Riviera Country Club will present golfers with tough conditions in the U.S. Women’s Open next month. But the two women who earned berths into that national championship Wednesday at Bermuda Dunes Country Club might be forgiven for thinking Riviera’s conditions will be easy by comparison.
On a 36-hole day with temperatures near 100 and dry winds that grew stronger through the two rounds, LPGA veteran Lucy Li and recent college golfer Kaylyn Noh survived for two-round totals of 1-under 143 to earn the last two berths into the U.S. Women’s Open field from the nationwide qualifying process.
“The morning 18 was really nice and I felt like we were going to breeze through it, and on the back nine the winds kicked up and the greens got even crustier,” said Li, who will play in her sixth Women’s Open at just 23 years old. “Today was a real grind.”
Li fired a 3-under 69 in the morning round on the course that for years hosted the Bob Hope Classic on the PGA Tour. But in the afternoon, she fought her way to a 74.
Needing a par on the closing par-5 18th, Li survived a poor drive and a punch out before hitting a third shot to 10 feet, somehow getting the ball to stop on greens that hadn’t been watered the previous two days despite temperatures near 110 degrees. The greens had also been mowed and rolled before Wednesday’s first round.
Li easily two-putted the final hole to share medalist honors with Noh, who had finished about an hour earlier. That left Christine Wang of Houston as the first alternate with rounds of 74 and 70 for a 144, one shot short of a playoff for an automatic berth.
While Li’s play was consistent, with seven birdies and six bogeys on the day, Noh had a spectacular burst to end her morning round with a birdie-birdie-eagle finish.
“It was really, really tough. We had a rough morning this morning. We kind of got to the golf course a little later than we expected,” said Noh, who turned pro after graduating from the University of California last year and will be playing in her first women’s major.
Noh said her caddie talked her into playing a baby cut during the first round, and that change helped her to a 71-72 day for her 143 total. The birdie-birdie-eagle (2-4-2) came on the seventh, eighth and ninth holes of the course, featuring a hole-out from the fairway on the ninth.
“We had 122, wind was behind us, or was it into us? I can’t remember,” a fatigued Noh said. “It was a while ago. We had been hitting a chippy pitching wedge all day. We had switched to that fade and it was working out great and (the shot) just hopped on maybe 10 yards short and rolled right in.”
Both players echoed the rest of the field on the difficulty of getting the ball close to the hole Wednesday, particularly in the second 18.
“(The greens) are just really dry and with the wind, there is just nothing stopping the ball,” Li said. “So you had to be really careful. Anytime you are above the hole or putting sideways, you had to be really careful.”
Like Noh, Li will be playing Riviera Country Club for the first time despite her California background. Famous for being the youngest golfer to even qualify for the Women’s Open when she was just 11 in 2014, Li said her past experience might not help in the national championship.
“You talk to pros who have been playing for 20 years, 30 years and everyone still says they still get nervous on the first tee of a major,” Li said. “That’s just how it is for everyone, but it’s a good kind of excitement. I am so happy to be playing at Riviera, close to home. It is going to be an awesome test.”
Three Coachella Valley golfers in the 69-player field struggled with the conditions and finished back in the pack. They were Joanna Bushnell Crist of Indio and a senior at La Quinta High School (80-83-163), Vanessa Betancourt of Palm Desert (79-88-167) and Keira Cassady, a sophomore at Rancho Mirage High School who lives at Bermuda Dunes Country Club (87-85-172).
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: LPGA veteran Lucy Li beats heat to grab spot in U.S. Women’s Open
Reporting by Larry Bohannan, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
