"I had to pick myself up and get on with it, do it all over again, only even better this time." - Sam Walton

Since the season has started I have felt like something great is going to happen this year. I had no idea what it was going to be, what form it was going to come in or how it would eventually affect my life. Just something good was coming my way.

On March 30-31, the Golf Channel was holding auditions for the Big Break in Daytona Beach, Fla. at the LPGA Futures Tour event. Almost all the girls in the field tried out for it. My audition time was Thursday and I was so excited for it. I went in and talked with one of the producers for about 30 minutes and it felt like a life time. There is a big camera on you and they ask you a bunch of questions. I felt great about how my interview went, but it really comes down to whether you are what they are looking for. I was OK with that and put it behind me.

It was either April 21 or 22, and I was standing on the ...

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Bright colors, traditional plaids, functionality - and of course, pink - was the motto this past week for 2010 U.S. Women’s Open champion Paula Creamer.

We got a sneak peek into Creamer’s wardrobe and we are just flat-out jealous!

Not only is the color palette perfect for Paula but also for the event’s site -- the prestigious Broadmoor Springs East Course in Colorado Springs, Colo., where the weather is sunny 265 days of the year. This must have been a stat the fashion connoisseurs at Taylor-Made Adidas Golf (TMAG) anticipated.

Despite the stormy weather, we did get to see a lot of Creamer's wardrobe, while also showing off plenty of dazzling accessories.

Creamer also just informed us through her Twitter feed that she is wearing her “Signature Paula” shoe. She says: “The shoe looks great in blue.”

The question is: When can we get our hands on a pair? Lucky for us, Brittany Smith, who handles public relations for TMAG, said the shoe is available now! It can be purchased at www.adidasgolf.com for $120. So you see, the pros don’t get everything.

What do you think of the look? Could you pull off this look ...

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Valentine Derrey won the Tate & Lyle Players Championship on June 17 for her first LPGA Futures Tour victory. Derrey, of Paris, France, shot 16-under 272 at Hickory Point Golf Club in Decatur, Ill., for her first professional win.

Derrey, 24, ended the week by dropping a 9-foot putt for birdie at No. 18. It capped a final-round 68, Derrey’s fourth score in the 60s for the week.

“It’s a great accomplishment because this is my first win as a professional,” Derrey said after the final round. “I was more stressed out yesterday, but today, I just had to calm down and not think about winning.”

Tiffany Joh, who shared runner-up honors with Leanne Bowditch at 11-under 277, praised Derrey’s performance on the greens at Hickory Point.

“She made so many good 8-10 footers for par that it was just crazy,” Joh said. “My birdie putts were inside her par putts, but she was making hers and I was missing mine.”

Derrey is a former All-American at TCU, and had two other top-25 finishes on the Futures Tour this year before winning in Decatur.

Bowditch also finished strong, birdieing three of her final five holes on the way ...

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Golf is deceptively simple and endlessly complicated; it satisfies the soul and frustrates the intellect. It is at the same time rewarding and maddening - and it is without a doubt the greatest game mankind has ever invented.

• Arnold Palmer

Expectations. Everyone has them, whether you are setting the bar high or placing it low, you have an idea, walking to the tee box, how you believe you are going to play. But what happens when you start out with high expectations but you fail on the first hole? You think, “This is a simple hole to start out on,” then boom! You slice it into the lake on the second hole.

Then in your head an “Oh Crap” thought creeps across and shakes you a little. Plus, a bunch of people just watched you wale one over the tree line toward people on the second hole and you know they are thinking, “wow, that sucks” and now you are standing there embarrassed and trying not to show it.

Then to top it off, you walk off the hole with a double after not executing a simple up-and-down.

Great, you think, now I am even farther away from what I had ...

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Andrea Doddato prescribes more strength, more stability for the world's top players, including Maria Hjorth, who won on Sunday in Alabama with a spectacular final round.

Lorena Ochoa announced on Twitter April 28 that she and husband Andres Conesa are expecting a baby. Ochoa retired from competitive golf May 2 at the conclusion of the Tres Marias Championship in Morelia, Mexico. Her brother, Alejandro, said she is about eight to nine weeks along.

A Mexican magazine, Quien, first reported the news Thursday morning on its website.

Ochoa told Golfweek last November at her LPGA tournament in Guadalajara that she and Conesa, the chief executive officer of AeroMexico, will move this summer from their 10th-floor apartment in Mexico City to a house.

“We want to have an extra room for the baby and a yard for a dog,” said Ochoa, who chose to retire while still ranked No. 1 in the world. Conesa has shared custody of three children from a previous marriage.

(OK, must do the daughterly thing here...)

