After leaving the practice green minutes before teeing off for the Sybase Match Play Championship’s Official Pro-Am, second-year Tour player Vicky Hurst explained why the practice area was so crowded and what may be the solution to success at Hamilton Farm this week. “The bunkers are tough and the greens are very undulating, so I think the key will be making the putts,” said Hurst.
She faced the Hamilton Farm Golf course for the first time during a practice round on Monday and Hurst spoke about the greens’ conditions and speed. “They weren’t super fast. I think downhill they were fast but going uphill they were kind of average. I think they’re going to speed them up a bit; when I was playing, they were in the middle of rolling them.”
Hurst holds a 37th seed for the tournament and is looking to bounce back after missing the cut at the Bell Micro LPGA Classic last week at RTJ Golf Trail at Magnolia Grove in Mobile, Ala. Hurst’s best finish for the year came at the HSBC Women’s Champions where she finished T7. She is coming off a strong rookie performance where she carded three top-10 finishes with her best finish coming at the LPGA Corning Classic where she finished T5.
When asked how Hamilton Farm compares to other courses she said, “I think it’s very well managed. It’s a really nice course for us and the Tour. We’ll see how it plays this week in competition but I’m really looking forward to playing on it again.”
The match-play format seems to be popular among many of the players, Hurst included. “I think this course is good for match play because I think some of the holes are very risk/reward, either go for it or lay back. I think with this course, it comes with a lot of strategy especially with match play.”
Momoko Ueda (21st) of Japan drew Hurst (37th) as her first round opponent in a random drawing held on Tuesday afternoon. The match-up offers one of the closer seeded pairings for first round play and should afford fans an exciting competition. Ueda and Hurst tee time is set for 11:36 a.m. tomorrow morning.