KELLY TIDY BATTLING AN INJURY PROBLEM

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ever wondered what happened to Royal Birkdale GC member Kelly Tidy, former British women's open amateur champion who turned professional after being a member
of the GB and I team who beat the Americans to win back the
Curtis Cup at Nairn in June 2012?

Pictured right during the British women's open amateur stroke-play 
championship at Royal Belfast in
October 12, 2012.
Some of the answers can be found on her own website.
This was her last blog, dated September 2013:



Hey Guys,
As you may have noticed I haven’t posted a blog for a while! So I wanted to write and let you all know what’s been going on in my life and with my golf!
This year was my first year as a professional, and for the past 5 months I have been out with an injury. It all started back in April after my second LETAS event in France when I had aching and shooting pains in and around my elbow joint. As soon as I got home I went to see my doctor who gave me the option of physio treatment or an MRI scan. I choose to see my physio who treated me for “tennis/golfers elbow”
After 5 weeks out I went back to compete at an event in Sweden, which proved this injury was more than what I first thought. I came home after 1 round, having to withdraw from the event. Once back home I thought I would go and see my doctor again. This time he sent me to an orthopedic surgeon, in my home town of Bolton, who proceeded to tell me that he thought I had a joint problem and not “tennis/golfers elbow” I had a CT arthogram scan but this showed nothing unusual in the joint.
By now it had been around 3 months and no one could find out what was happening. In this time my arms felt like they were getting worse and aching more and more. I started to struggle with simple day to day tasks such as brushing my hair, squeezing a shampoo bottle, putting petrol in my car and writing. I started to get extremely frustrated that nobody could give me an answer and I was unable to play golf because of my injury.
Around one month ago now I had a consultation with a specialist physio who is a friend of my Dad’s. I was reaching out for more opinions and simply someone who could give me an answer. Stuart was able to tell me something totally new. All my aches and pains where because of my shoulder positioning causing tension in my back and neck which had an effect on my arms, partially cutting the blood flow off down my arms.
I am now being treated by Stuart intensely every week. I have acupuncture along with other treatments and am feeling more positive that I’ll be back hitting balls again soon.
There is no real time frame to say when I will be back playing or competing, it all depends how my body reacts to the treatments and how fast it can recover. My plan is to be back fully fit for next season playing on the LETAS. I am really looking forward to getting back!
That’s all for now!
Kelly xx

EDITOR AGAIN: How sad a start to her pro career for Kelly.
Here's hoping she turns the injury corner in 2014.

WORLD NO 2 GIRL AMATEUR SU-HYUN OH WINS VICTORIAN GIRLS TITLE

World No 2 female amateur Su-Hyun Oh, South Korean-born, Melbourne-based teenger, has won the Victorian girls' amateur championship Kingston Heath Golf Club.

It was Oh's second successive win in the tournament.
The 17-year-old beat Minjee Lee 3 and 2.
Oh was the leading qualifier for the match-play stages of this year's Ladies British Open Amateur Championship at Machynys GC, South Wales but lost in the second round, by 5 and 3, to Lisa Maguire (Slieve Russell).
At 12, Oh, pictured by Cal Carson Golf Agency at Machynys last June, was the youngest player to qualify for the women's Australian Open. Earlier this year, she tied for second at the 2013 Australian Ladies Masters and has also been in the US for recent tournaments.
''I had to get used to competing at a young age and the competitiveness that comes along with it,'' said Oh. ''I wasn't used to it but it was a great experience to prepare me for now.''
Next up for Oh is the  Australia amateur championships to be held in South Australia from January 14-19.
Oh aims to turn pro with the aim ''to be the best in the world''.

PUT A SPRING IN YOUR GOLFING STEP FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR

              FLY OUT MARCH 1. FLY HOME MARCH 8   

BETWEEN THESE DATES WAITING FOR YOU TO ENJOY IS  AN AFRICAN GOLF HOLIDAY PAR EXCELLENCE


TO VIEW ALL THE DETAILS ABOUT THE TUNISIA GOLF FESTIVAL

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SHANNON AUBERT WINS DIXIE WOMEN'S AMATEUR PLAY-OFF IN FLORIDA

         Shannon Aubert with the Dixie Women's Amateur Championship trophy

 FROM THE TOURNAMENT WEBSITE

CORAL  SPRINGS (Florida) – In a period of less than 20 minutes, Shannon Aubert went from dejection to elation in the final round of the women’s Dixie Amateur at Heron Bay Golf Club. 

On the 72^nd hole, playing partner Simin Feng chipped in for birdie to tie the third-round leader and force a sudden-death playoff.

But Feng missed a five-footer to halve the first hole of the playoff after Aubert made a clutch putt to save par.

