NW Arkansas Championship report

Ko takes back seat to ‘Fluff’

When Jim Furyk made his last putt two weeks ago at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2, he decided he would take the next week off and skip the PGA Travelers Championship in Cromwell, Conn.

His caddie, Mike "Fluff" Cowan, chose not to and instead carried the bag for Lydia Ko in the U.S. Women's Open at Pinehurst.

Ko, the No. 3 ranked woman in the Rolex rankings, has been without a full-time caddie since turning professional this season so Cowan, who also looped for Tiger Woods early in his career, handled bag duties.

Ko, 17, said Cowan had a rock-star presence during her Pinehurst stay.

"Fluff is obviously a very experienced guy and he was super nice, too," she said. "He is much more popular than me. Everybody knows him. He's done commercials and all that."

Ko finished tied for 15th and earned $58,096 at Pinehurst.

Rain again

It seems like rain has been a part of the Northwest Arkansas Championship every year at Pinnacle Country Club, going all the way back to the inaugural event in 2007 when Stacy Lewis led after the first day before a downpour set in and eventually canceled the final two days of the tournament.

This year's festivities are off to a soggy start as well after rain pelted the course Monday during the qualifying tournament, delay the qualifier a couple of hours and causing it a finish in near darkness.

Tuesday's practice round for the professionals finished without any rain, but Wednesday's pro-am wasn't as fortunate. Golfers were called off the course at 11:50 a.m. with many from the morning groups only able to finish a handful of holes. The afternoon session was cancelled around 2:30 p.m.

Today's pro-am is set to begin at 7 a.m. Notable professionals teeing off with the amateurs include U.S. Open champion Michelle Wie (8:50 a.m.), Paula Creamer (12:10 p.m.), Jessica Korda (12:20 p.m.), Suzann Pettersen (12:50 p.m.) and Kraft Nabisco champion Lexi Thompson (1 p.m.).

Memories

Cristie Kerr relived some of her youth Tuesday when she put on a junior girls clinic at the First Tee of Northwest Arkansas.

The 16-time winner on the LPGA Tour started golfing at age 8 in Miami and was more than happy to try to give some feedback to the 28 girls at the clinic. On top of a few playing lessons, warm-up routines and signing a few autographs, Kerr, a three-time winner of the Florida State Junior Girls Championship, also shared a story about playing on her high school boys team and serving as its captain.

Kerr spoke of competing against the PGA Tour's Erik Compton during her high school years. Compton, who has received two heart transplants after being diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy when he was 9, recently finished tied for second at the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2.

Kerr made no mention of any past scores against Compton in high school, but she said she was pretty successful.

Sports on 06/26/2014

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