In nearly 13 years of the world amateur ranking’s existence, no Spanish woman has ever reached the Number One spot. This ranking of amateur golfers has been in place since February 2011, and during this time, the Cadiz-born María Parra did manage to climb to the second position in the world, back in 2015, but she never conquered the summit. Well, her and Cayetana Fernández García-Poggio. The Madrid-born golfer has been in the second step of the ranking for months, only behind Ingrid Lindblad. Cata could have made history this December if the Swede had decided to turn professional, as Japanese golfer Saki Baba has done, who was third in the world until this week when she chose to change her status.
The Spaniard, who crossed the pond last summer to join the ranks of Texas A&M alongside her sister Blanca, will continue for at least a few more weeks or months chasing the Nordic golfer, who chose to finish her studies at Louisiana State, where she shares a team with Carla Tejedo, despite winning the second phase of the School of the LPGA on October 20 in Venice (Florida). The Swede has chosen to continue her path as an amateur and did not compete last week in the Final, where Ana Peláez from Malaga secured a spot in the American Circuit. Lindblad’s decision surprised many, but she has finally chosen to finish her degree and then focus on her professional career.
Cata is not losing sleep over missing out on the coveted Number One prize in 2023; in fact, she is motivated by the chase and the possibility of catching up to the blonde Nordic in the coming months: “I don’t know why Lindblad hasn’t turned professional. The only thing that comes to mind is that she wanted to continue competing in university for another year or that she is trying to win the Augusta National Women’s Amateur (ANWA) to qualify for the Majors, I don’t know, there could be many reasons. Although being her last year of her degree, she probably could have finished it online and made the jump already. Either way, I’m going to try to get the top spot in the world ranking on my own merits, by being the one to surpass her,” says the young Spaniard, back in Madrid for the holidays before returning to the United States on January 10. “I know that after the Amateur World Championship in Abu Dhabi I was very close because she didn’t play too well and I did. Rose Zhang was impossible to reach, but I’m not so far from Lindblad. If I have a couple of good tournaments I can achieve it in the spring,” she states.
The rookie of the aggies has been getting the hang of the NCAA over the months since she landed in College Station (Texas) in August: “I’m very happy, although at first it was quite hard because of the schedules, from six in the morning and training until seven in the evening (in spring I’ll get up at five), but after coming back from the World Championship in Abu Dhabi it was a total change and I was more used to it. I’m really looking forward to going back,” confesses Cata, also happy with her performance in Communication and getting used to the freedom in training that the coaches allow: “There you more or less organise yourself, not like at Cetema.”
At first, perhaps gripped by nerves and arriving at such a new and different place, she lost distance with the driver, although that setback has already been resolved. Her balance of these months is good, as in three tournaments she was 11th (Carmel Cup), 35th (Annika) and 12th (Stephens Cup). “It’s good and I’ve met expectations, although it’s true that I went with high aspirations at the beginning,” she explains; “but at first it’s hard to let go,” she adds.
She shares an apartment with her sister, which always helps, and she takes long walks around the campus and has even played a few tennis matches with Blanca. For now, she asks the next year for a good role in the ANWA, where she finished fourth in her debut this year with a spectacular finish: “It’s very difficult to win but I’ll go with that idea, but above all I set myself the goal of making the cut and once you do that and you’re in Augusta, there are 30 players and you have to go for it all.”
But she also has a dream in mind that she hopes to fulfil: to be the NCAA champion in her sister’s last year at Texas A&M: “It would be very nice to win the National with Blanca; the conference title is very good but especially the final because if we don’t do it this year, next year is going to be very difficult because three seniors (Jennie Park, Zoe Slaughter and Blanca Fernández) who are quite good are leaving and the more veterans there are on the team, the easier it is because they are more used to these championships,” she maintains.
The world runner-up, always ambitious, rates her 2023 highly, although “there are some things that can be improved”. In any case, her next few months are going to be exciting, with the chase for the Number One in the world, the ANWA, the NCAA National… We’ll have to keep an eye out because Cata is going for it all.
