Day Two for me at the CN Canadian Women’s Open (don’t call it just the [photopress:brittany.jpg,full,alignright]Canadian Women’s Open — that upsets the suits at the RCGA). Of course it was the opening round of the tournament. Must admit there are nice benefits to covering women’s golf that differs from the Canadian Open. For example, I wanted to write a profile on Brittany Lincicome today, the long hitting 20-year-old who won the Match Play a month ago. Lincicome, who at 280 yards is longer off the tee than Mike Weir, finished her round with Lorie Kane and signed some autographs. I asked if I could have a moment of her time to speak and she said sure. It took me a moment to realize she meant she was willing to do the interview right there, in the midst of the crowd. Immediately I had a bad case of performance anxiety, but I managed to spit out some half-way intelligent questions about her game, her swing and her desire to quit golf to play poker and fish by the time she’s 35. USA Today wrote about Lincicome’s interest in a short but lucrative career, so my interview was a bit of a follow on that. Well I got the scoop on her desire to work at fly fishing, so I guess there’s something worth reading in tomorrow’s National Post. Go buy it. Keep me in a job.
Of course, Lincicome was upstaged by Lorie Kane, who played a fine, but far from flawless, round of golf. That said, if there are nicer, more considerate people than Kane in Canadian golf, I’ve yet to meet them. Lorie faces a lot of pressure whenever she plays in Canada, considering a Canadian hasn’t won the tournament since 1973. Anyway, her putting was strong, but her putting implement is awfully ugly. She uses a strange Scotty Cameron putter called “The Detour.” It looks like a blade with a metal rod welded to the back. Kane agreed it is ugly, but apparently it works. I couldn’t ever use the thing — just too distracting.
Though there’s lots of benefits to covering this tournament, there’s also one huge drawback — women’s pro golf is damned slow. Kane’s round was 5 hours and 20 minutes, which might be fine at a corporate scramble over a few drinks at Angus Glen, but it is grim when you realize that no one is searching for a ball in the hay. So how does a round get that slow? I’m still trying to figure it out. It seems to me the women turn to their caddies for advice, to have them fix their alignment and a few other things, more than the men. I could be wrong, but this seems to take a few minutes more on each hole, thus the five and a half hour round. Regardless, it is a killer when you are on deadline.
