Full circle: 12 hours staying the course

From the first ones in the gates to a walk down the 18th fairway with Inbee Park, some glimpses of Sunday at Interlachen.

By KENT YOUNGBLOOD, Star Tribune

Last update: June 30, 2008 - 7:13 AM

5:30 a.m.: Best seats in the house

Jim Frey and son David, both from Edina, parked their bicycles and walked in the main gate: first ones in, and that was the plan.

They know golf. As a kid, Jim caddied at Edina Country Club, where his strongest memory is of an irate member throwing his clubs into a pond -- with Jim still attached to them. David loops at Interlachen. They wanted the best seats in the house: the top row of the stands at the 18th green, in the corner on the clubhouse side. From there you can see three tees and two greens.

"This is the Sunday spot," Jim said. "Talked about it [Saturday] night, about how early we had to be here to get it. My wife thinks we're nuts. But we did the same thing at Hazeltine at the PGA [in 2002]."

And there they waited, nearly alone. A couple of groundskeepers were working and Michele Redman was on the practice green, early enough that the ball traced a line through the dew.

"We yelled, 'We're here, we'll see you when you come around,' " Frey said. "And she said, 'Well, good for you, guys.' "

6:30 a.m.: Following the local

Redman, a local resident, opened the final round of play. Crowds don't exactly line the fairways, but there is a loyal cadre of fans.

"It was nice I had some people out here," she said. "That made it fun."

8:15 a.m.: Scoreboard duty

No. 9 green scoreboard operator Ed Rundell was waiting for the first group to arrive. A teacher who lives in St. Peter, he grew up with golf-crazy parents. "Fishing was a naughty word at our house," Rundell said.

He worked some at the 10th green this week, where he saw Michelle Wie on Thursday -- still steaming from a quintuple-bogey 9 on No. 9 -- crank a fairway wood about 250 yards out of the rough and over the green.

"I can't believe how far these ladies hit the ball," he said. He can't believe how much women's golf has grown, either. Rundell attended the 1966 Open at Hazeltine.

"You could walk around with the leader and it'd be like this," he said, pointing to the still-sparse crowd. "Not now, and I think that's great."

11:30 a.m.: 'Annika!'

Annika Sorenstam and Cristie Kerr teed off -- Sorenstam for the last time in a U.S. Open. Cries of "Annika!" followed her down the hill.

12:50 p.m.: 'Lorena!'

Twenty minutes after the leaders had teed off, Lorena Ochoa finished a frustrating weekend with an up-and-down birdie on 18. She smiled to the crowd, then started walking up the stairs to the clubhouse. Halfway up, she paused.

A little girl behind the fence near the practice green called her name. Ochoa tossed her ball and it landed right in front of the girl's feet. It was one of her best shots all week.

3:45 p.m.: Got it ...

Sorenstam's round ended with a 199-yard 6-iron that rolled into the cup for an eagle. The crowd roared as she walked to the hole, took the ball and tossed it into the grandstand. Sara Anderson was in the front row. She'd been there 10 minutes. The ball bounced above her, then at her feet.

Instant memory. A while later, after Sorenstam met with the media, she signed Anderson's ball and gave her a hug.

"It was probably more exciting getting a hug from her than actually getting it signed," said Anderson, who lives in Shakopee.

5:30 p.m.: A walk with the champ

Chris Owen got ready to go home after one of the most exciting days of her life. Eighteen months ago, Owen, from Watertown, S.D., signed up online to be a standard bearer. It was her luck to wind up walking with Inbee Park and Helen Alfredsson for 18 holes on Sunday.

"The thrill of a lifetime," she said. "You feel the pressure, you feel the emotion. You can feel their anxieties, their elations, their frustrations."

And their joy. "I mean, you're walking up the 18th fairway, and you look into the grandstand? Awesome, awesome sight."