Like anyone else, we like to receive feedback about our organization but especially love hearing about our membership and tournaments and the positive influences they have on others. Recently a fan shared his experiences after attending the 2017 Indy Women in Tech Championship presented by Guggenheim.
My First Professional Golf Experience
I am a relatively new golf fan I only started playing the game last year. This past Friday I attended my first professional golf tournament the Indy Women in Tech Championship and had a great time.
The morning started off with me driving three plus hours from Troy, IL to Indianapolis, IN to watch the event. Once I arrived there was a lot of parking just outside the event, and the general admission ticket was only $20 (what a steal).
Walking through the gate and past the driving range which happened to be empty at the time as the morning group had just teed off. I could not believe my luck as the first group I ran into on the 11th hole included Alena Sharp, did I happen to mention that I am a Canadian and a huge fan of Canadian golfers? After Alena hit her drive, she noticed a couple with a disabled child in a wheelchair and looked over to them and motioned as to ask them if they wanted drinks. After the other two golfers hit their drives, Alena went into the player's cooler, pulled out some waters and brought them over to the family. I thought to myself, how Canadian is that this was my first experience as to what to expect at a LPGA event.
After watching Alena for a while, I decided to look for the group which consisted of Lydia Ko, Stacy Lewis, and Anna Norqvist; I mean really what a group. I am also a fan of Lydia Ko, I like it when I watch her on TV, and she is sharing her lunch with her fellow competitors, true sportsmanship or how she smiles and marches down the fairway waving her arms after she hits a shot. When I finally caught up to this group, I could not believe how small Stacy Lewis was and how far she could hit the ball, the LPGA page shows both Lydia and Stacy at 5’5” however I do think that Lydia is a little taller. I am a lot taller than Stacy at 6’3” however my best drive would not come close to or go as straight as one of hers. Watching these ladies on TV does not do them justice.
After Lydia’s round ended, I was walking around the clubhouse, and as luck would have it, I ran into her (not literally) and asked her if I could take a selfie, she was so pleasant and said sure. The photo turned out great, and the smile on her face looks like she even wanted to be there, she must do hundreds of these a day.
Brooke and Brittany (or as I like to call them Team Henderson, or maybe that's what everyone calls them?) were playing in the afternoon, Brooke was the player that I came to watch. At the conclusion of the morning round, I headed over to the driving range, and as luck would have it, Brooke, Brit, and her Dad/Coach were on the range hitting balls, and I was standing no more than six feet away watching them and taking a lot of photos. Once Brooke went through her bag she went to the practice green. What did I do, as any Canadian fan would have done, I followed her (all of those Canadian fans in Ottawa at the Canadian Pacific Women’s Open a couple of weeks earlier would have been jealous as I felt like Brooke was putting on a clinic just for me).
Brooke was grouped with Paula Creamer, after about eight holes of following this group I kept running into the same lady and finally said to her “we have to stop meeting like this or people are going to talk, are you following the same person as I am?”. Looking at my Canada hat, she said “I don’t think so, I am Paula’s mom” how cool was that, she did not have to tell me who she was, she was the nicest person and would continually talk to me throughout the round. This story gets even better. One of the fans (Ernie) sees my Canadian hat and asks me where I am from in Canada. I tell him Thunder Bay, however, I now live in Troy, IL and he lets me know that he is from Smith Falls (where Brooke is from) however he also lived near Troy a long time ago and raced horses near there. He and his wife are also here to watch Brook play. Ernie and I talk for a few holes, and hit it off (we are also both Toronto Maple Leaf fans) he then introduces me to his wife and her friend, can you guess who her friend was? Yup, Brooke and Britt’s mom Mrs. Henderson. So here I am, I woke up at 4:00 in the morning, drove to Indianapolis and now I am watching my favorite Canadian golfer and walking along the fairway with her mom.
Unfortunately, I had to drive back home and never did get a photo with Brooke or Brittney. However, there is always next year as I will be back.
I would like to thank the LPGA, all the players, Mrs. Creamer and Mrs. Henderson, I had a great time and will definitely be back next year for hopefully more than one day. If you are a golf fan and have never been to a LPGA event, you should go it is a great experience.
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