A little over a year ago, Adela Cernousek, a golfer born in the French town of Antibes, though of Czech origin, was a promising amateur playing at Texas A&M University, sharing locker rooms and experiences with the Spanish sisters Blanca and Cata Fernández. She still had another year to complete her university cycle, but suddenly her life accelerated to the point where today she is, for the first time, leading an LPGA Tour tournament after delivering a 64-shot card at the opening of the The Standard Portland Classic. She turned 22 on Wednesday. A wonderful way to celebrate.
To reach this leadership, Cernousek has been breaking down barriers with the ease of a bulldozer. It all started with her individual victory last May at the NCAA Final. A big hit. She continued by breaking into the world amateur top 10 and playing a couple of Majors. She capped it off with the LPGA Tour card through the School. Her life started moving so fast that she decided to bring forward her plans. Just before the LPGA Tour School Final, last December, she turned professional. There would be time to finish her degree. She had eight subjects left.
This wonderful journey has been made hand in hand with Jorge Parada, a Galician caddie who also manages Carlota Ciganda’s career. They started working together more than two years ago, and the results are indisputable. Cernousek, however, struggled to get the season going. There were many changes in a very short time, and adaptation was necessary. Of her first seven tournaments on the LPGA, she only made one cut and finished in 65th place.
However, something changed at the Meijer LPGA Classic last June, a tournament that Carlota curiously won. She made her second cut and achieved her best result by finishing in 22nd place. She then debuted on the Epson Tour, finishing 13th, and her latest achievement was finishing in an extraordinary fourth place at the PIF London Championship last week. Today, she is leading the LPGA Tour for the first time in her career. It seems she took a little break in the first half of this 2025, and now her career is starting to take off again.
Cernousek’s magnificent round in Portland was based on a very solid day from tee to green. In fact, she hit all 18 greens in regulation and posted a great score of eight under par despite not going below 30 putts. Her five-under stretch between holes 4 and 7 was decisive. It’s another flash. It’s only the first round, and we’ll see how the tournament ends, but certainly, this Thursday at the Columbia Edgewater Country Club, she has shed a large part of the burden of doubt she was carrying.
The leaderboard is very tight. She has a one-shot lead over five players: Jeongeun Lee 5, Miranda Wang, Sunhyun Park, Brooke Henderson, and Gurleen Kaur. Among them, two standout names. South Korean Park has improved her best round of 2025 by three shots. The former World Number One has been in a black hole for a long time. We’ll see if this is the beginning of a resurrection or just a swan song. Meanwhile, Henderson has regained her best form in familiar and friendly territory for her, as the Canadian won consecutively here in 2015 and 2016.
Two Spaniards are playing in the Portland Classic. Carolina López Chacarra, invited as the winner of the Juli Inkster Award, has made par and is just outside the cut. She made three bogeys and three birdies. It’s not a bad start, although she’ll need to beat the course today if she wants to play over the weekend. Meanwhile, Julia López (+2) hasn’t had the best start. The key was a bad day from the tee. She only hit three fairways. She needs to come back in the second round. It wouldn’t be the first time.
