BELLEAIR, Fla. — LPGA Tour winner Gaby Lopez celebrated her 30th birthday on Thursday at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, carding a 5-under 65 to kick off her week at Pelican Golf Club. She went birdie-bogey on her first two holes of the day, making two more birdies on holes 4 and 7 to turn in 33. The Mexico native made four consecutive pars before grabbing a birdie on the par-5 14th hole and finished off her day with a pair of back-to-back birdies on holes 17 and 18 to post a 65, her first round of 65 or better since day two of the Dana Open.
The 65 ties her season-low round on the LPGA Tour and also ties her lowest recorded score at The ANNIKA, which she last shot during the first round last year. This is her third appearance in this event, and with three rounds to play in Belleair, Fla., Lopez will be looking to improve upon her previous two finishes of T6 and T4 in 2021 and 2022, respectively, something she’s well on her way to doing through round one at Pelican Golf Club.
“It was very solid. My iron play has been very solid the last few weeks,” said Lopez, who hit 13 of 14 fairways and 10 of 18 greens on day one. “I think it's a golf course that demands a lot of good second shots into the greens. There are some tough pin positions, and there are some slippery front edges of the greens, so just got to be very strategic. I'm really happy with the way we positioned ourselves. I rolled it good on the greens, so, just happy overall.”
It’s been a rollercoaster 2023 season for the LPGA Tour veteran. Lopez started strong, recording a tie for sixth finish at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, an event she won in 2020. However, the next 11 tournaments were a slog as she missed four cuts and only managed to find the top 30 twice, tying for 28th at The Chevron Championship and tying for 27th at the U.S. Women’s Open.
She flipped the script in July, recording back-to-back top-10 results with a tie for seventh at the Dana Open in her title defense and tying for third at The Amundi Evian Championship, her best finish in a major championship since joining the Tour in 2016. And once again, things got slow in the late summer and early fall as Lopez missed two more cuts and only found the top 20 once, tying for 19th at the Kroger Queen City Championship presented by P&G.
Lopez finally found the top 10 again at the Maybank Championship, finishing solo 10th in the inaugural edition of the event, and it seems like the momentum she generated from that solid week in Malaysia has carried over to The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican, something that had the fiery Latina raring to go before the start of the penultimate event of the season.
“I told my caddie yesterday, we were practicing, I told him, ‘I don't want the season to finish.’ I was like, ‘Can we just keep going?’ He said to me, ‘We're going to be back in a blink of an eye. Be patient,’” said Lopez. It's really important to get some momentum and see that your hard work is paying off. I'm happy to be seeing those good shots and putts dropping in.
“It's really tough, especially because, as athletes, we want to peak all year long. That's something unrealistic. You just got to be resilient when you're going down into those valleys because they're not going to last forever. I'm really thankful that my caddie has stayed patient as well with me because it's a team effort.”
With three rounds to play at Pelican Golf Club, Lopez knows she will need more of the same kind of golf she played on Thursday throughout the next 54 holes if she wants to contend for her fourth LPGA Tour title. But for now, at least until Friday morning anyway, golf is on the back burner, and birthday celebrations are on tap for the 30-year-old as she’s planning to have a “dinner party with some of my sponsors and a couple of friends on Tour,” one that will be that much sweeter after a solid first round at The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican.
@GabyLopezGOLF ¡Feliz cumpleaños! Deseo que sigas disfrutando de la vida tanto como hasta ahora. Que vengan muchos birdies dentro y fuera del campo.
— Lorena Ochoa Reyes (@LorenaOchoaR) November 9, 2023
Gracias por apoyar al golf de nuestros país, y ser un ejemplo para las nuevas generaciones. pic.twitter.com/Y4Nmjmt9PF
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