After a wrist injury followed by a throbbing thumb that led to her taking a break from the LPGA Tour in 2019, the winner of the 2010 U.S. Women’s Open and queen of pink, Paula Creamer, decided that the 2021 Pure Silk Championship would be the perfect spot to make her return.
“It's been long enough. It was time for me to get back out. My body feels great,” said Creamer on being back. “Definitely needed that time to just heal and let my wrist and my thumb kind of get back to where it should have been three, four years ago. Unfortunately, that meant not playing golf, which is hard when that is your job and you do it every day.”
A true professional golfer who knows how to win, Creamer’s decision to have the Pure Silk Championship be her returning event was a strategic one, a way for her to practice before some of the year’s biggest events.
“I thought it was a really good place for me to kind of make my first tournament back, kind of my start of my season. It's leading up into some big events as well, and like I said, I'm very comfortable here, so I thought this would be a perfect spot for me to tee it up for my first tournament back,” said Creamer.
Part of that comfort comes from playing in the event at Kingsmill a total of 10 times throughout its 15-year history. Saying that Creamer and the River Course go well together would be an understatement. She placed within the top-10 four different times. In 2012, Creamer narrowly lost to Jiyai Shin during the longest playoff in LPGA Tour history, which stretched into Monday.
“I like Kingsmill. I like this place. I have a lot of really good memories here,” Creamer said. “I've played some good golf; played some interesting golf here as well.”