Lexi Thompson feels inspired by her Mom
After Lexi Thompson notched her fifth runner-up finish of 2017 Sunday at the Marathon Classic presented by Owens Corning and O-I, she pointed to the inspiration from her mother as part of the key to her success this week in Ohio.
Thompson admitted having her Mom in the gallery, who had been battling health problems but is doing better now, was a source of inspiration for her.
“Just knowing that she's doing better and that she's healthy now, it's definitely put me at peace of mind, and just having her around the last week, it's been a hard few months, just mentally, for all of us, but just to see how strong she is has made me a lot stronger,” said Thompson. “It's made me able to come out here and play my best.”
Thompson started off hot Sunday going out with a 4-under-par 30. She stumbled with bogeys on two of her first three holes on the back nine, but birdied three of her final four holes for a 5-under-par 66 and a solo-second place result.
“I'm very happy with just the way I played, the way I handled myself out on the golf course. You know, it's not my 100 percent ball-striking week, but I managed to do what I had to with how I was playing and how I was hitting the ball. 17-under, I'm never going to complain with that,” said Thompson. “I did my best. That's all I can do.”
Gerina Piller locks up spot on Solheim Cup team
Although it wasn’t necessarily the result Gerina Piller wanted after holding the 36-hole lead, her tie for third was her best of 2017, and it helped, essentially, lock up a spot for Piller on the Solheim Cup team.
“That's kind of one of my No. 1 goals whenever I start a new year, start a new Solheim Cup year. My first year I was lucky enough to be a captain's pick, and two years ago I was like, ‘I don't want to go through that again,’ and my goal was to make the team on my own,” she said. “I feel like I'm going in the right direction, and just excited about it.
“I feel like any time you can represent your country is one of the greatest honors, and it's just a special tournament, and there's no tournament like it. It's just one of those things where I would love to play it every year,” Piller continued.
Piller said this week was evidence of her maturation as a player, and she’s eager to take that feeling into the rest of the season.
“I think I've just matured as a person, as a golfer. I trust my game a lot more now. It probably still needs a little tweaking here and there, and it helps me to have a course that's this pure,” she said. “I feel like my game, I played really well. To start off 8-under, that's huge. But I didn't come away with the win, but it doesn't mean I didn't have a winning performance.”
Kim Kaufman notches best finish of the year
Although Kim Kaufman started her Sunday with a bogey, she managed to rally back nicely over the next 17 holes, and her tie for sixth was her best finish of 2017.
“I've been having a lot of struggles these last few weeks, so just to finally get it together, even after the first round, I'm still pretty happy,” she said.
Kaufman fired a 6-under-par 65 Sunday to move all the way up from a tie for 19th into a tie for sixth with last week’s U.S. Women’s Open champion Sung Hyung Park.
Kaufman explained the key to her success this week was the fact that she enjoyed the golf course and felt comfortable with it.
“I just love this golf course, so I have good memories here,” she said “I finally just said, ‘I have to trust my swing.’ Even though I've been struggling, I knew it was in there. I worked really hard the weekend of the (U.S Women’s) Open and this week, and I knew it was there, and I thought I couldn’t keep trying to steer it and save it. I just kind of committed to it. It's not always perfect, but we had a lot of birdies.”
Jaye Marie Green has solid Sunday
Had it not been for I.K Kim’s sizzling 8-under-par 63, Green’s 7-under-par 64 would have been Sunday’s best round. However, Green’s performance moved her up almost 30 spots on the leaderboard as she locked up a tie for 20th – just her second top-20 finish of 2017.
Green said playing with hometown hero Stacy Lewis was key to her success Sunday.
“It was just good vibes. We've played together before, and we play well together, so we were just kind of feeding off each other. And then I started hitting it well. I didn't have many bogeys today, and that was good. All the birdies I made were short, pretty short putts, so I didn't really have to make too many outside of six feet, so that was nice,” she said. “I've been putting well all week, so then to hit it close, it just all kind of came together today.”
Green said firing such a low round Sunday – it was her lowest on the LPGA Tour this year – gives her confidence moving into the next few weeks in Europe.
“It definitely makes food taste better after, and into the next tournament, it's just good knowing, ‘Wow, I shot a low round… I'm capable of it,’ so it definitely gives (me) confidence going into next week, which is something that's good to have in those types of conditions,” she said.
Angela Stanford rides hot back nine to third top-10 of 2017
Angela Stanford went 6-under par on her final 10 holes of the day Sunday to jump into the top 10, and say in a tie for eighth, which marked her third top-10 result of the year.
Although Stanford has the Solheim Cup on the forefront of her mind, she said Sunday’s result was a positive one moving forward, after she gave herself a pep talk while making the turn.
“All week it just seemed like I couldn't get a putt to go in. I've hit it great all week, and I don't know what happened. I kind of gave myself a stern talking-to on No. 9 and just said… ‘Basically, let's go. Stop it, knock it off, let's knock it in the hole.’ And then finally made them on the back (nine),” she said.
“I guess once you see one go in, you think they can all go in. It was a solid back nine.”
)
)
)
)
