Azahara Muñoz has completed her best golf tournament in a year and a half in New Jersey. It was at the Shoprite LPGA Classic presented by Acer held at the Seaview Hotel and Golf Club. The golfer from Málaga delivered three cards under 70 strokes (67-68-68) and finished in fifth position with a total of -10, five strokes behind the champion, the American Jennifer Kupcho (-15).
To find a better performance from Azahara, you have to go back to November 2023. It was the last tournament of the season, and the golfer from San Pedro de Alcántara needed a great result to keep her card. It was the The Annika Driven By Gainbridge. Azahara finished in second place, delivering four cards under 70 strokes. Today was the first time since then that she has done three in the same week.
Azahara delivered a performance full of consistency. She only committed five bogeys in 54 holes, with very good performance in all areas of the game. She was very accurate from the tee (on Saturday she hit all 14 fairways), solid in her approach shots, and brilliant both with her short game and putting. In 54 holes, she only needed 83 putts. This Sunday must be especially liberating for the Andalusian. Despite starting with two bogeys, losing many positions in the ranking, she managed to recover wonderfully with an eagle and three birdies, two of them in the last three holes of the day to secure that valuable top 5.
Azahara makes a giant leap in the Race to CME Globe. In fact, with this fifth position, she manages to get into the top 100 of the ranking, which are the ones that keep the card at the end of the season. Specifically, she has gained 56 positions, moving from 144th to 88th place. A necessary boost to her season.
In the same tournament, Julia López and Fátima Fernández Cano missed the cut, as did Maja Stark, who came from winning the US Open, but was not able to play all three days in New Jersey. Surely, she won’t mind too much. Kupcho won with a great birdie on the 18th hole and a one-stroke advantage over the South Korean Ilhee Lee (-14).
