Momentum is a fickle thing to find in a foursomes, or alternate shot, format. Teeing off every other hole, not hitting every approach shot, was a big challenge presented to Amy Yang and Mirim Lee.
“You know what, I was thinking about it, momentum, you're not playing full time. I think you try to be really focused when it's my turn to hit, making sure that I don't make a huge mistake and put pressure on her. We had so much fun, we played really solid,” Yang explained.
An example was on the 15th hole at Midland Country Club. Lee blasted a birdie look nine feet past the cup. She couldn’t look up at Yang, who went on to knock in the par look.
“She made a lot of putts,” Lee described Yang’s play.
As they laughed about it after the round, it was the closest the pair got to a bogey in their opening round 67 to sit near the top of the leaderboard. Lee credited Yang’s putting for how much fun she had.
Consistency might be even more difficult. Relying on your teammate to set you up for a strong opportunity, or looking to give your partner a chance to recover from an errant shot, can throw off a player’s routine. But Yang and Lee didn’t have that issue with their play in the opening round.
“We both hit it well today. Both made some mistakes here and there, but we really went well together. We saved really good pars and she gave me many chance to go for the birdie. It went really well,” Yang said.
Their give and take of strong play is similar to what they came into the week with, with Yang recording a pair of top 10s and Lee a pair of top 20s in their two events before the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational.
With the transition to fourball tomorrow, there’s no change in plans with how well they’ve been playing. Yang succinctly described their fourball plan for tomorrow.
“Just show up and enjoy.”
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