I'm not the only one missing short putts

Even the Professional players do it.

I am one of the priveleged people to see some of the top women golfers in the world play at the Lexus Cup at the Tanah Merah Country Club in Singapore. Eleven of the top 13 players in the world were there. Yes, you heard me right. That included the likes of Annika Sorenstam, Paula Creamer, Grace Park, Jiang Jang, Birdie Kim, Jill McGill, Natalie Gulbis.... The one notably absent from the line-up was Michelle Wie.

The tournament was Asia Vs the International team. Grace Park assumed the role of the leader for the Asian team, while Annika righfully assumed her place at the top of the International side. The final day started out with a slug between the captains teeing off first in a singles contest. I followed that round until the 13th hole where Annika was leading Grace 2up. The crowd just got a bit too much for me and I was missing a lot of the game because of the jostling. From the way Annika was playing, I knew that match would be over before they reached the 18th tee. It only looked like a matter of time before Annika finished Grace off.

So I waited at the 12th green to follow the next match. But even before the players had teed off from the 12th, I knew following the match was useless. The scoreboard placed to the left had side of the 12th green was screaming 5up in favour of Paula Creamer who was playing against Birdie Kim. Paula's approach landed six feet from pin and Birdie's landed in the greenside rough. Looking at Birdie's chip from the rough, I knew she had no chance of catching Paula. Indeed, Paula won the next couple of holes and won 7&5 winning the second straight point for the international team for the day.

Gladly for me, the next match proved to be a cracker. Jill McGill was playing the reigning British Open Champion Jiang Jang. JJ came to the 13th trailing one down and looked to be making a move. The picture on the right (with Jill smiling) was the only one where the player was nice enough to smile at the audience. It was great to talk to a player of the caliber of Jill McGill and get that feeling of humility despite all her achievements.

As I anticipated, the match was an absolute cracker. Both players played some fantastic shots. Jill played, according to me, the shot of the tournament. She had hooked her drive into a fairway bunker on the 15th (I think) while JJ was on the fairway. JJ's approach landed on the right edge of the green in the rough. Jill had a tough approach from the fairway bunker with the bunker lip around 3 feet high.

What a shot it was! The ball shot off the face of what I believe was a seven iron, neatly crossed the lip of the bunker and landed five feet from pin with enough spin to make the ball stop dead. It was a fabulous shot. Made my trip to the TMCC worth it.

Jill eventually lost on the last hole due to some bad luck. Her second shot hit a tree and went close to entering the water on the right hand side of the 18th fairway. It was a good recovery for bogey, but JJ was on track for a par and won by one hole.

All in all, it was a great experience for me to watch all these great players in action. Especially Annika. She is a treat to watch. She is so focused and so consistent, it's unbelievable. And she showed why she is the number one player in the world.

I learnt a lot.