HURRICANE, Utah — Angela Stanford can’t remember ever shooting 29 in competition. “I don’t think I have,” Stanford said late Friday at Copper Rock Golf Course after doing just that on the front nine in the second round of the LPGA Senior Championship. “I mean, maybe at Superstition Mountain (in Arizona) back in like 2007 or 2008, but I don't ever recall shooting 29. It was fun.”
The fun and games stopped for most players later in the afternoon when the town of Hurricane, Utah lived up to its name. The southwesterly wind was so hard that the fountains in the ponds looked like firehoses blowing water sideways. But Stanford held on and finished the day with a 5-under 67 to post a 7-under two-day total. That’s good enough for a two-shot lead over first-round leader Cristie Kerr, who shot 73 on Friday to enter the final round at 5-under.
“I didn't play very well today,” Kerr said. “Just didn't have the same kind of focus. I was really, really tired last night, and went to bed at like 8:00. I woke up three times, so just chalk it up to a bad night's sleep. I mean, I never miss putts within five feet, and I missed two putts from like three-and-a-half feet today. That never happens, so you’ve just got to try to not take it too hard.
“The finish was impossible. Really just some of the toughest conditions I've ever played in. When I got in that (six hole) playoff (with Naru Nomura at the 2017 Volunteers of America Classic) in Dallas, it was blowing about this hard. Today, you literally stood over it going, ‘I have no idea when to swing.’
So, how tough were the closing conditions? For the last hour and a half, gusts on the hilltops reached 40 mph, an unusual occurrence for this time of year, even in a place named for its steady breezes.
For reference, on the downhill, downwind par-4 13th hole, Kerr hit a 5-iron 280 yards. Then on the downhill par-3 17th hole, she hit her 7-iron 118 yards.
“On 17, I looked at Juli (Inkster) and was like, ‘Can we swing at it?’,” Kerr said. “The ball was (oscillating) on the tee.”
Both Stanford and Kerr played the last six holes in 3-over in the toughest of the winds. Still, the two put some distance between themselves and the field. Laura Diaz, who finished with a second-round 69 before the worst of the wind, sits alone in third at 2-under, while three players, Cathy Johnston-Forbes, Maria McBride, and Liselotte Neumann, are tied at 1-under.
Stanford’s 29 on the front included an eagle on the first hole. “I hit a great drive,” she said. “I had a tough time with that drive, just the angle of it, and finally hit a good tee shot, then hit a great hybrid in there. And it was such a fast putt. I just kind of got it going. I love the look of that hole, I just have a hard time off the tee.”
She then made four birdies in a row on holes three through six and added another on the par-3 8th hole. Her lone back-nine birdie came at the par-5 12th hole after she found the front greenside bunker with her second shot.
“That was a really good bunker shot, really good,” she said of the wedge that ultimately nestled nine feet from the hole. She hit an equally good curling putt that found the bottom of the cup. At the time she was 10-under, the first and only player to reach double digits under par. Then the wind kicked it up a notch.
“Maybe a British or sometime in Hawaii,” Stanford said when trying to recall tougher conditions. “But, yeah, on 17, I was trying to hit it 105 and I hit my 150 club.”
Still Stanford was all smiles as she headed for her car.
“It's a fun golf course to play,” she said. “If you can just be aggressive and hit your shots, it's a lot of fun. That's the most fun I've had on a golf course in a while.”
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