July 23, 2010
Well hello New Mexico Lobos! This is Britney Choy blogging to you about my adventures of traveling throughout the summer. I recently finished my eligibility on the Women’s Golf team this past spring after helping my team finish another successful season. I am now a professional golfer, yet still a student as I am looking forward to graduating in December with a degree in Public Relations and a minor in Psychology.
After Nationals, I didn’t take any time to settle down and relax. Instead, I decided to be bold and take a six-hour road trip (the longest drive I ever completed alone) north to Colorado to play in two tournaments (7 rounds of golf in six days) and make my debut as a professional golfer. Well, I ended up driving to Loveland, Colorado so technically that’s eight hours of driving. I went to Loveland a few days before the tournaments to hang out with my fellow teammate, Bethany Buchner. My stay with the Buchners was enjoyable. Not only did we play golf, but I got to wakeboard for the first time and I was better than I thought I’d be. I guess my ocean upbringing in Hawaii helped me because I was able to get up and cruise along the lake.
After Loveland, I made my way to Colorado Springs for the U.S. Women’s Open Qualifier at The Broadmoor Golf Club. There, I met up with Albuquerque natives, LPGA Golfer and my roommate, Katie Kempter for our practice round as well as finding our house that we were going to stay at. Well, when we arrived at the house, it looked more like a castle from the outside and once inside, it felt like we were living during the medieval times. This place had knights in shining armor, giant steel iron eagles, Arabian carpets everywhere, mummy tombs in their home movie-theater, and giant paintings of 18th century people covering the walls. The owners of the castle were out of town so Katie, her caddy and I had the place all to our selves. We wandered around the house like little kids in a haunted house. Each room had its own uniqueness and eerie feeling to it. I was lucky enough to have the master bedroom, which was equipped with a giant bed in the middle of the room, a view of the Air Force Academy and the mountains, and a bathtub bigger than my bed in Albuquerque. It was an interesting stay in such a unique place and made for one of the most memorable homes I’ve been to in my travels.
I woke up bright and early the next morning for the tournament and prepared myself for 36-holes of golf. The U.S. Women’s Open Qualifier had a field of professionals and amateurs all vying for three spots to the U.S. Women’s Open in July at Oakmont Country Club in Pennsylvania. The Broadmoor course played tough as I had to walk and carry my own bag for 36-holes of golf in one day. I placed 13th out of 54 participants, but my performance wasn’t good enough to qualify me into the U.S. Women’s Open. There was no time to dwell on not qualifying because I had to drive to Denver soon after I was finished playing so I could wake up early the next morning to play my practice round for the Colorado Open. This was just the beginning of the week with lots of golf left to be played.