Luna Sobrón (-4) has signed a card of 68 strokes in the first round of La Sella Open and has positioned herself in the upper part of the leaderboard. Another great round of golf from the Balearic player. One more in a solid year. She has already recorded eleven rounds under 70 strokes out of the 58 she has played, including today.
Luna has made seven birdies and three bogeys. She has been brilliant in all aspects of the game and has holed some very good putts, like the last birdies on holes 7 and 9. Interestingly, her new putter has a rather curious story. It all started, paradoxically, with some very bad news…
It happened at the Aramco Houston Championship. Her golf clubs never arrived. The airline lost them. Unfortunately, nothing new. It’s almost a daily occurrence for professionals around the world. Her brand managed to sort out the mess with an improvised set of clubs so she could at least play. The problem was they weren’t the same as hers. Not even similar. The feel was very different, and Luna ended up losing her swing. However, in Houston, she held on thanks to the putter, also new. “They gave me the new model of the one I already had, and honestly, I felt very comfortable from the start. If I finished twelfth in Houston, it was thanks to the putter, and I said: this one stays in the bag,” she explains.
The adjustments she had to make to adapt to the emergency clubs in Houston took their toll. She got out of sync and missed the cut in Switzerland last week. Everything has returned to normal thanks to a visit to the ‘workshop’. A couple of days with her father Marcos between missing the cut last week and before starting La Sella, and the issue was resolved. Everything is back in order, and she has quickly regained her solidity.
Luna has four top 10 finishes this season and has already been very close to clinching her first victory on the Ladies European Tour. It was in the Czech Republic. She finished second, behind Casandra Alexander, who shot 62 in the final round. She has 17 top 10 finishes throughout her career in the LET and is confident of soon opening her record. It’s something that’s on her mind. “We are working on it with a psychologist and with my team, with my father and with Álvaro (Alonso). I think we are doing things right. Every day I have more confidence and feel that it’s close. Honestly, I have something inside, a certain feeling, that tells me the first victory is just around the corner. However, it’s not about forcing it or becoming obsessed because that would work against me. I just have to keep playing well, giving myself opportunities, trusting the process, and it will come… But yes, I think it’s close,” she assures.
It should happen naturally. It’s been 10 years since Luna amazed the world as the best amateur at the British Open. She came close to the top 10. She has played very well, had consistently good results in the LET, never struggled to keep her card, and has also given herself opportunities on the LPGA Tour. She has held the American card and wants to give herself that opportunity again. “Last year I didn’t play the LPGA School because I didn’t feel good, but this year I will play again. I have to start in the second stage unless I finish in the top 10 of the order of merit in the LET and then go straight to the final. I feel my game is getting better and my goal is to try again in America,” she states. In this regard, her plan is not to play the India tournament of the LET to compete in the second stage of the LPGA School, unless, of course, she is well within the top ten of the LET and doesn’t need that second stage.
The first victory will come when it’s meant to, but it’s certainly much closer if Luna maintains the level of golf she’s been showing recently and mentally remains calm and confident.
At the end of the morning session, the lead is held by the young 16-year-old Canadian Anna Huang (-8), who has reached the LET through the School and now has a good category through the re-ranking. Her season is being very solid. She recently finished seventh in Switzerland and has ended up five times among the top 25. Two strokes behind Huang are Leonie Harm (-6) and Nastasia Nadaud (-6).
As for the rest of the Spanish players who played in the morning, Harang Lee finished at PAR, while Carolina López Chacarra (+1), Natasha Fear (+3), María Villanueva (+4), Teresa Toscano (+6), and María Hernández (+6) played over par.
In the battle for the order of merit, the first round went to Shannon Tan (-3), Number 2 in the ranking, ahead of Mimi Rhodes (-2), Number One, and Sara Kouskova (PAR), Number 3. The three played together.