“I told her that was cruel what she did to me,” said France’s Aubert, who watched in disbelief as Feng chipped in on 18 from 50 feet to force the extra hole.

Nicole Morales, who finished third, drove into the hazard on the last hole of regulation, took a drop and still made par but missed the playoff by a shot.

Aubert started the day with a three-shot lead but at one point found herself one shot back. Birdies on 10, 12 and 13 put her back in the lead going into the final holes.

“I was a bit nervous and it showed on my drive on 16,” she said after friends drenched her with water in celebration of her victory. She made a saving par there but a bogey on 17 after another poor drive put her in a tie with Feng.

“I was three back with five to play,” said Feng, who closed with a 68 and final total of 280 (Aubert shot 71). “I’m not displeased at all. In fact I’m happy where I am now especially after coming back to tie.”  On the first playoff hole, Feng had a similar chip to the one she made 20 minutes earlier but this one ran five feet past the cup. She said it was an easy chip and if there was any disappointment, it was because she left herself with such a long putt coming back.

Defending champion Isabelle Lendl never got much going even with her famous father, tennis champion Ivan walking with her group.
 Lendl, a University of Florida senior, closed with a 74 to finish tenth alone.

Even though the wind was strong again, 17 players broke par in the final round.
LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Par 288 (4x72)
280 Shannon Aubert (France) 68 70 71 71, Simin Feng 72 71 69 68 (Aubert won play-off at first extra hole)
281 Nicole Morales 70 68 73 69
284 Mathilda Cappeliez 74 72 70 68, Marian Stackhouse 69 72 72 71

SELECTED OTHER TOTALS
287 Meghan Stasi 69 73 72 73 (T7)
289 Isabelle Lendl 69 73 73 74 (10th)
299 Mariana Sims 66 78 75 80 (T23)
300 India Clyburn (England) 79 74 75 72 (T27)

TO VIEW ALL THE SCORES

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WIZARD FROM OZ THINKS SHE WAS MISUNDERSTOOD EARLY IN HER CAREER

LOOKING BACK ON THE LIFE OF KARRIE WEBB ON HER 39th BIRTHDAY

FROM GOLFWEEK WEBSITE
 By Beth Ann Baldry
 Follow Me: Twitter @Golfweek_Baldry
BOYNTON BEACH, Florida -- Karrie Webb untied her boat from the dock at Two Georges restaurant and took a short spin for the camera. The radar indicated we had time, but the dark and menacing sky suggested otherwise. 

