Azahara Muñoz and Carlota Ciganda have taken advantage of the ‘easiest’ round of the season on the LPGA Tour this Thursday. The average number of strokes was 69.5, with 75 cards of 69 strokes or less. A paradise. However, nobody here is giving away birdies. Afterwards, you have to play very well, and the Spaniards did. Two rounds of 64 strokes, eight under par, and second position one stroke from the lead, occupied by Pajaree Annanarukarn.
Azahara Muñoz’s strengths were the driver and the short game. She caught almost all the fairways and the only one that escaped her was on the edge. Regarding the putt, the Malaga native revealed that she has started working with a new putter coach and has also changed the instrument. “I have been working on my putt. I started with a new coach last week, I changed the putter and it has gone very well. It’s a classic anser. The coach has helped me a lot. It was a bit of technique and then the putter helps. I feel better. I feel like I have more control of the speed and I like its look,” explains the Malaga native.
On her part, Carlota pointed to physical condition as a key aspect to her round, the best of 2024. “I feel that the start of the season has been a bit stuck, I had a small neck and shoulder injury, so I couldn’t train as much as I wanted. I had to take some time off. However, in the last two or three weeks I have started to feel good again. My coach (Jorge Parada) was in Los Angeles and this week, so we have been working well. It’s just about trusting myself, being very present, having a good strategy and making aggressive swings towards the target,” she reveals.
Azahara, one of the ten players who have been mothers playing this week, assures that now that her son has just turned two years old it is almost more difficult to combine competition with his care. “To be honest, I think it’s harder for me now. He knows he’s not at home, he sleeps worse, he has a lot of energy. Sometimes, when they are babies, you just leave them. Traveling with a small child, it’s a lot.”
Regarding her golf, the golfer from San Pedro has been very satisfied. “I felt very good. I also took many greens and the ones I missed were right there. In fact, the only green I really missed was about 25 or 30 meters away and I made the birdie chip. It helped me to get the round going. Then, I left two given, another two at a meter and I made some very good putts of five or six meters. A great day of golf. It’s been a while since I made a round of eight under par (almost five years) and it’s very good to prove to myself that I can still do it.”
Carlota, for her part, also stays with her iron game. “A very good day for me. I started very solid, with a birdie on the 11th, and then I caught all the greens. Only the 8th escaped me by just a meter. Very good from the tee and many wedges to green. One of the keys is to take advantage of the par 5s. I get there in two on all of them and that’s an advantage. I have to make three or four less each day on the par 5s,” she explained.
Finally, Azahara admits that one of the goals she has in mind are the Olympic Games. “These are probably the last ones I can be at, so I want to go. It’s in Paris, close to home and my parents can probably come. They didn’t come to Rio. It was too far away. They wanted to come to Tokyo, but it couldn’t be. To compete in three Olympic Games and represent your country would be incredible, so I definitely have it in mind and I’m paying attention to it.”
