… after jubilation on both sides of the Atlantic – US Open part 1
It has taken me, along with thousands of other Dutch golf fans around the world, a few days to recover from the shock of last weekend (18-21 June). An incredible roller-coaster of mixed emotions. Massive mixed emotions. Jubilation and deflation on both sides of the Atlantic. All I can say is, thank goodness for the time difference between Amsterdam and America.
Chambers Bay Golf Course is tucked away in the very north-west corner of America: in Washington, near Seattle, to be precise. This is where the 115th US Open Championship was taking place last week. At the same time in Holland (give or take a few hours), The International golf course, near Amsterdam, was hosting the 21st edition of the Dutch Ladies Open.
Over here, Holland’s best female golfer, Christel Boeljon, normally to be found playing in the States on the L.P.G.A. Tour, had quietly and confidently seized the lead from day one in the Deloitte Ladies Open with two impressive rounds of 69 (8-under par).
In America Joost Luiten was impressing the rest of the golf world. The 29-year old from Rotterdam had opened with rounds of 68-69 to go 3-under par in the US Open. Not only did that see him in a tie for 5th place after 36 holes, but also feature as the best European. And that was pretty awesome on a treacherous golf course such as Chambers Bay. The course with the pretty name does in fact make mincemeat out of the best of players.
Tiger at rock-bottom
Take Tiger Woods. His dip in form plummeted to rock-bottom on Friday. Fellow American, young Rickie Fowler also fell foul of the hazards at Chambers Bay. When I last checked the scores they were both 14-over par for the tournament with two holes to go in round two. Bottom of the leaderboard with a glut of bogeys, double-bogeys and even a triple-bogey. There were, however, two players who apparently suffered even more than Woods and Fowler. Lucas Glover (USA) and Darren Clarke (NIR) actually finished 16-over and 17-over, respectively. Such a bad day at the office must be hard to bear. Ouch! Time to scroll back to the top-10 and further admire Joost’s two sub-par rounds.
Read more about the US Open in the next blog … part 2 …
Wendy Hoad