It has been a strange week for Mexico’s Maria Fassi, one of the more promising talents on the LPGA. She arrived to Philadelphia on Monday after a T-13 showing at the ShopRite LPGA Classic and tested positive for Covid-19. She returned to her hotel room, where she spent the next two days in quarantine, never leaving the room. She said she did yoga and was practicing slow swings to stay focused and ready. She was tested again on Tuesday and on Wednesday, and both of those tests came back negative. With that, she showed up to Aronimink on Thursday for her first round, having never seen the golf course. (Her caddie, Mark Wallington, had walked it.) Fassi doubled her last hole and shot 73, and came back with 72 on Friday to make the cut (which fell at 6-over 146).
“Unfortunately, I tested positive for Covid, but I never had symptoms and felt well the whole time,” Fassi said. “I had a hard time (Thursday) adapting to the speed of the greens.”
Two of the top players who were on the leaderboard after Day 1 have had the Covid-19 virus. Gaby Lopez said she only struggled with it for matter of days after testing positive in Toledo when the LPGA returned to action this summer. Spain’s Carlota Ciganda had a much more serious bout. Ciganda said she kept testing positive for five weeks.
“It took me over a month to recover like properly,” Ciganda said. “I was fine after like two weeks, but still a little tired. I was forgetting things. My mind wasn’t great. But then I started working out regularly. I lost some weight, as well. It was tough on the body, for sure. Finally, I think I’m back to normal. I feel good again, good energy. But yeah, I think a month and a half, for sure.”
Lopez withdrew from the Drive On Championship in Toledo, Ohio, in late July after being the first LPGA player to test positive during pre-tournament testing at Inverness Club.
“I did feel some symptoms,” said Lopez, who opened the season with a victory at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions in Orlando, Fla. “I had dry throat and I was very tired for two days. But on the third day and the fourth day, I was like 100 percent. Yeah, it’s a serious thing. We all need to take care of ourselves.”
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