I would like to start by congratulating and wishing my parents a happy 25th anniversary!

(Back to golf...)

This week has been a great one - simple yet full of golf and family time.

I practiced all week out in La Quinta at PGA WEST, playing matches with some friends on the private courses. I worked a lot on my putting this week; I had a kink in it that just didn’t feel right. After working with coach Mike Hancock, we discovered that my alignment was all discombobulated. On Friday, I worked with my friend and PGA Tour professional, Robin Freeman, and we spent two hours on working on this, making sure I was aligned and confident. On Saturday, I spent time cleaning my clubs and grips, and then packed for this week in San Antonio.

The other part of my week was focused on spending time with the family. I had a great Tuesday with my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother shopping and lunching, and this weekend my brother came home to celebrate his birthday and Easter weekend. All of my extended family came to the house on Sunday to celebrate as well ...

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PORTLAND, Ore. – Dressed as if she should be starring in a Nike commercial, Cindy Davis, outfitted head-to-toe in swoosh-stamped gear, is hurdling tree roots, stomping through muck and tackling an ascent that would leave most gasping. It’s a chilly March afternoon, and Davis is trail running amid dense trees cloaked in fog and mist that make the place feel enchanted.

“I’ve run through here when the heavens have opened up, and it’s just incredible,” she says of her favorite local getaway, Forest Park, a 5,100-acre wilderness within Portland that gets nearly 40 inches of rain annually. “This is what I do to recharge.”

On this day, Davis is joined by her frequent running companion – Tilly, her 2-year-old German pointer mix, which she rescued from a shelter. Both politely slow the pace so a winded guest can keep up. Davis may not fly up the twisting path, but she looks as if she could run forever. A veteran of six marathons, she is a believer in holistic wellness and insists it’s the key to handling the rigors of her job as Nike Golf president. Asked just how tough her work can be, Davis, 49, answers quickly ...

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This quartet - Beatriz Recari, Belen Mozo, Azahara Munoz & Maria Hernandez - puts Spain in the spotlight as a red-hot producer of young LPGA talent.

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Beatriz Recari

Recari turned down a chance to be in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition because the photo shoot conflicted with last year’s Evian Masters and Women’s British Open. For Recari, it was an easy decision. She wants to be known more for her golf game than her body. Several months later, Recari snapped an ugly summer stretch with a victory at the CVS/pharmacy LPGA Challenge. Now she’s known as the LPGA champion who put golf first.

“What I learned from last year is that you can’t force it,” said Recari, who made the cut only nine times in 19 events. “You just have to let things happen.”

Recari, who turns 24 on April 21, spends most of her downtime in Miami, where she enjoys wearing mini skirts, fitted blazers and heels. At the made-for-TV Mojo 6 last spring, Recari wore a gold frock designed by Marc Jacobs for Kate Moss. Not surprisingly, fans voted her into the event.

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Azahara Munoz

Munoz doesn’t have a U.S. residence. She wants to ...

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(First, a quick note to my buddy Brendan Steele: Congrats on winning the PGA Tour's Valeron Texas Open!)

Back to the blog...

I would like to let you all know that my blogs are now going to be posted on Tuesdays. That way I will be able to write about my entire week, including my Sunday rounds. Now onto this last week…

This last week has been full of resting when I could, but still getting the work done that has to be taken care of. After I got home from Mexico, I came down with a cold and am still trying to recover. I had a lesson with my golf coach earlier this week to make sure my swing is fluid and flawless. We also checked my putting because I felt like something was not right in my stroke and I was right, my shoulders were open.

Oh, I am happy to announce that I partnered with Softspikes as a Certified Products Specialist, CPS, to work in the Los Angeles area.

A synopsis of my thoughts through the week:

• I had two days of Softspikes CPS training. I am happy it is going to be adding a little ...

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ORLANDO, Fla. – For months, the proofs for the second edition of Golfweek For Her hung on the walls of our office cubicles. Passersby often asked, “Why are the players wearing dresses?” My answer was simple: Because we see them all the time in golf attire.

Click here to access the new Golfweek For Her microsite.

One of the best parts of my job is getting to know LPGA players away from the golf course. Going inside a player’s home and breaking bread on an off-week can tell a reporter as much about what makes an athlete rise to the pinnacle of her sport than any amount of time spent watching her pound balls on the range.

Golfweek doesn’t have a stylist. We don’t have a corner closet filled with frilly dresses and sexy heels. What readers see on the pages of this month’s Golfweek For Her, and on this microsite, came directly out of players’ wardrobes.

Belen Mozo just happened to wear her own boots to our shoot at the Founders Cup because she wanted to hide her tan lines. She didn’t know we’d be posing her in front of a faux saloon and ...

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