Annika Sorenstam is upset. She got here into the sixth U.S. Senior Girls’s Open feeling good about her sport, however left Fox Chapel Golf Membership Thursday night hardly happy after a gap even-par 71.
“I actually didn’t launch the membership, and it was simply very cautious golf,” she stated. “As you recognize, there’s a high quality line of being aggressive, however then additionally being affected person and having a method, and I simply felt I actually didn’t have the braveness.”
Alternatively, if a spherical of even par seems to be her worst spherical of the week, she stated, this begin shall be OK. The LPGA icon trails Japan’s Kaori Yamamoto by 4 in Pittsburgh, the place unhealthy climate washed out Tuesday’s follow spherical.
Sorenstam, who gained this occasion in 2021, is one in every of 5 previous champions within the area. Leta Lindley, who has completed runner-up in her final two appearances, sits alone in fourth after a gap 69.
Although Sorenstam lives in Orlando, she has spent the previous two months on the household’s Lake Tahoe house. She deliberate to take a chilly plunge after the spherical.
The warmth was so brutal in Pittsburgh {that a} lady fainted whereas Sorenstam’s group was teeing off. Sorenstam’s son Will rushed over to get the lady a chair and supply help.
Whereas the highest of the leaderboard is at all times of curiosity, there’s an occasion throughout the occasion on the Senior Girls’s with JoAnne Carner within the area. The eight-time USGA champion is the oldest participant to ever compete in a USGA championship, and it’s grow to be custom to see what number of instances the legendary participant can break her age.
Carner, now 85, managed the feat for the seventh time at this championship, carding a 14-over 85. Carner made it clear, nonetheless, firstly of the week that her purpose was to make the minimize.
She notched one birdie on the par-4 seventh gap and stumbled via three double-bogeys on the again 9.
When she received the 18th tee, she wanted a par on the closing gap to interrupt her age. After piping her drive, somebody within the gallery stated, “You hit a pleasant one!”
“That’s trigger I’m headed to the bar,” Carner replied.
Not surprisingly, Carner was under no circumstances happy with a bumpy spherical that included a four-putt. It’s a course, she stated, that requires a couple of follow spherical, which is all she received with the climate.
JoAnne Carner, making her fiftieth begin in a USGA championship, simply teed off on the U.S. Senior Girls’s Open. The eight-time USGA champion is 85 years younger! 🙌🏻
(🎥 @juliapine) pic.twitter.com/aiCEH3oaHQ
— Beth Ann Nichols (@GolfweekNichols) August 1, 2024
When requested after the spherical if she was completely happy to shoot her age, Carner stated no, it was horrible.
“I performed actually unhealthy on the again,” she stated. “I didn’t putt effectively. Then I misplaced my swing briefly. I hit a pair pictures that I assumed had been good, however not having performed the course however one time, I ended up in hassle, in a type of bunkers, and also you simply must hit it out.”
Carner turned skilled at age 30 and gained 43 instances on the LPGA, together with two U.S. Girls’s Opens in Pennsylvania.
She impressed a younger Nancy Lopez, who needed to be identical to her when she grew up.
“She at all times regarded like she was having time … by no means noticed her offended,” stated Lopez. “She was at all times very animated.”
One other LPGA Corridor of Famer, Beth Daniel, provides Carner credit score for enhancing her wedge play her rookie yr.
“Once I first got here on tour I used to be a horrible wedge participant,” stated Daniel. “I’d miss greens with a pitching wedge.”
Carner helped her repair that drawback, as she so usually got here to assistance from fellow gamers.
Although she’s misplaced a ways the previous couple years, Carner felt she was trending heading into the championship after a current lesson. She’d prefer to hit it 220 once more, and proper now averages between 205 and 210.
Thursday’s check proved to be a tall activity.
When requested if a night of storytelling would possibly lie forward, Carner stated everybody is likely to be too drained.
“At the very least I’m,” she stated. “I’ll return and funky down, take a bathe and sit and have a pleasant cocktail.”
