HELEN ALFREDSSON. NOW THERE’S A BLAST from the LPGA past. Ranked 116th in the world, the 43-year-old Alfredsson is right in the thick of things at the U.S. Women’s Open at Edina, Minnesota. I doubt that she’ll win, but what a story it would be.
If you watched the telecast today, you saw Alfredsson twist and turn and crane her neck after striking the ball. It could be a good shot. It could be a bad shot. You never know with Helen.
This is exactly the way I remember Alfredsson when she came out on tour, a very demonstrative player. Also, she would talk to herself. Loudly. Often Helen berated herself like a football coach giving his team a tongue-lashing at halftime.
Alfredsson holds the single round and 36-hole records for the women’s Open, once carding a sizzling 63 on her way to 132. She then proceeded to fritter away a six or seven shot lead to lose the tournament. That would definitely have you talking to yourself.
Meanwhile, Stacy Lewis is this year’s 54-hole leader at nine under. Just one stroke behind, Paula Creamer is poised to win her first major. Annika Sorenstam is too far back at two under. And, well over par, Lorena Ochoa has completely lost her magic.
−The Armchair Golfer
Rocco Mediate is 45 and he contended for the Men’s U.S. Open, almost beating the best, Tiger. So it wouldn’t surprise me if Alfredsson at 43, found some inspiration from Rocco’s experience. Alfredsson has one advantage: the number one player on the LPGA, Lorena Ochoa, is to far back. In fact, the number two player, Annika, is almost out of the picture as well. She would only have to beat the number three player on the Tour, Paula Creamer. After watching Rocco, I’d say she has a good chance to win. That’s just my opinion, though.
I caught just snippets of what one of the announcers said about Stacy Lewis’ story. It seems a win for her would be just as good a story (playing the tour on sponsor’s exemptions, her dad on the bag, etc.). Kinda like what Hillary Lunke did a few years ago. That was great theater
Nick and Craig: Yes, lots of good story lines for the final round. Haven’t ruled out Helen A. winning — she just wouldn’t be my first pick.
As you said in your last post about Rocco, once again we have an outsider or an underdog coming through. It is very exciting to watch and obviously everyone is rooting for the underdog. It is just a shame that none of them can keep develop any kind of consistency.