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Video: Azahara Munoz's 5 Favorite Things

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 Comments

Azahara Munoz's win at last weekend's Sybase Match Play might've gotten lost with all the attention focused on the slow-play story.

A 24-year-old from Spain, Munoz won her first LPGA title in the tour's only match-play event, beating Morgan Pressel with a controversial rules decision.

What you haven't heard much, though, over the last few days, is that Munoz is a rising start in women's golf.

The native of San Pedro del Alcantara, Spain, who played college golf at Arizona State University, made her mark in her first appearance on the Solheim Cup team, going 2-1-1 to help Europe to a win over the U.S.

She obviously likes the match-play format, too, beating LPGA legend Karrie Webb in the second round, American stud Stacy Lewis handily in the quarters, 5 and 4, and Jodi Ewart, who had previously knocked off Solheim Cup veterans Suzann Pettersen and Sophie Gustafson, the round previous.

While the focus has all been on Pressel and their rules dispute, we caught up with Munoz on her way to the practice green, to give you a little idea of who Munoz is.

Related: Stina Sternberg's Q&A with Azahara Munoz



--Stephen Hennessey

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Morgan Pressel in position to capture first victory since 2008

Saturday, May 19, 2012 Comments

120519_morgan_pressel.jpgGLADSTONE, N.J. -- Winning the Sybase Match Play Championship would be quite an early birthday present for Morgan Pressel, who turns 24 next Wednesday. Given the recent arc of her career, though, just making it to Sunday morning's semifinals is a well-earned gift in itself.

Pressel's best finish in 2012 was a T-20 at the Kia Classic. She is looking for her first victory since 2008. After a rousing comeback victory over No. 2 seed Na Yeon Choi Saturday morning, Pressel defeated Anna Nordqvist 5 and 4 Saturday afternoon. For Pressel, who will face 24-year-old Azahara Munoz of Spain on Sunday, this week has been a big step forward. (Candie Kung and Vicky Hurst will square off in the other semifinal.)

"No matter what happens, this is the best I've played in a long time," Pressel said. "I finally feel comfortable with my game again to a point where I haven't been in a while. I'm going to give it everything I have tomorrow. But I just have a lot of confidence going into the heart of the season."

Pressel has been working recently with instructor Ron Stockton, previously her short-game coach, on all parts of her game. She is trying to recapture some of the magic that made her the youngest winner (18 years, 10 months, 9 days) of an LPGA major championship at the 2007 Kraft Nabsico.

"Certainly people put expectations on me -- the media, the fans, my sponsors, everybody wants me to play well," Pressel said. "Having won the Kraft so young, I'm never going to say it was a bad thing. I mean, I'm a major champion, the youngest in LPGA history. I probably more than anybody else put extra pressure on myself to really be a world-beater, and I don't think I was quite ready for that and don't think I was quite mature enough for that."

-- Bill Fields

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Tseng falls in Match Play as upset theme continues

Saturday, May 19, 2012 Comments
GLADSTONE, N.J. -- It's match play. Upsets happen. And they have at the LPGA's Sybase Match Play Championship at Hamilton Farm GC.
 
The week's underdog theme continued unbridled Saturday morning in the third round as Rolex Rankings No. 1 and top tournament seed Yani Tseng was defeated by No. 49 Candie Kung.

sybase-Yani-Sat-2.jpgYani Tseng plays her third shot on No. 15 at Hamilton Farm GC in third-round loss.
Photo by Bill Fields
 
Tseng, who scraped out tough wins in the first two matches, talked briefly through tears after losing 3-and-2 to Kung. Trailing 1 down through 14 holes, Tseng bogeyed No. 15 from behind the green to go 2-down, then lost on the par-3 16th when Kung made a birdie.
 
Kung will face No. 41 Julieta Granada in the quarterfinals Saturday afternoon. The other quarterfinal matches are Morgan Pressel (19) vs. Anna Nordqvist (26), So Yeon Ryu (13) vs. Vicky Hurst and Stacy Lewis (6) vs. Azahara Munoz (19).

--Bill Fields
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The LPGA Tour: Indeed, it's different out here

Friday, May 18, 2012 Comments

GLADSTONE, N.J. - Can you picture a PGA Tour pro teeing it up with a group of amateurs on a Friday morning of a tournament week?

No? Well that's because that would never happen.

It's just one reason it's different out here on the LPGA Tour.

