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SPRINGFIELD, N.J. — Celine Borge carried her own bag on the Epson Tour last season, where she finished sixth on the money list to qualify for the LPGA. Even now, midway through her rookie year on the LPGA, Borge isn’t comfortable letting someone else carry her bag. She’s used a local caddie every week this season, even here at the KPMG Women’s PGA, where a Baltusrol looper helped her take a share of the clubhouse lead after a 2-under 69 over the famed Lower Course. She did not ask him for help on the greens.
“I just try to do what I’ve always been doing,” said Borge, “just play my own game and just (need) someone to carry the bag.”
Borge, currently No. 228 in the Rolex Rankings, has made 10 starts so far on the LPGA with three top-20 finishes. The Norwegian player makes her second career major start this week after missing the cut at the Chevron Championship.
The 24-year old was bogey free on the day until she reached the par-3 ninth, where she recorded her only blemish.
“I tried to not think about it,” she said of having the solo lead in the early stages of a major, “just tried to do my best on the next shot and see how it goes.”
Borge’s 11th caddie of the season, Corey Birch, grew up about 20 minutes from the Springfield club and had started out with an inside job. After he played well in a caddie tournament, the club’s caddie master asked why he wasn’t looping.
Birch, 27, has worked at Baltusrol for a decade now and is one of a handful of local caddies picked for a job this week. He typically does about 10 loops per week around the club’s Upper and Lower courses.
“We’re a very busy club,” said Birch, “and I’m fortunate the be here. I guess lot of people call it a golf factory, I guess you could say. We never sleep.”