Two Spaniards started the Ford Championship in Arizona last Thursday and both have reached the final day with their victory options intact. Full house. Fireworks. Carlota Ciganda (-15) is in first position tied with American Sarah Schmelzel and South Korean Hyo Joo Kim and Azahara Muñoz (-13) is in sixth place.
Carlota and Azahara have been and continue to be the absolute benchmark of Spanish women’s golf in the last 15 years, since they were brilliant, and very winning, amateur golfers. However, this week’s situation is exceptional. You can count on one hand the Sundays where both at the same time have had real options to win a tournament. A celebration of Spanish golf.
Carlota has fully entered the battle to win with a round this Saturday of 66 strokes, the third best of the day and the lowest of the players who were in the top 20 of the tournament. The Navarrese golfer has given a masterclass in golf at the Seville Golf and Country Club. She has been sublime from the tee and has hit shots as extraordinary as the second of the 16, holing from the fairway for an eagle. She has achieved two eagles, three birdies and a solitary bogey. She has earned a place in the stellar match.
Azahara, for her part, has had a very busy round. Again she has shown why she is the player with the greatest ease to make birdies this week. She has produced no less than five, two of them in the last three holes. One more day she has been lethal on the greens, especially with a sensational par putt on hole 10 from outside the green.
The problem today has been the mistakes. Four bogeys have fallen, two of them on par 5s. A significant burden on a course where many birdies are made, although this Saturday the conditions have been considerably more complicated by the wind. Finally, it has been 71 strokes on a day where it has been much harder to leave birdie options, after catching nine greens in regulation.
Any week with Carlota and Azahara fighting for victory with 18 holes left in the mecca of women’s golf is something very big, but much more so in this Ford Championship, as it is by far the best tournament of the LPGA Tour season. No week so far had gathered so many top world players. Specifically, in Arizona we have the top five in the world and nine of the top ten.
In fact, several of them are also in the fight to win. The list is impressive: Hyo Joo Kim (-15), Maja Stark (-14), Yuka Saso (-14), Lexi Thompson (-13), Nelly Korda (-13), Sei Young Kim (-13), Emily Pedersen (-13), Lydia Ko (-13), Nasa Hataoka (-12) or Lilia Vu (-12). Heavy artillery three or less strokes away. There are 34 players separated only by five strokes. A wonderful no-holds-barred battle with 18 holes and two Spaniards in the mix.
