Face and reverse for Azahara Muñoz (-1) and Ana Peláez (+9) at the LOTTE Championship presented by Hoakalei, an LPGA Tour tournament taking place at the Hoakalei Country Club in Ewa Beach, Oahu, Hawaii. It wasn’t a good second round for either of them, but at least Azahara managed to make the cut and keeps her options intact in the tournament, while Ana had a day to forget, a round of 81 strokes that prevents her from continuing in the tournament.
The truth is that Azahara kept the round under control in the first 15 holes. Her progress was notable, very similar to what she had done on the first day. She started with eight consecutive pars and broke the round towards the birdie. She achieved them on holes 9 and 11, a good pace that allowed her to stay in pursuit of the top 10, hovering around the fifteenth position. However, her scorecard took a turn for the worse in the final stretch, especially with a double stumble on hole 16. She made a double bogey and continued with another bogey on 17. Setback. A sequence of +3 that made her fall back almost 30 positions at once, placing her in the 46th spot.
The golfer from San Pedro de Alcántara, despite that bitter final taste, has achieved the first goal of the week, which was none other than making the cut. She ensures she will add to the Race to CME Globe, although she knows she needs two really good final rounds to get closer to the prize she needs. Let’s remember that to maintain full playing rights on the LPGA for next year, and thus avoid the Q-School Final, she would have to finish in the top five. It’s a challenging mission, but considering she still has one more tournament after this Hawaii event, anything that adds points would give her more options in that last and decisive stop that will take place in Florida next week.
The bad news is for Ana Peláez. The Malaga native has missed the cut after a day where nothing went her way. Thus, it seems she is already out of options to defend her presence on the LPGA Tour through the Race to CME Globe, as she is not initially entering next week’s tournament in Florida. Right now, she is the 32nd reserve player. Many golfers would have to drop out ahead for her to end up entering the tournament. If she doesn’t enter Florida, Ana will only have the opportunity to play the LPGA Tour Q-School Final with a great performance at the Spanish Open in Guadalhorce that allows her to finish in the top 10 of the Ladies European Tour order of merit. Through the Race to CME Globe, she will no longer be able to play the Q-School Final, as the classification is reserved for the top 150 after the Arkansas tournament at the end of September, and Peláez was already beyond the 170th position at that time.
As for the tournament, there is a four-way tie at the top: Russian Nataliya Guseva, Japanese Yuri Yoshida, Chinese Ruixin Lin, and Korean A Lim Kim, all with -9. Guseva’s story is curious, a golfer who was even considered as a possible choice for the Solheim Cup. The player competing without a flag has a special motivation to win. “I made a pact with my mother at the beginning of the season. I want to have a Cocker Spaniel, it’s my greatest wish, and my mother told me she would buy it for me if I win an LPGA tournament. So this week I’m not thinking about winning the tournament, but about being able to have my dog,” she confesses.
