Gabby Woods is barely visable at the end of her first round of professional golf Thursday in the Kroger Queen City Championship at TPC River’s Bend.
Mark Huber | News Journal
LOVELAND — After doing some work on the practice green shortly after noon Thursday, Gabby Woods walked to the driving range at TPC River’s Bend on the first day of the Kroger Queen City Championship Presented By P&G.
She took a few swings, knocking the golf ball consistently 275-plus yards into the open green space.
Nothing different than any other golf tournament to this point.
Then it hit her. Hard.
“Putting I was fine,” she said in the darkness at the end of the day. “When I got to the range and started hitting, I told (caddie) Doug (Ledford) the blood was rushing through my arm. It probably wasn’t really, but I could feel it. My hand started shaking. I knew I could hit the shot I was trying to hit but I couldn’t calm down.
“It hit me. I actually got a little upset. It actually hit me at that point … where I was, what I was doing. I told Doug I just have to calm down for a minute, just let me stand here.”
Woods toured the layout in 4-over par 76, one stroke better than her round of 77 in qualifying Monday. While that 77 wasn’t good enough to earn a berth into the tournament, Woods gained entry via a sponsor’s exemption on Tuesday. On Wednesday, she decided to turn pro.
She started the day at 2:15 p.m., played the first nine in three hours and finished after dark. Only the video scoreboard and an ill-placed mobile lighting system provided visual help to the golfers who finished in the gloaming.
Tournament officials had the group behind Woods hit into them with the hopes of getting all 144 golfers finished for the day. That caused some tension among golfers.
“When I was in college, we’d get 36 holes in and our last hole was pretty dark,” Woods said. “If that (scoreboard) wasn’t on, we would have been in trouble. I felt a little rushed in the end, which I didn’t like.”
Woods bogeyed two of the first five holes, then posted her first professional birdie on No. 6. She followed that with a birdie on 8 to get to even par.
But she played the next four holes in 4-over before finishing with six straight pars.
“76 for my debut … I’m OK with that,” she said. “I can’t say I’m happy with but but for the first time, I’m fine. I missed a few putts, couldn’t get up and down in a few spots, had a couple hiccups.
“I think I shot the worst (score) that I could have today.”
But nerves weren’t really an issue as one might think.
“Once I got past, I’ll give it No. 3, it was just playing golf,” she said. “At the end of the day, I realized it was just playing golf. It was great. It was awesome.”
NOTEBOOK
• Woods introduction and first-ever tournament shot can be viewed on X (formerly Twitter) by going to the @wnjsports page.
• There were several Clinton County folks at the golf tournament to watch Woods play her first professional round.
• Michelle Lipka, the general manager at TPC River’s Bend, is the former Michelle Hutchins who grew up in New Vienna and attended East Clinton High School one year before moving to Kentucky. She is a member of the Clinton County Sports Hall of Fame.
