“I'll never get this chance again, and I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can.”

Those words from Angela Stanford explain the massive smile plastered on her face this week. The native Texan comes to the U.S. Women’s Open fresh off her seventh career LPGA Tour win at last week’s Volunteers of America Classic, not far from her home in suburban Dallas. Now just 250 miles down the road, and with her parents again outside the ropes, the 20-year LPGA Tour veteran is basking in the experience of playing for a national championship in her beloved home state.

“Everybody wants to play well leading up to an Open, no matter if it's May, June, or December. To start to really get my short game going last week and then kind of hit it better on Sunday, but I need to kind of work on that right now,” said Stanford, who will hit the championship’s first tee shot on the Cypress Creek Course at 9:20 a.m. CT, playing with Jodi Ewart Shadoff and Nicole Broch Larsen. “It's a dream to even play in Texas for an Open. I think that's helped my expectations this week.”

This is not the first time Stanford comes to the U.S. Women’s Open off a big win. In 2003, one week after capturing her first LPGA Tour title at the ShopRite LPGA Classic, Stanford fell to Hilary Lunke by one stroke in an 18-hole playoff at Oregon’s Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club. So when asked her advice to the championship’s 41 first-time competitors, Stanford spoke from experience.

“I would tell them do not leave discouraged because there's a good chance you're not going to play the way you want to play, because I remember my first one, I was so disappointed. But looking back now, I wish I would have enjoyed it more on the tail end,” said Stanford. “The beginning of the week I loved it. I was in heaven. But then you don't play good and you're like, dang. So, I hope they leave knowing that it's just a big experience, and they need to remember that and just try to enjoy it on the tail end of it.”

TEXAN PLAYERS HOPING FOR MORE THAN JUST A TEXAS TWO-STEP

With the USGA hosting the U.S. Women’s Open in Houston, the LPGA Tour built its own Texas Two-Step into the schedule with last week’s Volunteers of America Classic in suburban Dallas. This is just the second time that the United States national championship will be held in the Lone Star State, joining the 1991 championship at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth. This is also the first time since 1978 that the state has held at least two LPGA Tour events.

For local favorite and 2014 U.S. Women’s Open runner-up Stacy Lewis, that’s just not enough.

“You've got all these energy companies in this area, and I just make a pitch to anybody that is supporting women in their organization and in their company to want to come out and to see this and to see the best in the world,” said Lewis, who grew up in The Woodlands, just 20 miles from Champions. “Maybe they can do something to help within the tournament to help their business, so it's a win-win for both. It usually just takes one person believing in us and having the idea.”

“I think this week will just show everyone just how good golf is in Houston and just Texas in general, and you can play all year round,” added Cheyenne Knight, who was born in The Woodlands but moved to Dallas as a teenager. “I never watched an LPGA tournament when I was growing up. I never got to go to one. I think if there is one, a local stop, and how big junior golf is here, just getting little girls to see their idols would be really cool.”

Angela Stanford on Cloud Nine Back Home in Texas

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