"If we just try to do what the PGA Tour does, we can't really win," Karin Sjodin said. "They're doing it at such a high level already and have the pull that their stars do. So we have to kind of branch out in other ways so we can get other people involved and get more tournaments for us, too."

MozoMatchPlay

(Photo of Mozo at Hamilton Farms' picturesque 16th hole: Chris Trotman/Getty Images. Mozo played the par-3 course in a pro-am on Friday.)

Nearly every player who lost their first round matches at the Sybase Match Play Championship played in a pro-am on the Hamilton Farms' par-3 Hickory Course on Friday. Defending champion Suzanne Pettersen, knocked off by 62-seed Jodi Ewart in the first round, was the only one to decline the offer.

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Sybase defending champ bows out in opening match

Thursday, May 17, 2012 Comments

GLADSTONE, N.J. -- Down two after two holes, Jodi Ewart thought she was going to get "absolutely thrashed."

She didn't put much pressure on herself coming into the match. She was the third-lowest ranked player in the field. Matched up against defending Sybase champion and 2011 Solheim Cup slayer Suzann Pettersen, it didn't matter if she exited early and got ready for tomorrow's pro-am with losing players. Yet she also didn't want to waste a chance against one of the game's elite.

"This was my opportunity to show people what I can do and what my golf game is like," Ewart said. "Obviously, you know, I'm playing the world No. 3, so it was probably the most mentally draining match I've ever gone through."

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It was worth the stress. The 62nd-ranked native of England rallied back to go 1-up after 16, and Pettersen conceded her a 15-footer for birdie on the 17th hole to end the match. Ewart's 3 and 1 upset of Pettersen was the biggest surprise of Thursday's opening round of the Sybase Match Play Championship at Hamilton Farm Golf Club.

Related: Pettersen's match-play success in 2011 an underrated feat

The recently-engaged Ewart (the wedding's set for January) said she wanted to get off to a good start to have a chance against Pettersen. That didn't happen, but she still stormed back to even the match with birdies at Nos. 3 and 4, then won three straight holes (11-13) to put pressure on the No. 3-ranked player in the world.

Once Pettersen ran her 20-foot birdie try about eight feet past on No. 17, she conceded the match to Ewart, who would've had to three-putt from 15 feet to drop the hole. But she had three-putted No. 14 and almost lipped out a short putt on 15, so it was a bit of a shock when Pettersen took off her cap to congratulate her.

"I just played awful from the fairway to the green," Pettersen said. "I missed more greens today than I have all year."

Pettersen didn't lose to a slouch, though.

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Pettersen looks to defend at Sybase Match Play

Wednesday, May 16, 2012 Comments

GLADSTONE, N.J. -- Everyone knows about Yani Tseng's 13 tournament titles last year, but one of 2011's most underrated feats in women's golf was Suzann Pettersen's dominant match-play record.

Across the continent last year at Killeen Castle, the No. 3-ranked player in the world helped Europe grab the Solheim Cup in spectacular fashion when she birdied three straight holes to complete a comeback against Michelle Wie on the final day in the Europe's 15-13 win over the U.S.

blog_pettersen_0516.jpg

Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images

Even before crushing the U.S. team's hopes last year, Pettersen won the only match-play event on the LPGA Tour. She's back to defend at this week's Sybase Match Play Championship, opening up against Jodi Ewart of England tomorrow.

"You have to bring your 'A' game and you can't take anything for granted," Pettersen said Wednesday at Hamilton Farm G.C. "If you're playing Cristie [Kerr], or you're playing who ever else it might be, you just have to bring it on and take on every shot and try to win as many holes as you can."

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Timing of Pak's shoulder injury "couldn't have been worse"

Tuesday, May 1, 2012 Comments

blog_gdw_pak_0501.jpgAccording to swing coach Tom Creavy, who says the timing of Se Ri Pak's shoulder injury "couldn't have been worse," it is unlikely the LPGA Hall of Famer will be able to play in the U.S. Women's Open at Blackwolf Run in Kohler, Wis., the site of her most memorable victory as a professional.

Creavy estimates that there's a 20 percent chance Pak could play at Blackwolf, where in 1998 she won a 20-hole playoff over Jenny Chuasiriporn. It was the second of Pak's 25 career wins and also the second of her five majors -- both tops among Koreans, who have become dominant on tour since Pak's breakout season 14 years ago.

