(Editor's Note: Charlotte Mayorkas, a rookie on the LPGA Tour in 2007, is filing entries for her LPGA Tour Diary throughout the season. If you would like to suggest topics for Charlotte, or ask questions about the Tour life, send them to golf.guide@about.com.)
Hello, everyone! After a short break I was back out on the road last week. This time though, I was cruising on the ground with the windows down and the open road in front of me. Destination: Tulsa, Okla.
The next LPGA Event was The SemGroup Championship Presented by John Q. Hammons at Cedar Ridge Country Club in Broken Arrow, Okla.
Oklahoma is located in "Tornado Alley" and although I am hardly an expert, I do know a little bit about them.
Tornadoes are violent. They can be deadly and are "the most destructive of all storm-scale atmospheric phenomena." Tornadoes occur most frequently down a center corridor of the United States in "an area bounded by the Rockies on the west and the Appalachians in the east."
My close encounter came last June and I will never forget the experience. The Duramed Futures Tour had finished the Michelob Ultra Players Championship in Decatur, Ill., and we all traveled to Lima, Ohio, for our next event, the Lima Memorial Hospital Futures Classic at Lost Creek Country Club. The weather through the region had been rainy and stormy over the previous few days.
It was Thursday and the tournament was scheduled to begin the next day. I headed to the range, which was a couple miles away from the golf course, for a practice session. It wasn't very long before there was an announcement that a tornado was 30 miles away. The announcement really meant nothing to me. Was I supposed to load up my clubs and return to my host family, or was I able to continue hitting golf balls a little longer? Thirty miles seemed far away. I saw Katie Ruhe, who was a native of Ohio and a contestant on "Big Break V," starting to pack up her bag. She said the temperature was dropping and that the storm was on its way. She cautioned me to watch out for purple and green skies.
I had never seen purple or green skies before. I watched Katie leave and after a few more minutes, I also packed up and started driving toward the interstate. The sky had suddenly turned pitch black and sirens were going off. My host family was about 15 minutes away. As I merged onto the interstate, I turned to my right to look again at the dark sky, but it was no longer pitch black. The wind had picked up considerably and tree branches were flying everywhere. The sky had turned purple and green. The wind was picking up speed. I could see the clouds above had begun to rotate in a circular direction. I have never been more frightened in my life.
I followed some semi-trucks and they pulled off the side of the highway. The Ford 150 I was driving began to shake. I had no idea what to do; call my mom and say goodbye? One of the trucks in front of me moved back onto the highway and began to slowly creep down the road. I could see that it was headed for the next exit and I followed. When I got off the interstate, the closest two structures were a gas station and a small commercial building. The image of gasoline, a tornado and me did not bode well so I turned toward the small commercial building.
I parked and grabbed my backpack, debating whether I had enough time to take my clubs but left them and ran toward the office building's front door. And let me tell you, it wasn't an easy run. The wind was incredibly strong, and fierce. It took strength to reach the building. The wind literally pushed me toward the right. When I reached the front door, I grabbed the door handle tightly and entered. A group of people were sitting under a conference table and I blurted out, "I'm sorry. I'm not from around here and I have no idea what to do."
It was frightening. It was horrible. I will never forget the purple and green skies. And when I told the story to my cousin Joel, his only question was did I take any pictures.
The weather this past week in Tulsa was clear and sunny, but not so in Kansas, another state in the tornado corridor. Greensburg, Kan., was hit hard. Mi Hyun Kim, the winner of the SemGroup Championship Presented by John Q. Hammons event, generously donated $100,000 from her earnings to the United Way Greensburg Disaster Fund to help aid the victims of the tornado.
My next destination is Williamsburg, Va., for the Michelob Ultra Open at Kingsmill.
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