Captain Webb pointed her spotless 32-foot Intrepid south down the Intracoastal Waterway toward Delray Beach and tried to outrun the rain.
“I wouldn’t have picked you up in my boat 10 years ago,” said Webb, who since the beginning of her Hall of Fame career has preferred that her clubs tell the story. Good friend Beth Daniel went a step further, saying Webb probably wouldn’t have agreed to it even three years ago.
“She still is very restricted when it comes to the media,” said Daniel, who noted that Webb once came home to find a photographer from her native Australia taking pictures of her house and was understandably upset.
Earlier that day, Webb had sidestepped a photo shoot at her home of 15 years (or even a drive-by in the boat), saying it was under construction. But as Webb’s walls began to come down over a plate of shrimp tacos at Deck 84, she later conceded that her house is always off-limits for interviews, regardless of the outdoor-kitchen renovations.
“I like to have something that’s separate from my public life,” she said.
Webb was preparing to close her 18th year on tour across the state at the CME Group Titleholders Championship in Naples. 2012 had marked the first time in Webb’s career that she hadn’t won a tournament anywhere in the world in a calendar year. But she ended that drought in February by winning the Volvik RACV Ladies Masters in her native Queensland, followed by the ShopRite LPGA Classic in June and the ISPS Handa Ladies
European Masters in late July.
Webb turns 39 on December 21 and, as the years tick by, her magnificent, steadfast career seemingly is among the LPGA’s most underrated.  
Perhaps, in part, because of the fact that at her core, she’s still a simple girl from Ayr, a farming town of about 9,000 in Queensland, who doesn’t understand why people need to know so much about her.
Webb believes it’s tough for any young star to be naturally open about who she is with the media and be completely comfortable with the attention.
“I also grew up looking up to Greg Norman,” Webb said, “and when he came back to Australia the media crucified him for one thing or another.”
After Webb watched Norman play in the 1986 Queensland Open, she told her parents that she wanted to play professionally. A shy, wide-eyed Webb even stayed at Norman’s Florida estate as a bonus for being the overall girls champion in his junior golf foundation. The experience furthered the dream.
Webb is the winningest active player on the LPGA, with 39 victories. Her seven major championships rank seventh, with Juli Inkster. Webb’s most recent major victory came in 2006 at the Kraft Nabisco Championship, and her boat, Ayr Waves II, was purchased as a reward.
Webb’s classic swing came naturally but was helped along by Kelvin Haller, who began teaching her at age 8. When Webb was only 16, Haller walked into a hospital for treatment, left as a quadriplegic and never walked again. It wasn’t until Webb turned 36 that she realized how young Haller was in 1990.
“I think everyone’s reaction is, when you lose the ability to walk that you’d rather be dead,” Webb said.
But Haller’s determination to continue on and flourish – he still teaches golf to kids on a soccer field in Ayr and has four grandchildren – has inspired Webb for decades. A longtime supporter of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, Webb still works with Haller by video and spent time with him at home in Australia before playing in Japan last month.
Because Haller can’t travel, Ian Triggs has served as Webb’s touring coach for the last 10 years. Triggs even offered to be a silent partner, knowing the special bond Webb has with Haller.
“She grew up in an era where, because of equipment, you didn’t have to be a shotmaker and she was and she is, even today,” Daniel said. “You don’t see many shotmakers in her generation.”
Meg Mallon was paired often with Webb when the Aussie first came to the U.S. and was struck by how hard she swung her arms while walking down the fairway.
“She was so excited to get to the next golf shot,” Mallon said.
Webb, dressed casually in a Miami Dolphins long-sleeved T-shirt and jean shorts as she navigates her boat down the Intracoastal, is as loyal as they come. She has had Dolphins season tickets since 1999 and the same caddie, Mike “Mikey” Patterson, for 13 years. 
When Mallon’s sister, Tricia, died in 2009, Webb called constantly.
“She's the kind of friend that you would always hope you’d have,” Mallon said.
Webb’s success on tour came early and fast. She was the rookie of the year in 1996, winning four times to become the first LPGA player to surpass $1 million in a season. With Annika Sorenstam’s breakout season one year earlier, the media pushed for a rivalry.
The players weren’t having it.
“I didn’t want to be a part of the whole rivalry thing because I knew that would create a good guy/bad guy scenario,” Webb said. “I knew how I’d get painted, and I didn’t want to be that.”
How would she have been painted?
“I would’ve been the bad guy,” Webb said. “I didn’t see myself that way, so I wasn’t going to allow that to happen.”
What drove Mallon crazy was that Webb and Sorenstam never seemed to play well at the same majors. They just took turns winning.
Mallon, a late bloomer in comparison, names three players who, in her tenure on tour, stood above all when playing at their best: Laura Davies, Daniel and Webb.
Webb said she and Sorenstam were criticised in their prime for being too shy. When a fellow player said Webb didn’t have the personality that the tour needed, Webb said she was asked about that player’s comments for the next 12 months.
“Annika changed who she was,” Webb said, “but I didn’t feel like I needed to compromise who I was as a person, because I knew who I was.”
Webb thinks she was misunderstood early in her career, chalking it up to the way she delivered sarcasm with a straight face.
“I’ve just learned to deliver that with a smile now, and everyone thinks I’m hilarious,” she said, smiling.
Webb secretly doesn’t mind that many believe her practice sessions are too intense to disrupt. She tells young Aussie players otherwise, but takes advantage of the opportunity to have uninterrupted quality practice.
“Apparently I have quite strong body language,” she said. “But it’s quite helpful, too.”
Webb qualified for the Hall of Fame in 2000 on points but was not eligible until she completed 10 seasons on tour. Looking back, Webb wishes the person she is now could have another go at many of the opportunities that came her way early on.
“I would’ve enjoyed them a lot more than I did then,” she said.
With so many of her contemporaries now retired, Webb finds her circle of friends increasingly young. Alison Walshe, 28, is a frequent practice partner in south Florida and likes to say she has an undefeated record against a Hall of Famer. Never mind that all those wins against Webb came outside of a proper tournament.
“I think she’s completely opposite from how she appears on the range or the golf course,” Walshe said. “Super laid back, so much fun.”
Since 2008, Webb has invited the top two points earners from her Australian amateur series to stay in a house with her during the U.S. Women’s Open. 
She wishes she had done something like that sooner but realizes that a younger Webb wouldn’t have been as giving of herself and certainly wouldn’t have picked U.S. Women’s Open week.
“Until I started this Karrie Webb Series, I guess I didn’t really know I had a lot to give,” Webb said. “I really enjoy now that players feel like they can ask me for advice and talk to me.”
A hard-working Webb said she will reassess her career after the 2016 Olympics. She isn’t keen on the word retire, but she can see herself slowing down. Not yet 40 but closing in on two decades of professional golf, Webb, an LPGA board member, has embraced her role as a mentor and leader, but ultimately wants her legacy to come from inside the ropes.
“At the end of my career, I want to be respected for how I played the game and what I achieved on the course,” she said.
A lasting legacy, indeed.