Blanca Fernández (-2) shows why she has turned professional. The Madrid-born golfer is playing the La Sella Open with a tournament invitation and has given a very good demonstration of what she is capable of on a golf course during the inaugural day.
Blanca has handed in a scorecard of 70 strokes in her debut at the Ladies European Tour. Not bad at all. Not everyone is capable of doing this on their first round on the circuit: “I’m very happy. I tried to stay focused on each shot, I didn’t always succeed, but I’m happy it went this way. I like to start well,” she concludes with humour. Her success allows her to provisionally position herself among the top twenty in the tournament and as the best Spanish player of the day.
The round of golf can be said to have been very ‘Blanca-like’. She is an aggressive player and likes to go for it as soon as she sees the opportunity. The result is that she has made six birdies at La Sella Golf for four bogeys. She beat the course on the second nine holes today, which clearly have more complexity than the first round.
And that’s even though the round didn’t start off in the best way. After hitting a great shot from the tee of her first hole, starting from the 10th, she left herself a second shot of just 80 metres: “I got overconfident. That’s what I’m saying, there are times when I lose concentration and there I really thought it was a very easy shot that I had trained for. Well, take that. A second shot that wasn’t good has gone very far to the right on the edge of the green and three putts”. The best news is that Blanca knows herself and knows where she needs to work. There is no easy shot, she repeats over and over again.
From there, the Spaniard gradually loosened up. Birdie on the 12th, bogey on the 13th. From hole 14, Blanca unleashed. Nine consecutive holes without a mistake and with four successes: “I played super well that stretch. Making good birdies and saving pars without much difficulty”. Then came the great moment of the player trained in Texas. She was closing her first round at hole 18. “After a long drive I had the ball quite sunk in the rough and I played a five iron to the draw that I hit exactly as I wanted. It was perfect, I passed the flag and left myself an eagle option of three metres”. The pity was that the putt fell short and she had to settle for the birdie. Great shot from the Madrid-born golfer.
In the final stretch, she missed some opportunities and with some bad luck like the ball that got stuck in the bunker slope on hole five of the course and that ended her triumphant streak without a mistake.
The round could well have been 69 strokes, after two good shots at her last flag. She was on the antegreen in two on a par five and would have about fifteen metres to the flag. The shot was screaming for a chip that would roll to the hole. “I don’t know what went through my head that I saw very clearly that I had to putt. The reality is that I was scared, I wanted to finish the round well and I looked for security by putting”. She appreciates her ability to analyse what happened and the honesty to tell it without beating around the bush. Chapeau. The result was that she barely moved the ball a few metres: “Hey, but from ten metres I made two putts. It wasn’t easy after the shot I had made”, she acknowledges herself amused.
One stroke behind started Luna Sobrón (-1). A result that allows her to settle among the top thirty in the tournament. “It was a shame because I started very well with three consecutive birdies and in the end the round got twisted”. The Majorcan’s year is being very high. She accumulates thirteen top 25s in the season. As she acknowledges: “I lack a perfect Sunday to finish with something big. I’m working on it with my psychologist. I think I go out without fear, but we are analysing it and little by little I am winning that battle”.
Things went worse for Carla Tejedo in her professional debut. Round of +2, but still with enough margin to sneak into the weekend.
