Corning Classic - 1st Round

Hee Young Park and Karine Icher are tied for the lead after firing rounds of 64 at the Corning Classic.  Five players are tied for third place, one shot back - Hee-Won Han, Minea Blomqvist, Sarah Lee, Soo-Yun Kang, Sandra Gal and Karine Icher.

The scoring at Corning CC was outstanding.  53 players shot in the 60s and 84 broke par.  Icher birdied six times and eagled the par-5 5^th hole to post her lowest score since the 2005 Mizuno Classic.  Park birdied five times on the back nine to tie her career low round ('09 Thailand 2^nd round).  The other scores include:

Watching the coverage on Golf Channel now, updates to come.

UPDATE:  Kudos to GC for "miking up" Kristy McPherson during the first round coverage.  Although it was a little hard to understand her sometimes (and I'm a Southerner too!), it's a great idea and they should do that in the early rounds more often.

A couple of items from Larry Smich's Life On Tour blog caught my eye.  He pointed out that there are 147 players in the Corning field because of "a screw up on the Priority List".  I would have to assume the delay in getting the list correct was the "screw up".  Also, Larry talks about the debate over what really killed the Corning Classic.  It's pretty obvious who he thinks is responsible.

He said, she said: The details of the loss of The Corning Classic, if true, are troubling. More than one source states that the beloved Commissioner called for a pecuniary squeeze play and was thrown out at the plate. From what I understand, the Corning folks offered to maintain heir current contribution but noted that lessor sponsors were unable to do so. The event could still be held but at a reduced purse. This was rebuffed by the LPGA which demanded bumping the purse to 2.6 million and also called for the addition of more, and or better, scoreboards.

The LPGA version is that they tried everything possible to save the tournament.

After the SBS fiasco, with both sides offering contradictory stories on its demise, who do we believe? Weren’t we told by the LPGA that SBS couldn’t match the offer from J Golf? If you remember the interview with the CEO of SBS, he said the offer was never made. Does anyone see a pattern here? By the way, it didn’t take long for the PGA to pick them up as a sponsor in a long term deal for their opening event. I guess SBS had plenty of cash to spare after all.

One noted LPGA Hall of Fame member lamented recently, that if the players don’t take back the Tour within the next two years, it’s over. She is not the only one sharing that sentiment as more info comes to light about this week’s event.

If that prediction has any truth to it, why don’t the sponsors and Tournament Directors bypass the higher-ups and go directly to the players to tell their side? Have an open door policy with all the facts on the table and go from there.

More good news: Heard the folks of White Manor Country Club in Malvern PA, (we used to play there years ago) are interested in hosting the LPGA Championship but do not wish to deal with “She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named”.