this weekend’s Pac-12 women’s golf championships

“It’s tremendously important,” Jones said. “We’ve been looking forward to this event since the day it was booked. We’re looking forward to having the other Pac-12 schools to see what we have up here in Pullman. Hopefully they like it, because we do.”

Kamimura said the course lends itself to shorter drives during the spring, but it can be easier to hit greens, too.

For Washington State, it’s a chance to continue building. The Cougars enter the weekend ranked 11th in the conference, though they carded a season-low round score of 291 in the third round of Ping G20 fairway wood last week’s Pacific Coast Intercollegiate at Half Moon Bay.

That day, freshman Kristen Rue shot a season-best 5-under 67, and WSU sophomore Mallory Kent, the team’s No. 1 player, finished in 36th place with a 3-day total of 222.

Saturday and Sunday pairings and tee times will be determined based on today and Saturday’s order of finish.

WSU has been playing Palouse Ridge often in recent days, though conditions may be a bit rougher today than earlier in the week. Weather.com calls for a mix of rain and snow showers early today, with an eventual high temperature of 50 degrees.

Kent has already taken several steps forward. As a freshman, she averaged a shade over 79 per round, admitting that she wasn’t as focused during practice as she needed to be.

“You lose a little distance, but the greens are more receptive to some wedge shots and approach shots coming in,” Kamimura said.

Saturday and Sunday pairings and Ping K15 Irons tee times will be determined based on today and Saturday’s order of finish.

“I feel like I’ve really gone to another level this year,” Kent said. “My practices have been a lot different, my mental game I feel like has really taken a step up this year.

“Just a different focus – having really a main focus every time I go out instead of just going out to hit and mess around.”

Eleven teams will descend on discount golf clubs the course this weekend – Utah doesn’t have a team – beginning this morning at 8:30 a.m., when pairings from Washington State and Arizona State tee off on the first hole.

The general manager at the course knows it’s a pretty big deal, especially considering that seven of the participating teams are ranked in the nation’s top 25 by GolfStat – including No. 1 UCLA and its top-ranked player, Erynne Lee.

This season she’s been WSU’s best player, averaging just over 76 per round, and winning the Anteater Invitational earlier this month. That tournament also marked WSU’s first team championship.

Matt Every leaded Texas Open

"I see the same guys tinkering with their swings, and they spend all day Tuesday and Wednesday practicing, and I think, 'God, I'm glad I'm not one of these guys,'" Every said. "And I'm sticking to that. When I get on the course, I'm more interested in playing golf than my golf swing."

Matt Kuchar, the tournament's top-ranked player at No. 15 and two weeks removed form his near miss at the Masters, closed with a bogey on the par-4 ninth for a 70. Johnson Wagner had a 74 after speaking optimistically about taking advantage of the absence of star players in the field.

"Told her, only wanted her to go to discount golf clubs nine today," Every said. "Said she had to keep going after the front nine. It's cool."
Haas finished with one of the round's three eagles on the par-5 18th. Former British Open champion Ben Curtis, playing in his fourth PGA Tour event of the season after his status on the entry list plummeted near the bottom, was fourth strokes back at 67.

Every, whose best finish in six years on the tour is third, coasted to his first lead since sharing the top spot entering the final round of the Sony Open in January. His wife, who is seven months pregnant, followed him for the entirety of a the record that broke the course mark of 64 set by Ryan Palmer and Scott Piercy in 2010.

Fredrik Jacobson, Cameron Beckman, Jason Gore, Troy Matteson and Derek Lamely shot 68.

Every was more at ease with his Taylormade R11 irons front-runner status than the last time in Honolulu. There he looked uncomfortable while being asked about his arrest on a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge in 2010 that resulted in a PGA Tour suspension his rookie season. He also attributed a tough night of sleep there to what he described as his first real time in contention.

"It's nice to finish a round like that. It's been a while," Haas said.

Defending champion Brendan Steele had a 73. He made a double bogey on the par-4 fourth.

The other star of last year's Texas Open didn't even make it past the first round. Kevin Na, who returned to San Antonio poking fun at his memorable 16 on No. 9, tapped in a 6-footer for par this time, but withdrew after signing his card at 7 over.

After his round Thursday, a PGA Tour spokesman cautioned reporters that Every sometimes doesn't ease into interviews as easily as other players. But the 28-year-old former Florida star was candid and carefree while discussing his love for the band Oasis and naming his first son Liam.

Haas shot a bogey-free round capped Taylormade R11 driver by a brilliant approach on No. 18, driving a 3-wood from the fairway to 5 feet. He has struggled this season, missing the cut six times and finishing no better than a tie for 37th in Mexico at the Mayakoba Golf Classic.

He only casually mentioned ditching his swing instructor two weeks ago and that he "doesn't care anymore" whether his feet or toes lift off the ground when he swings.

