There are nine hours by car, maybe a bit more, from Mobile, Alabama, the home of the LPGA Tour Q-School Finals, to my house in Florida. It’s more than enough time to reflect on what has happened this year and, above all, what has happened in these last few days. Q-School is tough. It’s torture. There comes a point where all you want is for it to be over, almost regardless of how. That’s how I felt fifteen years ago, the first time I played it, and that’s how it has been this time. There are moments when you think: is all this really worth it? I think I can say this is the last time I play it. Whatever happens. I don’t want to go back
Beyond the suffering, which is exactly as it is, I have to say that I am happy, satisfied, and proud to have been able to secure the card. Sorry, but you’re going to have me giving it a go for at least another year. And I’m really looking forward to it. I really want to. And don’t think it’s always been like this. Before the Olympic Games, I was in a major crisis. I wasn’t playing well, the results weren’t coming, and I was just suffering on the course. It was a bad time. It got to a point where I practically didn’t want to play, it was like torture.
At the same time, I felt terrible for thinking like that. I told myself, but Aza, it’s the Games, the competition that excites you the most, competing for Spain, how big this is, how can you not want to… But that’s how it was. However, in Paris, I began to see the light and there was a turning point. Among other things, it was thanks to Marcelo Prieto, my lifelong coach. He helped me a lot that week.
I had been working with Edo Miquel, a Chilean coach who, as you know, is part of, among others, Joaco Niemann‘s team. I’ve learned a lot from him, they’ve taught me a ton of things, but in the end, it didn’t work on the course. There was a lot of technique, and I think my body wasn’t able to do what he was asking of me. Yes, on the practice range it went well, I hit the ball very well, but in competition, under pressure, I couldn’t do it. I thought too much about the technique, a lot of correction, a lot of drill on where the club had to go, almost in every movement of the sequence… There were moments when I really didn’t want to play and thought, why do I play like this? So much travel, so much suffering on the course, is it really necessary?
But as I say, something changed at the Games. My swing has never been the prettiest in the world, I know that, but one way or another, I’ve always managed to score low. With Marcelo, I’ve returned to that freedom. “It doesn’t matter how you do it, the only important thing is that the clubface is square at the moment of impact,” he told me. Since then, I’ve started playing golf, having more freedom on the course, somehow I’m regaining my instinct. If I see a draw, I hit a draw, if I see a fade, I hit a fade. I play golf without thinking about the technique, just about what shot I picture in my head for each situation. I get up and do it.
Since mid-October, I’ve been working a lot and well, and you could say that I’ve somehow regained my enthusiasm. Moreover, I went to Q-School with the sole objective of passing. I feel very good and I feel that I really have at least one more year of golf to offer. I wanted to pass to prove it, and I’m very happy that I did. Also, I’m in a really good place in my personal life. If I hadn’t passed, I wasn’t going to be crying or lamenting. If it didn’t happen, it would be that my time had already passed. But it has happened, and I’m very eager.
As for Q-School, I’ll tell you an interesting story. The first two days, although I shot 72 and 74, the truth is that I played very well. From tee to green, spectacular. The first day I hit 17 greens and only made two birdies and par total. The second day, when I shot +3, was incredible. I made a silly bogey on the 12th, my third hole, then I had a three-putt and followed with four putts on the 17th. Suddenly, in eight holes, I was +4 and playing well. What usually happens happened. If you’re playing well and don’t take advantage, golf is waiting for you. From there, I started playing badly, but I saved incredible pars, some impressive recoveries, and at least I was able to save face.
After playing, I spoke with Tim, my husband, and explained what was happening. The game was fine, but the putting wasn’t working. One of Tim’s clients is Brooks Koepka, and he decided to write to him to see if he could give me some putting advice. Brooks sent him a message, and he passed it on to me. When I read it, the first thing I thought was: it’s amazing how easy good players see golf. I had many doubts about the putting lines, and the only thing he said in the message was, precisely, not to think about the lines, not to worry about that, that the line didn’t matter, to stand over the ball, look at the hole, and aim to make it. It didn’t seem like much, but it helped me a lot. It gave me freedom, and I have to say that I’ve made a lot of putts. On Saturday, I played like a machine, and it was key to turning Q-School around, so many thanks to Brooks and Tim.
Brooks’s message reminded me of a story that So Yeon Ryu told me a while ago. We were very good friends, and she was practically best friends with Inbee Park. One day she came and said something like: “you know what, I’m not asking Inbee anything again because it annoys me. I asked her if she could help me with putting, and she said it’s very easy, just stand there, look at the hole, and hit it, nothing more.” Well, that’s how easy good players see it.
Lastly, a funny curiosity. I’ve played with several young girls these days, and when I told them I was 37, they saw me as a dinosaur… I completely understand them. In my first year on the Tour, it was the same when I played with Karrie Webb, I saw her as a dinosaur, and she was the same age as I am now. How perspectives change…
Right, let’s keep going strong. With everything.
