On a day when she scrambled all day long, Morgan Pressel sits just two strokes off the lead thanks to a persistent attitude she picked up during her week contributing to Fox’s coverage of the U.S. Open at Chambers Bay.
Her inspiration? Louis Oosthuizen.
“Today I didn’t have my game,” Pressel told the media after her round Thursday. “I think what was interesting to watch, too, is Louis Oosthuizen at the men’s Open in the opening rounds and that never give up attitude that he had, and now he nearly came back and won. And that’s what it takes to win, period, let alone to win the biggest championship in golf.”
Oosthuizen fought back from an opening round 77 to finish tied for second and one behind leader Jordan Spieth. Pressel won’t have as large a deficit to overcome, carding an opening round 2-under par, 68 due largely to her putter.
“It’s mostly my tempo, and just gets a little too quick under pressure, I’ve got to slow down,” Pressel said. “I’m going to go work this afternoon, try and work on getting the club in front of me a little bit more and hopefully I can hit it a little bit better out there tomorrow.”
Heading into this championship, Pressel has played some of the best golf of her career, carding four top-5’s so far this season. While she has yet to win this event, Pressel has four top-20 finishes in the U.S. Women’s Open, as well as a runner-up finish in 2005, all of which she says have taught her what it takes to win this championship.
“It’s always nice to be playing well and to feel god about your game coming into an extremely difficult golf course like this one,” Pressel said. “I kind of stayed patient out there and I knew that I could rely on my short game when I needed to and made a couple of birdie opportunities when I had a chance. And it’s just a lot of experience I think just things that I’ve learned over the years.”
All that experience is beginning to pay off for Pressel. She tees off Friday at 1:36pm grouped with Mirim Lee and Amy Yang.
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