Tight finishes at Lady Blue Hen Invitational

The University of Delaware won the 11th Lady Blue Hen Invitational Oct. 20 at Rehoboth Beach Country Club, with tight finishes in the team and individual categories.

UD senior Alisa Khokhlova earned medalist honors with her 74-66-71-211 total in the 54-hole contest. She finished a stroke ahead of Georgetown’s Georgia Ruffolo in second, and two strokes ahead of Samantha Galantini of Quinnipiac University and Vanessa Zhang of Harvard, who tied for third.

Richmond’s Hannah Lydic of Ocean View, a former DIAA state champion, tied for 12th.

The team finishes were also tight. The Lady Blue Hens’ 881 total was one stroke ahead of Quinnipiac and four strokes ahead of Georgetown. Following those schools were Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Richmond, Youngstown State University, Seton Hall University, St. John’s University and Long Island University.

UD head coach Pat Post predicted it would be a good competition. Regarding the two days of sunny skies, warm temperatures and light winds, she said, “We’re being spoiled by Mother Nature, which is awesome and well-deserved.”

RBCC head golf professional George Bushby said, “It’s nice to see returning teams back. A big thank you to Rudy Blancke, who helped us have 65 member and nonmember volunteers, which is the most we’ve ever had. He’s been a huge help and a big supporter of this. It wouldn’t be possible without him. It’s a good field, one of the stronger ones we’ve had. It’s exciting to be a part of and support women’s college golf.”

She is 4 for 5

Congratulations to Deb Ronemus for yet another hole in one at The Rookery. 

The newest one came Oct. 15, on the 138-yard 14th hole, using her new TaylorMade driver and a Titleist ProV1 ball. The Rehoboth Beach resident suggested she would rather be lucky than good, but this is getting ridiculous. 

Ronemus has now aced four of the five par threes at The Rookery. The second hole is the only one remaining on her bucket list.

Zero Friction

Zero Friction introduced its new Stride all-in-one robotic golf bag/trolley system at the 2023 PGA Show. Its Follow Me system kept the bag near the golfer, like a loyal pooch. The battery life for the rechargeable lithium-powered motor easily handled the demands of a golf round regardless of terrain changes.

Michael Wahlund met me at the 2024 show and discussed the incremental improvements for this year’s model. 

For club storage, a dedicated putter tube sits in the bag’s center, close to the cradle for the removable remote-control unit. Other club tubes include a molded shaft clip. Two magnets, one on each side, hold a loudspeaker unit and/or laser rangefinders.

The see-through phone holder does not affect camera shots, Wahlund said. The unit’s gyroscopic mechanism helps maintain stability. 

A limited slip differential for the main drive wheels helps maintain traction. For more details, look for Marisa Tomei’s knowledgeable explanation in “My Cousin Vinny.”

The Stride folds up nicely for trunk storage. All four removable wheels go into two separate bags for easier lifting and storing.

Company founder John Iacono told me European sales were extremely heartening, especially considering that buyers could only make their decision based on a video presentation.

Wahlund and I also discussed the multicolored Zero Friction gloves, a mainstay of the company’s broad product lines. He also noted that juniors and women golfers predominate among those buying the brightly colored gloves. Men continue to stick primarily with the white model.

Bunch of fuddy-duddies.

SkyGolf

SkyGolf, the GPS/golf analytics company, enjoyed a large crowd at its 2024 PGA Show booth.

I met Clay Simpson, SkyGolf’s logistics and operations manager, whose enthusiastic response to his company’s product lines was infectious. He showed off several new products while making sure I knew several golfers on the European Legends Tour were very happy with their SkyGolf equipment.

Among other items, we looked at the Pro 5X GPS SkyCaddie. The 5.5-inch LCD touch screen is great for old eyes. It also permits moving a target dot over a depicted fairway, instantly displaying the target yardage and the distance to the hole. Simpson said the battery life is very good, which in my experience is often a challenge.

He also showed the LX2 SkyCaddie Wearable, which comes with a touch-screen display. Its companion device, the LX5 watch, includes biodata options such as heart rate and current step count for the round. Both provide basic front-center-back yardages, but when used with the SureTag system will also note shot distances.

Simpson eagerly discussed the SkyCaddie GameTrax 360 app. As he went through its options, I told him that the app appeared be “nirvana for golf data nerds.” 

This is not a knock on those guys – I am one.

With a membership plan, the 360 app tracks several performance elements on the course or the range. With a choice of parameters, the app should help identify strengths and weaknesses. The swing analysis feature looks highly useful for range practice, including tempo measurements as well as more common swing feedback.