The three Spanish players who started this Thursday at the JM Eagle Championship, a tournament on the LPGA Tour held at the El Caballero Country Club in Los Angeles, have missed the cut. Fátima Fernández Cano (-3), Azahara Muñoz (-2), and Julia López (-2) have failed. The cut was set at a demanding four under par. There’s a lot of birdie action.
We focus precisely on that stroke that Fátima missed to make it to the weekend. It is nothing more than a reflection of what has been happening to the Galician since the year began. She has played four tournaments, missed all four cuts, and, precisely, three of them have been by just one stroke.
Fernández Cano is going through one of those moments when it seems like nothing is going to go your way. You can miss the cut, but when three out of four times you miss by one stroke, it’s inevitable to start thinking about bad luck. This week it was with a bogey on the 17th. Even more cruel. Another day dying at the shore, which lately seems more like a wall for the Spaniard.
Be that as it may, it’s not difficult to take a positive reading of everything that’s happening. She’s really there. The golfer from Santiago de Compostela is very close. For the same price, she could have made three out of four cuts. The line couldn’t be thinner. On the other hand, if there’s a golfer who knows what it means for nothing to go your way for one, two, three, and four weeks, it’s Fátima, and she has also amply demonstrated that she always ends up finding the resources to get up and turn things around.
Things aren’t going much better for the two players from Málaga. Azahara and Julia have only made the cut in one of the four tournaments they’ve played this year. And in the only one they managed, they finished far back in the standings. We are in April, on the verge of the first women’s Major, and things aren’t quite working out. There’s still a lot of life ahead, but a good start was important to position themselves high in the various reshuffles, especially for Julia and Azahara, who come from the School. There’s nothing left but to keep digging until the dynamic changes.
As for the top of the JM Eagle Championship, the lead is shared by Ingrid Lindblad (-13) and Ashleigh Buhai (-13). Special mention for the Swedish player’s round. She shot 63, her lowest score in the LPGA, with an exceptional display of golf. She hit all 18 greens and putted for birdie on nine of them from 4.5 metres or less. A masterclass.
The leaderboard is very tight. There are 19 players separated by only four strokes, so really anything can still happen with 36 holes to go. In that space, we have Minjee Lee (-12), Lauren Coughlin (-11), Andrea Lee (-10), Sei Young Kim (-10), Jeeno Thitikul (-9), or Nelly Korda (-9).
