Girls Just Wanna Have ... Birdies

USGA spelled out in the flowers!

Some girls want to get flowers. But the girls I was hanging out with today want to get birdies and will settle for par.

Our company's golf course – SentryWorld – is hosting the 71st U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship now through Saturday. What is it and why is it a big deal? It features the best female amateur players under the age of 19 from around the globe. (Even some 12-year-olds competing!) The winner earns an exemption into the following year’s U.S. Women’s Open. The USGA chose SentryWorld as the first course in Wisconsin to host this prestigious event! So yeah, it's pretty cool.

There were practice rounds this weekend but the official rounds started today with stroke play. And Robyn's 4 rounds of volunteer shifts also started today!

Reported for duty at 6:45 a.m. for Volunteering Round 1. Yes, I was wearing the jacket that came with our "uniform" since the temp was in the 50s. It ended up being a mild, mid-70s kind of day.

For my Round 1, I was a "walking scorer." So I tagged along with a group of three girls and kept score, input it into a iPad type tablet so they could be posted on the electronic leaderboard. The girls still keep their official score but just like every other golf tournament of this level, people want to know who's leading as the rounds go on.

So I finished walking 18 holes with a group representing some southern U.S. states, and grabbed a quick bite to eat before Volunteering Round 2 – walking another 18 with a group that included girls from Colombia and China. They aren't kidding when they say this is global!

It would be cool if one of the girls from my morning and afternoon rounds would take home this trophy. Right now there a lot of others boasting better scores but that was just day one. And it should not diminish how we view their talent. They are crazy good! Can't believe the drives that come out of these pint-sized girls! Neat stuff to watch and be a part of.

Tomorrow I'll be forecaddying (spotting balls that land off the fairway, etc) in the morning, then walking 18 holes with a group in the afternoon. Then it's back to the office Wednesday through Friday, with occasional walks across the street to see what's happening in the tourney. I'll my good camera those days.

The cool thing is that you can come watch. For FREE! Stop in any time this week basically from 7 a.m. to about 6 p.m. or so. You could see a future star or two.

Past U.S. Girls’ champions include Hollis Stacy, winner of four major championships; Nancy Lopez, who won 48 LPGA Tour events over the course of her legendary career, including three major championships; and four-time U.S. Women's Open champion Mickey Wright. Current stars who won the championship include Inbee Park (2002), Lexi Thompson (2008), Ariya Jutanugarn (2011), and Minjee Lee (2012). So who knows?

You probably won't get the chance to see this level of talent among teenage girls at such a convenient location. (For most of you, anyway.) Stop by.

If nothing else, you get to see a gorgeous golf course that I now know how it's supposed to be played. Too late for me to be a talented teen, that's for sure!