Payne should have done more

The club was given the cultural equal of a conceded putt this season after i.B.M., one of several tournament's three corporate sponsors, together with Exxon Mobil and AT&T, chose Virginia M. Rometty becasue it is new us president. The company's four previous chief executives had been extended a golf club membership, so a precedent had been set. It was Augusta National's chance to integrate its private men's club, not on the reason for a bayonet as Payne's predecessor, Hootie Johnson, so colorfully place it in 2003, but really should be course.

We desire to get it rebuilt and up and running in the end for the day, Payne said.

A restroom may be repaired Taylormade R11 driver in a day, but an organization founded in 1933 about the bedrock of segregation is actually not easily rebuilt ?a or even touched. Before opening the floor for questions, Payne delivered a gap statement, from notes, by which he acknowledged how the sport's stagnant growth can be a major concern.

To produce golf more desirable with a younger demographic, the club already has built a course in which juniors gain free admission to the tournament and taken part in the development of a golf computer game.

At that moment, Payne's next breath seemed pregnant with possibilities. Was he going to disclose that Rometty would be a candidate for membership? That Condoleezza Rice has become a member for many years ?a or Louise Suggs, among the L.P.G.A. founders plus a friend and occasional golf partner of Bobby Jones?

Wishful thinking, mainly because it proved.

A few momemts in the question-and-answer area of the news conference, a reporter had a thought in what the club could do. Payne had already answered two questions about the all-male membership, including one about Rometty by which he known as her as a named candidate, which has been more Mizuno MP-69 Irons revealing than perhaps Payne intended.

Payne's stock reaction to membership questions is the fact that such issues are and possess historically been an exclusive matter.

Already it had been probably the most contentious state-of-the-Masters address in recent years. And Payne wasn't out from the woods. Industry experts Payne how he'd tell his granddaughters he leads an organization that doesn't include women as members.

Locked on autopilot, he replied, I think that's an issue that are responsible for membership. I disagreed, saying, It's a kitchen-table question, an individual question. Which has a forced laugh, Payne replied, Well, my conversations with my granddaughters may also be private.

He was squirming just like a cornered animal. Immediately, Payne should have had some idea how awkward it is to be Rometty kinds in I.B.M. management looking to explain its Masters ties to its female employees. Or Tim Finchem, the PGA Tour commissioner, who's to warrant why the tour is discount golf clubs constantly recognize the Masters as a possible official event despite its mandate that its tournaments take place at clubs with nondiscriminatory membership practices.

There have been more questions about the practice facility and the Masters' Site and dirt balls. A reporter asked Payne what however suggest he tell his or her own daughters about why they aren't here you are at become members at the most prestigious golf-club in the united kingdom

More and more criticism on golf course

Vinh said people had their top reasons to protest the creation of courses. However, the federal government has produced a determination to prevent the creation of the "problematic" golf courses.

"Golf courses is going to be only in a position to develop on sandy or fallow land, barren hills and in places where have fantastic potentials to build up tourism," said Vinh.

"Golf is blamed when planning on taking arable land, making farmers jobless, and threatening national food security... However, the existing situation is a thing different," said Hoang Ngoc Phong, deputy Titleist 712 AP1 Irons head with the MPI's Institute for Development Strategies.

Phong said inside master plan for growth and development of golf courses by 2020, Viet Nam could have 90 golf courses in 34 cities and provinces, each covering around 71 ha, mainly on infertile land.

According to MPI's figures, the total land area reserved for the 90 golf courses reaches 6,300ha, including 2 per cent of rice fields. No land that grows two-crops of rice a year has become reserve for courses, it claims.

In another online dialogue with the public on March 22, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cao Duc Phat, affirmed that land for agricultural production was lost to projects like courses and industrial parks.

"Bad programming is always to blame," said Vinh.

However , the course developers have experimented with use the land area allocated to the the game projects for doing Ping G20 irons property business. Therefore, the concept of developing a new form of sports to satisfy the need for tourists and foreign investors may be exploited legitimate estate trading.

Vinh said that within the time, relevant agencies may not only look at the licensed courses, but in addition take tough measures against the game projects that had been transformed into real estate property projects.

He considered that while using new strict regulations, greens projects would be "cleaner" as well as in due length of time, "vindicated".

What this all means is still not very clear, because provincial authorities are actually sending repeated requests for the Government for establishing more courses in their localities. Based on the MPI, documents on 28 golf course projects are already shipped to the ministry.

"There could be no common response to all suggested golf course projects. The federal government will consider every project prior to making a determination, while the MPI will take responsibility for examining the projects' feasibility," said Vinh.

"Golf courses are not liable themselves. Should they be set up in the best positions, they might be capable of bring lots of benefits to people, since they can help attract tourists, create jobs and upgrade the living standards of individuals."

"Golf can be a game for everybody, regardless of age. Presently you will find 7,000 to eight,000 Vietnamese golf players discount golf clubs in the nation," Phong told the Vietnam Investment Review.

The current dialogues failed to address social and environmental problems due to golf courses, like the use of fertilisers and pesticides and the contamination of groundwater resources, in any detail.