THE FRENCH LICK RESORT TWO OUTSTANDING HOTELS-The West Baden Dome Hotel (L) and the French Lick Hotel. Three golf courses, and now a sportsbook open to take you bets. What you can’t do in Illinois. Book your stay and play at Frenchlick.com.  _____________________________________________________________________

THE GOG BLOG-by Rory Spears, Director of Content and Creation. Follow Rory on Twitter @GogBlogGuy, or Linkedin and Facebook. (R) Helen Alfredsson winner of the 2019 Senior LPGA Championship at the French Lick Resort on the Pete Dye Course.

BY RORY SPEARS-Reporting from French Lick Indiana.

It was in the cards, or was it in the stocking caps. On a cold and windy day. The 2019 Sr. LPGA Championship was decided in temperatures that started and ended, in the upper 40’s. It was never warmer than 52. Helen Alfredsson wearing her good luck French Lick Sr. LPGA Championship stocking hat, fired a 2 under par 70 to defeat Juli Inkster by 3 shots.

Mistwood Golf Club’s teaching professional, long time LPGA player Nicole Jeray, picked a hot spot for her post round interview.

After Round 2 Inkster was looking for a stocking cap of her own for Round 3, she was offered the same French Lick one that Alfredsson used. She turned it down, at first thinking a Solheim Cup one, and elected to stay with her regular sponsors baseball cap. One birdie and five bogeys later, she wrapped up 54 holes at +1, and a runner-up finish. As her putts would not fall.

2017 champion Trish Johnson was third at +2. Defending champion Laura Davies had a final round score of 80 and fell back to 19th place. University of Minnesota girls golf coach Michele Redman was 5th. First round leader Jill McGill shot 76 and was 7th, finishing at +5 for championship, after being 6 under par after the first round.

For Alfredsson the win gave her a sweep of both senior woman’s majors in 2019, earning the senior women’s slam. Be it only two championships, and Americans are still looking for win #1, in either championship. Davies pulled off the slam in 2018.

Click here to hear the interview with 2019 Sr. LPGA Champion Helen Alfredsson.

The Mistwood Golf Dome Rt. 53 in Bolingbrook. Ready when you are to take Chicago’s golf season inside. Mistwoodgolfdome.com Home of Sr. LPGA championship player Nicole Jeray.

The day started out at 48 degrees. Michelle McGann was the player first out, as a single at 9:20. Since she made the cut on the number and was the 49th remaining player in the field..

But McGann a SouthFlorida resident, went out and posted 69. A score that moved her up from a T-43rd to 19th place.

But the strange event, was the penalty that Lee Ann Walker was assessed by the championship committee.

Walker took a 58 shot penalty, and missed the cut as you might guess. During Round 2, a caddie for another player advised her to check with a rules official, about having her caddie stand behind her on putts for an alignment check. That is now 2 shot penalty. Since Walker was not informed until Round 2, and because of the “Lexi Thompson Rule”, she was not DQ’d. So after speaking with a rules official, she learned about the penalty.

So after Walker and rules committe reviewed her actions, they decided she broke the rule 29 times and her score was changed to 127 and 90.

Nicole Jeray wraps up the week on the Pete Dye Course. Before returning to Mistwood Golf Club in Romeoville, where she is a teaching professional and high school golf coach.

Mistwood Golf Club’s teaching professional Nicole Jeray, started out on the first hole with a tough bunker shot, and a three putt from a short distance. She made a triple bogey 7.

But Jeray rebounded quickly and shot an amazing +2 for the remaining 17 holes. All-in-all 77 +5 and a T-36.

For all three days, it seemed like just one bad hole, took away from what could have been a great round. But Jeray would be first to admit, that’s just golf sometimes.

After she finished eating she was off to Decatur to coach two of her high school team members, that made it downstate. All in a full week for a golf pro, teaching pro and a golf coach.

Click here to hear the interview with Mistwood Golf teaching professional Nicole Jeray.

The 2020 Sr. LPGA Championship moves to July 27-31 on the Dye Course at the French Lick Resort. The Golf Channel is not returning, but some live streaming of the championship will take place. Stay tuned.

More on the French Lick Resort in the days ahead.