2021 has been a year of struggles for Maria Fassi. The 23-year-old from Mexico comes to the Amundi Evian Championship off a season-best tie for 12th at last week’s Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational, where she partnered with fellow Arkansas alumna Stacy Lewis. Other than that, Fassi’s tie for 50th at the HUGEL-AIR PREMIA LA Open in April was her only other made-cut of the year, missing the weekend in 10 tournaments.
Fassi was even sidelined for six weeks after knee surgery but feels like her game is finally coming into shape as she comes to Evian-les-Bains and one of her favorite courses of the year.
“I've had a couple good practice days already and excited for the pro-am and just for the week to start,” said Fassi on Tuesday. “I think it's a good golf course, and it suits my eye off the tee. So just, yeah, happy to get started and hopefully it's a good week for us.”
Fassi absolutely beamed when asked about her partnership with Lewis last week. Saying she “learned so much from her,” Fassi loved a week of getting walk alongside one of her mentors and dug deep into what has made Lewis such an illustrious LPGA Tour champion and leading voice in women’s athletics.
“I think I grew up a lot. I mean, as a person, as a golfer. It was pretty cool to see how she plays the game, why she does certain things,” said Fassi. “I asked her a million questions from what it is that she does on practice rounds, what is she looking for, to why she's hitting some of the shots she was or why, yeah, she plays the way she plays.
“And kind of hearing the reasoning behind to ask ever and seeing the results she's had, I think it makes a lot of sense, but also is something that I think I can relate to and also make it my own.”
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