Pak slipped on a stairway prior to the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic at the Magnolia Grove Crossings course at Alabama's Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail and suffered a slight tear in her labrum when she braced herself against a railing.

In an effort to avoid surgery, Pak will rest and rehab the arm. "The best-case scenario is that she'll be hitting balls the week before the U.S. Women's Open," Creavy said. "But the doctors told her the longer she takes to let it heal and not try to push it, the better off she'll be. They're saying to wait until the Asian swing in September-October, making sure [she's] 100 percent."

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Tseng takes lead, heads out to play... basketball?

Friday, March 30, 2012 Comments
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- Victory is never preordained in golf, but it sometimes seems that way these days. One round into the Kraft Nabisco Championship, it was said that Yani Tseng trailed by two and that they'd never catch her. Two rounds into it, the question now is what her margin of victory will be.

GDWyani2ndrd.gifTseng's Friday 68 included five birdies and one bogey. (Photo by Getty Images)

It isn't over, of course. She could twist an ankle. With an afternoon off on Friday, Tseng said she planned to go to the gym to "do some cardio and play some basketball with my team."

Seriously. "I played basketball when I was very young," she said. "I played every day."

An Orlando Magic fan by virtue of her residence in the area, Tseng shot a second straight round of four-under par 68 on the Dinah Shore Tournament Course to open a two-stroke lead over Sun Young Yoo.

Lindsey Wright, who was one shot off the lead after the first, is now three back and has yet to tee off.

"Today was much better than yesterday," Tseng said. "Today, my focus was so much better. I was hitting the ball very consistently today. Everything was very good today."

--John Strege

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Liselotte Neumann named next European Solheim Cup captain

Wednesday, March 28, 2012 Comments

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. -- The Ladies European Tour's aggressive, though ultimately unsuccessful courtship of Annika Sorenstam to captain its Solheim Cup team in 2013 led them to the Swede who initially piqued Sorenstam's interest in golf.

The LET announced here on Wednesday that Liselotte Neumann, 45, would be the next European Solheim Cup captain.

blog_neumann_strege_0328.jpg

Photo: David Cannon/Getty Images

Sorenstam was approached twice about becoming the captain, but each time declined, citing time constraints as a result of raising two young children.

Neumann, who won 13 LPGA and eight LET tournaments, is best known for her victory in the U.S. Women's Open in 1988, which Sorenstam credits for having inspired her to pursue golf more vigorously. Neumann played on six consecutive European Solheim Cup teams from 1990 through 2000.

"I think the Solheim Cup for me obviously has a lot of highlights in my career," she said here Wednesday morning. "I'm definitely ranking this at the very top, I think."

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The LPGA Tour's wow factor

Saturday, March 17, 2012 Comments
PHOENIX, Ariz. - Sometimes things just work out. When the LPGA lost Safeway as a sponsor for the Phoenix stop on tour the event lived one year at Papago Park, a municipal course, with local sponsors, but that was a one-off deal. The prospect of losing a tournament in the golf-mad Arizona desert seemed to shout a warning about the underlying weakness of the tour. Then something remarkable happened.
 
Mike Whan, the commissioner who took over right as the global economy was tanking, convinced RR Donnelley, the official printer of the tour, to become a title sponsor. And it was decided that the event would honor the founders of the LPGA, which made the fact that the first installment of the RR Donnelley Founders Cup was played without prize money a little easier to swallow, which is not to say there weren't some complaints and a few no-shows.
 
But almost as soon as players began arriving at the JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa last year, even the most vocal critics quickly realized how special this tournament is. On hand were three of the 13 founders - Louise Suggs, Marilynn Smith and Shirley Spork - and a gaggle of Hall of Fame members.
 
That tradition continued this year with the same three founders in attendance and, on Saturday morning, legends Pat Bradley, Betsy King, Nancy Lopez and Patty Sheehan played a nine-hole exhibition that featured a lot of good golf and even more laughs. That foursome won a combined 148 LPGA tournaments, including 17 majors. It's like watching Mantle, Mays, Aaron and Clemente play baseball.

120317_sheehan_bradley.jpgPat Bradley watches Patty Sheehan tee off. (Photo by Getty Images)

"It's like the good, old days," Bradley said on the first tee. So was some of the golf. With King a limping observer with a banged up ACL hurt while playing basketball at Furman University 35 years ago, the other three all hit the first green and Sheehan rolled in her 15-foot birdie putt.
 
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