Wendy's Day One Recap (Saturday, December 19, 2009)
If you watched the Wendy's Three Tour Challenge on Saturday, not only did you see some great golf and beautiful shots of Las Vegas, you also learned more about what the event represents. The Wendy's Three Tour Challenge helps to raise several million dollars for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. During the broadcast, they run great stories about kids who have been touched by the foundation, as well as information about the need to provide homes for the thousands of kids in foster care.
The broadcast showed some fun clips of the players from the Pro-Am dinner prior to the event. These clips, along with the players wearing microphones, help to make this event truly unique.
My team struggled and was drastically outplayed by both men's tours today. All three of us were light on making birdies and need to step it up on Sunday in order to get back into the skins. The Champions Tour played excellent golf. Fred Funk (-2), Nick Price (-3) and Jay Haas (-4) finished with a 32 on the front nine. They won the front nine by 6 shots and earned 200,000 dollars.
Fortunately this is a two day tournament, and the Sunday skins are worth more. If we all play well, we could actually come back and win this event! We had a team meeting after the first 9 holes, discussing a bit of golf strategy, and of course, had a little fun too. We're ready for our round on Sunday! Tune in to ABC for day two of the Wendy's Three Tour Challenge.
The Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge, one of my favorite events of the golf season, will be televised this weekend. The Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge will take place at Rio Secco Golf Club in Las Vegas. There are so many things that I love about this event! First of all, it's played at the course where I train with my coach, Butch Harmon. The Butch Harmon School of Golf is on the property, and one of his instructors, Matt, will be caddying for me.
This is the only women's professional golf event in Las Vegas. For me, that means playing in front of my friends, having Butch on the range and during practice rounds, and being in my hometown. It also means that I'm able to sleep in my own bed!
The event is a two day, 3 player team event. It consists of two 9 hole skins games, and each player's 9 hole score is counted, with the Sunday skins worth more.
Three players are selected from each of the three professional tours. This year, the LPGA team will consist of Cristie Kerr, Suzann Pettersen and me. The PGA TOUR players will be Stewart Cink, Bubba Watson, Freddie Couples. The Champions Tour (who won the event last year) players will be Fred Funk, Nick Price and Jay Haas. I am paired with Fred Funk and Stewart Cink (who also works with Butch).
This is the only event where all three professional tours can equally compete against one another for the million dollar purse, and of course, year long bragging rights! Each Tour plays from different tee boxes. The LPGA players play a tee box ahead of the Champions Tour, and the Champions Tour, a tee box ahead of the PGA. Essentially what this does is allow each tour to hit a comparable club into the green.
This will be my fourth appearance in the Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge. The LPGA Tour won the event in 2007, and we are eager to win again this year!
The competition aspect of the event is very exciting and all the players have microphones, so you can get access to the conversations and playful banter between the tours. For me, the true enjoyment of this event comes from being part of the efforts to raise money and awareness for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. There are over 150,000 children in the United States in foster care, and the founder of the Wendy's restaurant chain, who was adopted, started the foundation to find more children a safe and loving home. To find out more about the foundation go to www.davethomasfoundation.org. The golf event is set to raise 3.5 million for the foundation!
The event is televised this weekend on ABC. Hope you can tune in to watch!
Topics: Player Blog, Gulbis, Natalie
