Trans-Atlantic lessons

Alexa Hammer and her four-ball partner, Gaby Coello, had big plans for Mondays. After Coello, 26, joined Hammer, 27, as a real estate agent at The Agency in Palm Beach, Florida, the two decided they’d get ready for golf season – specifically, the Women’s International Four-Ball – by ending long Mondays at the office with a range session. It was part of a training plan that would get both back on the golf course a couple of times a week leading into tournament season.
But the best-laid plans are no match for South Florida’s booming winter real estate season, and as Hammer noted, “We did not do it once.”
“We went into it thinking, ‘This is just a bad time at work; we don’t know if we can play’,” Hammer said of the Women’s International Four-Ball. “We were just happy we showed up and didn’t withdraw.”

From low expectations came big results in the event at the Wanderers Club in Wellington, Florida, on February 14-15. Coello and Hammer, who were three shots back at the start of the final round, won with a handful of well-timed birdies, no...