On a whim, we decided to hang out around hole 9 for a while and walk it from tee to green a few times because several intriguing threesomes were moving through: Christie Kerr, Maria Jose Uribe and Lorena Ochoa, followed two groups later by Natalie Gulbis with two other players (Young Kim and Carin Koch, to be fair), followed later by Michelle Wie’s group.

That gave us the opportunity to see scores ranging from a 3 to a 9. Wha? Aren’t these professionals. Well, not exactly. You see, the one who carded the 3 was an amateur — Uribe, an 18 year old from Colombia who is quickly winning people over out here with her spirit (and perhaps her nontraditional bright pink — some would call it hot pink — golf dress). And the nine? Well, that was brought to you by Wie. As she duffed her way around the hole making pretty much every brutal shot imaginable, a woman turned to her (presumed) husband and said, “She needs a Dairy Queen.” Or a hug. Or a better strategy than hitting a drive into the rough, blading a chip, duffing a chip, putting from the rough, pulling a Mickelson by pitching back to her own feet and missing a 5-footer (and that wasn’t even all nine strokes).

Other highlights: The fan who asked us: “Where’s Lorena?” She thought Uribe was Ochoa — a simple mistake considering Uribe (now at 3-under) was playing like Ochoa, while Ochoa (now at 2-over) was busy mishitting a chip and carding a bogey on 9 to make the turn at 3-over. … Gulbis is a charmer. She smiled and amicably chatted with the gallery while walking between the ropes from the ninth green to the 10th tee — making everyone think, “Wow, that golfer really likes me.” Obviously, she’s also a golfer (1-under through 12).

True stories: there are a lot of straw hats being worn … everything out here smells green … we have yet to use our “inside the ropes” privileges.

The thing you notice after getting used to the hum that exists at most major sporting events is just how quiet it is at a golf tournament. Even when the marshals aren’t holding their hands up in the air — signifying that everyone is to be extra quiet — it is understood that hushed tones are the way to go out here at Interlachen. That is probably why they didn’t like it when we started yelling and screaming at the first tee box.*

The U.S. Women’s Open began just over an hour ago, under perfect conditions (though the threat of rain looms later). The most unusual sighting so far: well, that’s a tie between three girls shaking up the implied khaki and polo dress code with fluorescent green and yellow ensembles (we were going to make a comment about how they were obviously confused about where they were, but we’re not sure they would fit in anywhere); and a man who looked very much like The Dude from “The Big Lebowski,” who was chatting with a golfer on the driving range (and who perhaps wasn’t really supposed to be there, based on a later encounter with the gatekeepers).

On the leaderboard: Kelli Kuehne took an early lead at 2-under with a birdie-birdie start. Edina’s own Hilary Lunke is in a big cluster of players at 1-under, and she is through five holes. Natalie Gulbis birdied her first hole for a hot start. (See how we did that there? Because, you know, she has a calendar and everything!) We missed it because we were in the air conditioned tent filing an on-line update. Those. Are. The. Breaks.

Now it’s time to get some snacks.

*Actual truth may vary.

For the next four days, this here blog will be taken over (predominantly) by the U.S. Women’s Open golf tournament. If you are a new reader, welcome. We try to have some fun around here, but we also very much respect the craft of journalism and will try to tell some interesting stories. If you are a regular reader, please hang with us and enjoy the ride. Hey, at the very least: weekend RandBall. We don’t have much to report today; we came out to Interlachen late in the afternoon merely to check in, get our credential and scope out what the kids call a “lay of the land” to better prepare for the next four days. The picture you see is of our only swag to date: a credential, an inside the ropes arm band, lunch vouchers, some sunscreen and lip balm. The last time we covered golf in a meaningful way was 2002, when we followed Tiger Woods for six rounds at the PGA at Hazeltine. If this is half the experience that was, we should all have a good time.

We’re going to be out at the U.S. Women’s Open at Interlachen next week (at least Thursday-Sunday, probably some of Wednesday as well) to do a smattering of things for the Newspaper of the Twin Cities. Part of that will include filing some offbeat posts for this here blog, which will be temporarily remade entirely thanks to that clever new logo designed by Greengirls’ own Jaime Chismar (Instead of saying, “Here, take my modestly sized basketball,” we are now saying, “Would someone please, for the love of all that is pure, take this giant golf ball from us!”). We’re sure many good stories will develop, but we also thought it would be good to have a game plan going in. Here is where you can get involved: is there some sort of daily feature you would like to see? Anything not exactly golf-related but still somewhat relevant to the tournament? Any tips for getting around Interlachen? Try to be relatively serious*; we don’t need 17 suggestions for a Natalie Gulbis Q&A, after all.

*By RandBall standards, not everyday life standards.