LONG STRETCH AHEAD

This week marks the first tournament in a jammed packed summer stretch of LPGA events that includes 11-consecutive tournaments with three major championships and the UL International Crown in that time frame. Many players have planned way ahead on how they will be managing their schedules through the next three months, but it seems like some of the younger players will be playing it by ear.

Eighteen-year old Brooke Henderson said she’ll be playing as much as possible this summer and thinks she will be making those decisions when the time really comes.

“My strategy is pretty simple. I’m signed up for all of them right now,” said Henderson. “I like to play a lot of tournaments to keep things going well like they are, so hopefully I’ll get off to a fast start this week, and then just kind of listen to my body after that, and if I need to take a break, then I’ll just decide accordingly.”

With youth and energy on her side, Henderson will play off her experience last year traveling around the country week to week trying to Monday qualify at several events as a non-member.

“I think last year was actually good preparation for this year,” said Henderson. “I was traveling all over the place and just kind of jumping into tournaments where I could fit them in. I really didn’t have a plan scheduled too much. I think this long stretch will kind of work in my favor.”

The No. 5 ranked player in the world is making her second appearance at the Kingsmill Championship and will try to improve on her T25 finish last year as a sponsor invite. After heavy rainfall hit the River Course at Kingsmill Resort for most of the day on Tuesday, Henderson thinks some softer conditions will make things exciting this week.

“With this much rain today, it’s kind of exciting because the greens were pretty firm, and last year I remember you really had to pay attention to where you were landing the ball, especially around the greens because they weren’t as receptive as some greens,” said Henderson. “The course is in fantastic shape, though. I always love this course because it’s so beautiful. With all this rainy think it’s really going to help maybe being more aggressive towards the pins, and I was able to do Sunday last year and was able to climb up the leaderboard.”

WAVIN’ FLAG

Julieta Granada made a trip back to her native country of Paraguay last week during the LPGA’s off week and was met with some exciting news. After seeing articles that reported she was nominated to carry Paraguay’s flag in the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in August, Granada met with her Olympic Committee shortly after and they asked her if she would like to do it.

“What was interesting is they ruined is because the newspapers in Paraguay had already put it out, so I already read it, and then we had the meeting, so it was like, I heard on the news; is it true? And they’re like, well, would you like to do it?”

She said it needs to go through final approvals to make it official but she says she believes it’s a done deal.

Granada is currently ranked No. 31 in the Olympic Golf Rankings and is in great position to secure a spot in the Games. She said she thinks there will be about a dozen total Olympians from Paraguay and with such small numbers come heightened exposure. Paraguay has earned only one medal in the Olympic Games – a silver medal in 2004 in Athens when the men’s soccer team lost to Argentina in the finals.

“So Paraguay was obviously super excited, and there was a huge buzz,” said Granada. “Like every interview I talked about that. There was nothing else important other than the Olympics. So it’s obviously going to be a huge thing for us athletes. We only maybe have 10 or 12 (athletes) for the whole Olympics, so they know us by name. Like the whole country know who is going, right, so I think it’s a really big deal, and everybody is super excited.”

Kingsmill Championship Presented by JTBC Tuesday Pre-tournament Notes

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