First cut made- Meijer LPGA Classic
It finally came, my first made cut on the LPGA Tour. Meijer LPGA Classic at Blythefield CC was such a treat. I have never seen such a crowd at a golf tournament before, and it was an amazing experience to play in front of all the Michigan golf fans. I think it helps so much to have fans around as it becomes way more fun, and I typically play my best golf when I have fun and enjoy my time out there. I love interacting with people and make it feel like a “normal” golf round, and all the fans helps as I get more people to talk to. Many players keep to themselves and I understand that, but I really enjoy the people who come out to watch and want them to have a good time too so why not interacting with them? It also helped as I got to play with two players I’ve gotten really close to in the past few months- Louise Ridderström and Riley Rennell, and the three of us could cheer for each other when we did good things out there.
I started to strike my driver way better this week which helped as I was in the fairway most of the time and had better looks at getting close to the pin. During the first round, I got on a little birdie streak and birdied hole 6-9 after draining a 35-footer on #6. Then I had a little bit of a rollercoaster on the back 9 with a lot of missed shots, and I was pretty happy to come in at -2 after finding both the water and a TV tower. The second round was the same in scoring but felt better overall. I birdied #18 (my hole9) after hitting a 5iron from 206 yards to 3 feet on a par 5, just to miss that eagle putt (oh well, good thing I’m human). I had many many looks on birdies but it just didn’t seem to drop on the greens. I birdied my 17th hole to climb to top30 after being -4 for the tournament. I got to play the 3rd round with Megan Khang who’s such a gem to be around. However, I was nervous and really struggled the first couple holes and made some really long and clutch putts for par to stay in it that round. I ended up shooting even par that day to then shoot a +2 on the Sunday where I got to play with Nasa Hataoka and Ester Henseleit. Super good experience for me to play with Nasa and see her takeoff during that 4th round, and see what differentiate the two of us. Of course I wanted more out of my game during the weekend (and weekdays too for that matter), but overall I’m pumped to have finally made a cut on tour. It has been a struggle even though I’m loving it out here, and there are so many small things that I need to learn in this process of becoming the best version of myself. We will keep working at it and I’m looking forward to what this summer and fall has in store for me. Now I’m heading over to Sweden for a little bit of time with my family before I’m going back to Toledo, Ohio and Midland, Michigan in July.
Thank you to all of you who made it out there to cheer for me and simply supporting women’s golf, and to my amazing host family, the Skoogs, for making me feel like home. I’m really looking forward to another year in Grand Rapids!