Jessi Gebhardt (right) shot a second-round 74 in this week's Grasshopper Tour event at Vistal GC and, with a 36-hole total of eight-over 150, finished the tournament in a tie for eighth. Her seventh top-ten finish of the season (including her win in the Grasshopper Tour team event where she partnered Cara Freeman) was both good and bad news for the Bellingham-born player. On the plus side, her seven top tens have come from only eight multi-round events - not a bad return by anyone's standards. On the flip side, however, the tournament fields have been very small (just 11 players in this week's event), and yesterday she finished 14 shots behind the winner Paige Mackenzie.Despite playing in a total of 90 tournaments on the LPGA Tour, where Gebhardt hopes to be some day soon, Mackenzie has finished in the top ten just twice. The standard of play on the LPGA Tour is obviously very high. Gebhardt knows how tough it will be to get there, and stay there.
"The tournament did not go well," Gebhardt said on her blog. "But I did learn a lot during my round and I'm excited to put what I learned to the test in my next event - The Symetra Tour's Sara Bay Classic in Sarasota, Fla., starting April 20th. I know I'm getting close to scoring well, however it is a game and I can't force it. I'm learning to take things one step at a time and one shot at a time."
Scores here.
