Hi Everyone

What a week last week! I went up to Chicago last week to the Solheim Cup to be Meg Mallon's cart driver for the weekend. When I agreed to help Meg out I didn't realize how much work it was going to be!! So I have arrived in Portland for this week's tournament a little tired.....but totally worth it. With Meg being such a good friend of mine, I was glad that I was there to help her out anyway I could. Being a cart driver for 12 hours a day felt like a continuous traffic jam! Trying to get Meg to where she needed to be, quickly, was a real challenge. I think by the end of the week, I had worked out some short cuts to get her there as fast as possible. Also I managed to not lose any of the 10 players and caddies that I was carrying around at some stages and all the spectators made it out unscathed!!

The Solheim Cup itself was as exciting as ever. Both teams played extremely well and through the middle of Sunday afternoon it looked like either team could to win. I think the difference was that the Americans stepped up at a crucial time and hit the shots and made the putts that they needed to, to win. I also think that the pro-American crowd helped inspire the girls to pull it out. If they had been playing in Europe it could have gone the other way. In the end the 16-12 scoreline wasn't really indicative as to how close the matches really were.  For Captain Beth Daniel and her two vice captains, Kelly Robbins and Meg, it was two years of hard work and organization. They are all great friends of mine, so I was very happy for them.

So the good news for the week was that my good friends led the US team to a victory! The bad news.....ohhh I am still trying to digest it and get over it......was that the Aussie cricket team lost to England in the deciding Ashes test!!! So 2 years of absolute torture from Laura Davies and any of the Englishmen out on tour! I have been busily collecting all my bets from the State of Origin, so that I can pay Laura and a couple others the money I have lost to them over the Ashes. Also to top off a bad weekend for Aussie sport, the Australian Rugby team lost the Bledisoe Cup to the New Zealand All Blacks!! So not only do I have the Pommies sprouting off, I have the Kiwis in my ear as well! That wasn't as much of an upset as the Ashes loss, so I can take that one a bit easier.

So as for this week, we are playing a different course out here in Portland. After many years of playing at Columbia Edgewater C.C we have moved out to Pumpkin Ridge (Ghost Course) for this year's event. The course is in good shape and is fairly similar to the other course (Witch Hollow) that we have played a couple of US Opens on. I have been practicing the last couple of days and I am looking forward to getting started on Friday. I have my coach Ian Triggs here again which is good to get me going after 3 weeks off. Things feel pretty good, so I am hoping I can take up where I left off at the British Open. The weather is supposed to be really good out here for the week. I just love Portland. I'm sure it's not so great in the middle of winter, but it is always absolutely beautiful out here when we play at this time of the year.

So that's it for the week. Let's hope for lots of birdies and a great tourney!!

Karrie

Paula and I goofing around after Paula was avoiding the volunteer cart driver (Me)