Showing posts with label Azahara Muñoz. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Azahara Muñoz. Show all posts

Sunday, 27 October 2013

Pettersen Keeps Taiwan Title

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Suzann Pettersen held off a late challenge from Azahara Munoz to retain her Sunrise LPGA Championship title in Taiwan.

Pettersen's overnight four-shot lead had been whittled down to a single stroke at the turn after she bogeyed the ninth following three birdies in four holes from Munoz, who then joined the Norwegian on six under with another birdie at 12.

But the world No 2 responded with two straight birdies at 13 and 14, and another at the last capped a resolute three-under 69 and earned a five-shot victory over her Solheim Cup team-mate.

Munoz was left to count the cost of dropped shots at 13 and 16 as she laboured to a back-nine 37, although she still claimed outright second on four under par.

"I was 4 under through 12 holes, and I was really playing really well," said the Spaniard. "I made two bogeys coming in but I hit two really good shots and one came up short and one came up long, just misjudged the wind a little bit but I played really well."

Pettersen's fourth victory of the season made significant inroads into world No 1 Inbee Park's lead at the top of the LPGA Money List.

Park, who did not play in Taiwan, leads Pettersen by just $93,613 with two tournaments remaining this season.

"It feels great to come here and defend my title and play as well as I did," said Pettersen, whose win was the 14th LPGA Tour title of her career.

"It was very tough out there. Since the very first shot on Thursday, the conditions gave us a very big challenge. Today, Azahara gave me an even bigger challenge.

"She played really good on the front nine - well, she played really good all around. I think I can almost thank her for keep pressing and keep pushing me because I just had to keep staying aggressive and try to make birdies."

Another Solheim Cup star, Caroline Hedwall, closed with a two-under 70 to clinch third place on two under, while South Korean Eun-Hee Jee was the only other player to finish under par for the week.


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Monday, 5 August 2013

Hull Receives Solheim Cup Call

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Teenager Charley Hull has been confirmed as one of Liselotte Neumann's wildcard picks for Team Europe at the Solheim Cup later this month.

The 17-year-old rookie has five second-placed finishes from six events this season and will becomes the youngest player in the tournament's history.

Neumann's other three wildcard selections are Sweden's Caroline Hedwall, Giulia Sergas of Italy and another English player in America-based Jodi Ewart-Shadoff.

They join eight automatic qualifiers - Suzann Pettersen (Norway), Carlota Ciganda (Spain), Catriona Matthew (Scotland), Caroline Masson (Germany), Beatriz Recari (Spain), Anna Nordqvist (Sweden), Karine Icher (France) and Azahara Munoz (Spain) - for the event at Colorado Golf Club in Parker from August 16-18.

The squad features six rookies and five players from the victorious team at Killeen Castle in Ireland two years ago, but there is no place for the most experienced player in Solheim Cup history, Laura Davies, who revealed last week that she already knew she would not be receiving a wildcard.

Neumann said: "It's always difficult when you come down to this. It's hard to talk to some of the players who are not on the team, that's really the hard part.

"On the other hand I am super excited about the four picks that I made. They are very happy and our team is happy. I am very confident at this moment.

"I feel that Charley is playing fearless golf. You look at her stats, she shoots in the 60s about 30% of the time which is pretty good, she has finished runner-up five times on the European Tour, she's a strong player and she brings to our team what we are looking for.

"She has a lot of energy, she's a long hitter which is going to be great for Colorado. It's quite generous off the tees and we are playing up at altitude and the ball will fly. I think she can bring a lot of great things for our team and I am very excited about her.

"It's been so difficult for us every time we have been over there. The crowds are hard. If this team can mentally prepare for this, I really believe this team can do it."


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