Mendoza Gets Off To Record-Breaking Start In Connecticut

On Thursday evening, Gerina Mendoza was throwing out the first pitch and hitting infield wedge shots at a New Britain Rock Cats' minor-league baseball game. On Friday, the third-year pro was all business when she came out firing at flagsticks to snag the opening-round lead of the $100,000 ING New England Golf Classic at Bloomfield, Connecticut
Mendoza set a tournament record 18-hole score of 8-under 62 at Wintonbury Hills Golf Course to take a three-shot lead into Saturday's second round. The previous 18-hole tournament record of 63 was set in the second round last year by Alison Walshe of Westford, Mass.
Mendoza leads rookie Amelia Lewis of Jacksonville, Florida, Jenny Gleason of Clearwater, Florida, and Benedikte Grotvedt of Nesbru, Norway, all tied for second at 5-under 65 on the par-70 Pete Dye design tucked in the rolling suburbs of Hartford.
"My putter was really good today and my length helps me, for sure," said Mendoza of Roswell, N.M., who has posted five top-10 finishes in 11 events this season and is still looking for her first win on the Duramed FUTURES Tour. "It's a lot easier to hit it close when you have wedges in your hands."
Mendoza recorded three birdies on the front, all from 15 or more feet, and then added five more birdies on the back in her bogey-free round. She even saved par on the 11th hole from around 35 feet after hitting her tee shot into a bunker, executing a poor chip, and leaving herself with a tester to get up and down. But by the 18th hole, she had dialed in her approach shot to three feet, making her job with the flat stick a lot easier.
"I kept telling myself, 'You're a great putter and anything's possible,'" said Mendoza, a typical bomber off the tee, who hit 15 greens in regulation today and needed only 24 putts. "This is the best I've ever putted."
Lewis, who turned pro in April after one semester at the University of Florida, also turned in a bogey-free round that featured two birdies on the front and three birdies on the back. The Floridian had two 20-footers and a pair of 30-footers, with a chip-in birdie from 25 yards on the fourth hole. She hit only eight greens in regulation, but recorded only 21 putts for her scrambling 65 and a share of second.
"My putting has been awful to this point, so I switched putters on Wednesday afternoon," said Lewis, who credited her new YES! Golf "Gina" model of putter in today's performance. "I never change my equipment, but I was fed up. It was confidence that I was lacking and I just needed to reboot."
Normally one of the Tour's best putters, Gleason recorded six birdies and one bogey in this afternoon's tee times. And with the wind kicking up in the afternoon, the veteran pro knew she had to get it done on the greens today.
"After playing the [U.S. Women's] Open last week at Oakmont, it was nice to have some realistic birdie putts today and some good irons into greens," said Gleason. "The greens here are tricky, but this course is fun to play."
Grotvedt was in one of the last groups to finish this afternoon, but the tall Norwegian said she was excited to play in the wind today after spending the morning watching the British Open on TV and seeing how the men dealt with the extremely windy conditions abroad.
"I think it's fun when it's windy," said Grotvedt, who carded seven birdies, two bogeys and 25 putts today. "You need to shape shots and be creative. I really got into watching the British Open this morning before I came out here."
With swirling afternoon winds that required players to use from one to two extra clubs, Grotvedt said she just tried to ride the wind when she could and be smart in it when it was in her face. On the 159-yard par-three seventh hole, she landed her 9-iron to 10 feet and made her birdie putt.
"I'm pleased because this is my low score out here," said the third-year pro, who spent last week at home in Orlando, playing golf with friends on the Champions Tour.
Libby Smith of Essex Junction, Vermont, and rookie Jodi Ewart of North Yorkshire, England, are tied for fifth at 4-under 66. Six players are tied at 3-under 67.
A total of 26 players posted rounds under par, with 46 players carding rounds of even-par 70 or better on the hilly 6,087-yard course.
Weather: Partly sunny and humid with temperatures in the low 90s, with winds from 5-10 mph in the morning and from 12-15 mph in the afternoon.

Everything seems easier AFTER playing Oakmont ... 
The standing joke last week at the U.S. Women's Open Championship was that any golf would seem simple after a week at Oakmont Country Club. The tough and demanding old Oakmont course penalised players who couldn't hit fairways or read severely sloped greens rolling 14.5 on the Stimp meter during the week of the Open. It left more than a few bruised egos and rendered countless confidences hungry for the next week, anywhere.
"If we could just play Oakmont every Monday and Tuesday, then everything else would seem so simple," said Duramed FUTURES Tour member Libby Smith of Essex Junction, Vt., who carded a 4-under round of 66 in today's opening round of the ING New England Golf Classic for a share of fifth place. "For the first time in a week, I went after some pins."
"It was just a free-swinging day," added Meredith Duncan of Shreveport, Louisiana. "I hit the ball well today because it's a lot simpler and the fairways are pretty big.
Duncan and Smith both made the 36-hole cut at the US Women's Open, but both had to play extra holes on Saturday when their Friday rounds were rained out. Duncan played 32 holes on Saturday, while Smith played 36 holes. Duncan said that experience on a tough-playing course like Oakmont left her feeling "woozy" and "mentally whipped." Smith said she was so mentally exhausted from staying on her toes for 36 holes that she drank a Pepsi instead of water on her 15th hole.
But while both players respected Oakmont and feel privileged as golfers to have survived the 72-hole test on the world's fifth-most difficult golf course, both also said the timing of this week's tournament at the Pete-Dye designed Wintonbury Hills Golf Course was just right.
"Last week, I actually hip-bumped my USGA official after I made a 25-foot putt that I had to play as a 50-footer with a big left turn," laughed Duncan. "Today, wherever I went, the trouble didn't seem so bad."
Tiffany Joh of San Diego, who also played in last week's US Women's Open, said her ball striking in today's first round of the ING New England Golf Classic was better than last week, although her putting was equally lacking. Still, like Duncan and Smith, she felt more free to swing away.
"I guess anyone who has just played Oakmont feels that way," said Joh, who is currently tied for seventh at 3-under 67. "These fairways are so much wider than Oakmont and at least, I'm not going to be praying in a 'Church Pew' [the notorious and massive Oakmont bunker] this week."