Mel Reid made the fourth hole-in-one of the 2020 LPGA Tour season, acing the 172-yard 12th hole with a 6-iron. It was her eighth career hole-in-one and fifth in a competitive round.
“It kind of was a perfect little cut 6-iron for us, so I thought I needed it to go, but it just disappeared,” said Reid. “It’s always a little bit of luck, isn’t it, with a hole-in-one, but every blind squirrel finds a nut occasionally.”
For that ace, CME Group will donate $20,000 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. The 2019 LPGA Tour season saw 32 aces from 31 different players, which more than covers the average cost of $425,000 needed to treat a pediatric cancer patient.
Reid ultimately shot a 2-under 71 on the day and moves to the weekend in a tie for 41st at -3.
LIZETTE SALAS READY TO GET 2020 GOING
Lizette Salas said she had never been so happy to get on an airplane. After an offseason of hard work prepping for the 2020 LPGA Tour season, the California native was ready to test her game at this week’s ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open.
Two rounds in and Salas is playing up to the challenge of Royal Adelaide Golf Club. Aiming for her first LPGA Tour victory since 2014, Salas put together back-to-back rounds of 70 and heads into the weekend tied with 12 other players for eighth at -6, four strokes behind leader Inbee Park. In fact, Salas said this is the best she has played since her second-place finish at the 2019 AIG Women’s British Open.
“I don't think I’ve hit the ball this good since the British Open,” said Salas, who shot a final-round 65 at Woburn Golf Club to earn her best career major finish. “I’ve been giving myself so many opportunities and it’s not easy. I got a little flustered after not making anything about birdieing the first three holes and finally (caddie) Patrick (Smith) stepped in and he just said, just stay patient and we finished strong with three birdies.”
Salas is competing in her fourth ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open, with a best finish of T7 in the 2017 tournament also conducted at Royal Adelaide.
MADELENE SAGSTROM FOCUSING ON LEARNING, NOT NUMBERS
No one would be surprised if Madelene Sagstrom wanted to forget last Sunday. After opening the final round of the ISPS Handa Vic Open one stroke off the lead, she plummeted into a tie for 20th after closing with a final-round 81 amid buffeting winds. Instead of wallowing, Sagstrom looked back at an incredibly difficult day and learned from the struggles.
“I’ve always felt like I have the wind game, I hit the shots, but I think that mostly we went back to decisions. Did we make the right decisions and stuff like that,” said Sagstrom. “So, we kind of re-routed the game plan to figure out how can we play this a little bit more simple, not overthink it and obviously it worked out great.”
It has indeed worked out for Sagstrom. The Swede, who won the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio three weeks ago for her first LPGA Tour victory, is -7 midway through the ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open, just three strokes off the lead heading into the weekend. With afternoon winds again a storyline, Sagstrom is quickly putting those learnings to use.
“I realized really quickly after the weekend that I might need to approach this wind a little bit differently,” said Sagstrom. “It was breezy today. I’m very, very proud of how I played.”
PLAYER NOTES
Rolex Rankings No. 17 Inbee Park (67-69)
- Hit 14 of 15 fairways and 15 of 18 greens, with 30 putts
- Park is in her 14th season on the LPGA Tour; she has 19 career victories, including seven majors, and won most recently at the 2018 Bank of Hope Founders Cup
- She is competing in her second ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open; she missed the cut in 2012
- This is her fourth event of the 2020 LPGA Tour season; she tied for second at the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, where she lost in a playoff
- Park won the gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Rolex Rankings No. 87 Jodi Ewart Shadoff (66-70)
- Hit 10 of 15 fairways and 14 of 18 greens, with 30 putts
- Ewart Shadoff is in her 10th season on the LPGA Tour; her best career finish is second, coming at the 2017 AIG Women’s British Open and the 2016 Citi Banamex Lorena Ochoa Invitational
- She is competing in her sixth ISPS Handa Women’s Australian Open; her best finish is a tie for eighth in 2019 at The Grange Golf Club, and she finished T24 at Royal Adelaide in 2017
- This is her second event of the 2020 LPGA Tour season; she finished T19 at the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio
- A three-time member of the European Solheim Cup Team (2013, 2017, 2019) with a 3-6-1 overall record
- A two-time member of Team England at the UL International Crown (2016, 2018) with a 5-2-1 overall record
- A 2010 graduate of the University of New Mexico with a degree in psychology
Rolex Rankings No. 294 Jillian Hollis (68-69)
- Hit 11 of 15 fairways and 13 of 18 greens, with 27 putts
- Hollis is a 2020 LPGA Tour rookie; this is her seventh appearance in an LPGA Tour event, with a best finish of 62nd at the 2018 U.S. Women’s Open in her professional debut
- Earned her 2020 LPGA Tour card by finishing fifth in the Epson Tour’s 2019 Volvik Race for the Card
- In 2019 on the Epson Tour, made 14 of 18 cuts with victories at the IOA Championship and The Forsyth Classic
- Spend three years at the University of Georgia, where she was a three-time All-American selection
SOCIAL MEDIA
Tournament: @WomensAusOpen (Twitter and Instagram), #WomensAusOpen
LPGA: @LPGA, @LPGAMedia (Twitter), @lpga_tour (Instagram)
TV TIMES (all times Eastern)
Friday, Feb. 14 to Saturday, Feb. 15 – 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Saturday, Feb. 16 to Sunday, Feb. 17 – 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.
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