Southern California's No. 1 Golf Source
SITE
SEARCH
GOLF RESOURCE GUIDE:
PEOPLE
|
||||
 The most glaring omission is the Women's British Open. For the first time, a professional tournament for women will be played on the Old Course at St. Andrews. The home of golf has been a bachelor pad as far as women having access to the course. The history reaches back to the 15th century, but women couldn't play St. Andrews until the mid-1800s. The list of golfers who have won the British Open at St. Andrews is impressive. Bobby Jones, Sam Snead, Jack Nicklaus, Seve Ballesteros, Tiger Woods and Nick Faldo are some of the champions. "If a golfer is to be remembered he must win the Open at St. Andrews," Nicklaus once said. Annika Sorenstam would like to join her male contemporaries. She has achieved many milestones in golf, but winning a British Open at St. Andrews would be special. "To have a major championship at St. Andrews says a lot about how the game has grown," Sorenstam said. "This is a really big step for women's golf." The other great story of this LPGA season is Sorenstam's dominance. It's over. Part of that is because of an injury, the other is the quality of play from other golfers. Two major championships have been played and two first-time winners hoisted the trophies - Morgan Pressel at the Kraft Nabisco and Suzanne Pettersen at the LPGA Championship. As badly as Sorenstam wants to win at St. Andrews, I think another first-timer - with Southern California ties - could be victorious at the Women's British Open. This area has had an abundance of top players over the years, but lately there has been a lack of talent. That could change, though, with the emergence of Nicole Castrale. Before she was married, her last name was Dalkas and she was a promising standout at USC. She was an All-Pac-10 golfer before an auto accident in her senior year curtailed her golf career. She had surgery to fix a torn rotator cuff and spent a couple of years getting back into golfing shape. She played on the Futures Tour once the injury healed and won twice, then earned her LPGA Tour card in 2006 by finishing fourth on the Futures Tour money list. Castrale beat top-ranked Lorena Ochoa in a playoff at the Ginn Tribute last month, and she finished tied for 27th at the Kraft Nabisco and tied for 10th at the LPGA Championship. "I proved to myself that I can definitely win out here on tour," Castrale said. "I'm looking forward to gaining on the experience and just trying to keep on getting better. I don't think you can ever say that you've got it when it comes to golf, because I don't know that anyone ever gets it completely." Castrale is one of the most underrated players on tour and could become one of the top golfers in the next two or three years. SG John Reger has been covering professional golf since 1995. He can be reached at cascribe@aol.com. |
||||
RSS Subscribe
