There is no lack of young competitors in this week’s HealthOne Colorado Women’s Open. Several of the amateurs are still in high school, many others are in college, and there are a lot of 20-something professionals.
But at the top of the leaderboard after Wednesday’s first round at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club is a veteran who has been playing high-level competitive golf since before many of her fellow players were born. And the highlight of the day came from 70-year-old Jody Conradt, the second-winningest coach in the history of Division I women’s college basketball.
Conradt, the pro-am partner of professional Lisa DePaulo, made a hole-in-one at the 136-yard eighth hole — her 17th — while Dede Cusimano, a 51-year-old teaching professional at the Roaring Fork Club in Basalt, was one of just two players to break 70 on Wednesday. Cusimano shot a 3-under-par 69 and shares the lead with Phoenix-based pro Whitney Myers, a 26-year-old who plays on the LPGA Futures Tour.
“I”˜m 16 days away from my 52nd birthday; I think I’m the oldest in the field, darn near,” Cusimano said. “I can be the mother of a lot of these kids out here.”
As for Conradt, her ace with a 6-hybrid not only was the first of her lifetime, but it earned her two crisp $100 bills — one each from Cindy Figg-Currier and DePaulo, who both played golf at the University of Texas, where Conradt coached basketball for 30 years, ending a career that included 900 victories.
“Cindy Figg has always said if I get a hole-in-one she’s going to give me $100,” said Conradt, a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. “That was the best part of it because it’s hard to get money off of her. “¦ This makes me a pro, right?”
Said Figg-Currier, who has won once on the LPGA Tour: “I usually have to see (the ace), but I told her since she was whining about her game I’d give her $100 if I’m not even there.”
DePaulo noted that Conradt, when selecting a club for her hole-in-one, said, ‘I haven’t hit the one with the pink headcover on it today; I’ll hit that,’ and she hits it into the hole.”
With her handicap, Conradt carded a net zero on the hole for the pro-am competition. But while she was happy to get the cash bonus from DePaulo and Figg-Currier, she noted she was hoping for something more.
“I figure you only have one (hole-in-one) in your lifetime — maybe — and I wanted it to be when there was a car (awarded to the player) on the line,” she said with a laugh.
As for the championship competition at the Colorado Women’s Open, Kelly Jacques, who grew up in Longmont and is living in Thornton this summer, is among those who broke par, at 71, despite finishing bogey-bogey. Also at that figure is amateur Katie Keiser of Gothenberg, Neb. Denver pro Erin Houtsma, the 2005 champion, opened with a 73, good for sixth place in her first tournament after giving birth on March 17.
Figg-Currier bogeyed three of her last five holes to also shoot 73. Charlotta Sorenstam, like Figg-Currier a winner of one LPGA Tour event, opened with a 77 on a day that only four players broke par.
Cusimano, the 2007 runner-up in the Colorado Women’s Open, used her experience and strong play to card five birdies in the first round.
“I played extremely well,” she said. “I felt really comfortable this morning. I putted really well also. The golf course is in phenomenal shape. The greens are rolling very nice. I just have a comfortable feeling on this golf course.”
Cusimano doesn’t play a lot of tournament golf — she said her next event will be in late August — but she usually makes the most of the opportunity when she does compete. She’s won the last two senior titles at the LPGA Teaching and Club Professionals National Championship, and she also captured the open division of the same tournament in 2003.
In addition, Cusimano has competed in six women’s major championships — four LPGA Championships and two U.S. Women’s Opens — and made the cut in those events twice.
Cusimano just returned to Colorado after her winter gig in La Quinta, Calif., and last month she won the senior division of the LPGA Central Section Championship in Marana, Ariz.
“That tournament kind of got me warmed up for this one,” she said. “But I just got back up here (to Colorado), and the weather has been so poor up there (in Basalt). To hit balls in the snow is kind of difficult.”
Jacques likewise just returned to Colorado from warmer climes — in her case Pompano Beach, Fla. And like Cusimano, the two-time Colorado state high school champion was in good form on Wednesday, hitting 17 greens in regulation and not making a bogey until her 17th hole.
“It was a lot of fun, and it’s nice to be back in competition,” said Jacques, who has played in two LPGA Futures Tour evens this year. “I absolutely love this tournament (she placed third as an amateur in 2007). I feel comfortable here. It’s a great course and it’s a precision course — especially some of the holes coming in — which I like. I did a really good job completely committing today to my target. If I can do that each day from here on out , then I’ll be happy with wherever I finish. Hopefully it’s at the top — that’s always nice.”
Jacques is hoping she makes enough money this week in the Colorado Women’s Open that she can play most of the remaining Futures Tour events this year.
“I have full status, so it’s not a status issue,” she noted.
To make ends meet, Jacques said she may caddie over the summer at Cherry Hills Country Club. “It’s a good little gig for a professional golfer,” said Jacques, who turned pro three years ago.
Professionals have their eyes set on the $11,000 first prize this week. After Thursday’s second round, the field will be cut to roughly the low 45 competitors in the championship field.
