Putting carries Neumann, Doolan to lead
DELRAY BEACH — Liselotte Neumann and Wendy Doolan had more in common than sharing the lead at the Walgreens Charity Championship with matching 4-under 68 finishes Friday at Seagate Country Club: Hot putters.
Doolan went out early and posted rounds of 33-35, while Neumann carded four birdies in her first six holes before cooling off. The two will comprise the final pairing when the 36-hole LPGA Legends event wraps up today.
“The greens are good here, and if you hit the putt on line, it’s going to go in,” said Doolan, who has three top-10s but no wins in seven starts on the 45-and-over tour.
Added Neumann, “I putted so well on that front nine that it put me in position where I could afford a couple of mistakes.”
Doolan, an Aussie, and Neumann, a Swede, will be teammates when the World takes on the U.S. in the annual Handa Cup matches, a stroke-play team event, next weekend in Sarasota.
“I like playing with Wendy,” Neumann said. “She hits the ball quite far. I used my 3-wood quite a lot today, so I’m not sure if she’ll go with driver and be aggressive. There’s a little trouble off the tee, so she might lay back.”
Trouble was the watchword for many of the big names in the event. Defending champion Meg Mallon failed to make a birdie and finished 10 shots back at 6 over. Stuart’s Laurie Rinker was one shot off the lead until she hooked her drive out of bounds at No. 18 and carded double bogey. A double bogey at No. 9 sent Beth Daniel, like Mallon a Delray Beach resident, to a 1-over finish.
Only eight players finished below par, among them Rosie Jones (2 under) and LPGA Tour regular Juli Inkster (1 under).
Neumann, 49, whose lone Legends victory came at Phoenix in 2014, sounded a common theme among competitors that the absence of competitive play makes playing at a high level a challenge.
“It’s hard to prepare, because when you don’t play competitively, it’s hard to do,” she said. “I knew I’d make some mistakes, because that’s what you do when you don’t compete week to week.”
The Legends Tour currently offers only seven events annually.
Other locals who distinguished themselves were Singer Island’s Michelle McGann, whose threeputt bogey at No. 18 was all that kept her from red numbers, and 10-time Palm Beach County Women’s Amateur champion Sue Cohn of Palm Beach Gardens, whose 3-over 75 matched playing partner Val Skinner.
Playing the event for the second consecutive year, Cohn said her nerves were no better.
“I may be even more (nervous), because I understand for me to be in a field with all these players, I kind of have to bang myself over the head.
“I mean, Jane Blalock saw me the other day and gave me a hug. I had a ponytail as a kid because Jane had one. These were my idols.”