the 175m par three seventh.

“I just switched off on a little one, I missed a two footer, a bit disappointing but managed to make a great par at the last, so I think that made up for it,” she said.

Webb’s playing partner and friend, Gwladys Nocera, did not have a good start to her Australian open campaign posting a 6 over 79. The Frenchwoman is placed well back in the field and will have to use all her tricks in the bag to make the weekend.

Spain’s Tania Elosegui does not have the same concerns and is in outright second place. She says she won’t be watching what Webb does tomorrow.

“I’m not thinking about it,” she said.

I just want to keep practising the things I am working on, on the golf course and we will see."

Others to fare well today include Scotland’s Clare Queen who posted a 3 under round of 70 to be T3 with Spain’s Beatriz Recari and Koreans Chang-Hee Lee and Hye Youn Kim.

Australian Institute of Sport’s Rebecca Flood continues her brilliant form to be T7 with in form Norwegian, Marianne Skarpnord.

Laura Davies has admitted her Australian season has been well below par and said she was determined to set things right, starting with today’s first round.

She would be encouraged by her turnaround in form, firing an opening day 74 in the very windy and blustery afternoon conditions.

It was a marked improvement on last week, where she finished T47th at the Masters, a score that included a horror seven over 79.

The Masters winner, Katherine Hull was a little wayward today, struggling around the course with a 3 over 76. She currently sits in T47th.

While spectators were in awe of Webb’s brilliant display today, many tongues were wagging after the eye-catching display of local girl, Su-Hyun Oh.

Oh was one of two 12-year-olds to qualify for this week’s open and after thirteen holes, was just one over the card.

But a string of bogeys, including a double on the 444m par 5, 6th saw the Year 7 student slip back to a final round of 6 over 79.

Already demanding a lot of herself and with a surprising maturity for one so young, Oh was disappointed to have let a good score leak towards the end.

“I didn’t play good golf,” was her brutal assessment.

The youngest ever to compete in the Open, Oh says her expectations at the start of the week were to try and make the cut.

With the wind blowing out the afternoon scores today, if the youngster can just hold it together tomorrow, she may create a bit more Australian Open history by the end of the week.