María Hernández (-7) has signed a 66 today in the second round of the Andalucía Costa del Sol Open de España for women, a card of six under par for the day that has boosted her chances for the weekend. It’s nothing new for the Navarrese, in 2024, to be capable of completing such splendid rounds of golf, especially as she arrived at this event in ninth place in the Ladies European Tour ranking. On Thursday, by the way (a round of 71 strokes), she already hit the ball so well, or even better, but she holed much less on the greens, so in any case, it’s worth including her in the group of serious contenders for the final victory on Sunday.
Apparently, the 38-year-old Navarrese was playing for another juicy objective this week at the Real Guadalhorce Club de Golf, beyond the fight for victory. It was to finish within the top ten of the 2024 European ranking, which precisely closes this Sunday, to earn the right to play in the Final of the LPGA Tour School, which takes place next week. Well, it can already be anticipated that there is no case in this regard: María Hernández has already more than decided that, no matter what happens and where she finishes in the ranking, she will not cross the pond to play the American School Final… And this is where Rossi enters the equation.
Who is Rossi? María’s dog. A beautiful Swiss shepherd, to be more specific. And what does she have to do with all this? María’s decision not to attempt, for the moment, a return to the American dream (she was already on the LPGA Tour between 2010 and 2018) is simply related to a vital impulse. “Right now, I am very comfortable at home, with my parents, in my Pamplona, with my dog…”, she explains. Okay, Rossi is just a more or less witty way of seeing it, or the expression, if you like, of the more prosaic part of her life, which is what fulfills her the most today. María understands today that a walk through any Navarrese mountain, in search of mushrooms and in the company of Rossi, cannot be traded even for the American dream. “I was there for many years and it’s an experience I’ve already lived. What I have now, I wouldn’t change for anything.”
The Spanish player has been working hard in recent weeks on some technical improvements related to the sequence of swing movement. She knew that it might not be the best time to make such changes, but she wanted to get ahead of the work for next season, among other things because she was not going to attend the LPGA Tour School. This week, in Malaga and on a course she had never played before, she is starting to reap the benefits of this work. Today, for example, it was delightful to see how close to the flag she left some balls, especially on the par 5s of Guadalhorce.
In short, over fourteen years ago María Hernández achieved her first and only victory on the Ladies European Tour in Slovakia. This week, for now, she has positioned herself to become the third Spanish player capable of winning our country’s Open, after Muñoz and Ciganda.
