Carlota Ciganda (-2) has come back to life at the Chevron Championship. A first round of 75 strokes had left her with one foot out of the tournament, forced to play very well this Friday to make the cut and, of course, with her chances of victory practically nullified. To fight against that fate, the Navarrese needed to do very special things. Let’s get to work…
Carlota has made the biggest comeback of the day at The Woodlands in Houston. She has handed in a card of 67 strokes, the third best of the day and has moved up 65 positions in the ranking. She has placed herself in 21st place, just two strokes from the top 10 and six from the lead shared by the Korean Jin Hee Im (-8) and the Thai Atthaya Thitikul (-8). In short, she has re-entered the conversation for the first Major of the season.
Obviously, Carlota is not satisfied with just this great day of golf. Her margin of error ended on Thursday, so on Saturday and Sunday she will have to play at a very similar level to really give herself any chance of victory. This was a mandatory first step and she has done it outstandingly.
The player from Ulzama has displayed great golf, starting the machinery very early, with an eagle on hole 13, the fourth of the day. She continued with another birdie on the 18th, stumbled on the 1st and reacted fantastically with three more birdies on holes 2, 4 and 8 to say here I am. Carlota has followed the fairy tale manual. She has squeezed the most out of the par 5s, with a spectacular five-under par, and has minimised mistakes to the maximum. It’s the roadmap to win a Major on a demanding course like Texas.
At the top are Im and Thitikul, although without a doubt the wheel to follow is Nelly Korda (-7). The American, who has won four consecutive tournaments, has already placed herself one stroke from the lead with a great card of 69 strokes and despite starting the day with a double bogey. She is in a very sweet moment and it seems that there is no adversity that can beat her.
Also at the top of the table are golfers like Maja Stark (-5), Lydia Ko (-4), Anna Nordqvist (-4) or the amateur Lotti Woad (-4), who has just won the Augusta National Women’s Amateur and has made it into the top 10 of the tournament.
The cut has finally been set at +2. Azahara Muñoz (+5) has been left out with a card of 73 strokes, heavily weighed down by a sequence of bogey, double bogey and bogey between holes 4 and 6.
As usual, the Chevron has taken down a good bunch of illustrious golfers who have been left out of the cut: Jin Young Ko, Megan Khang, In Gee Chun, Celine Boutier, Leona Maguire, Rose Zhang, Ariya Jutanugarn, Minjee Lee, Danielle Kang or Lexi Thompson.
Cheers to a great career 🥂@AzaharaGOLF brought the goods for @1soyeonryu after the final round of her career pic.twitter.com/rl81uVFmuN
— LPGA (@LPGA) April 19, 2024
Also missing the cut was veteran So Yeon Ryu, which meant her official retirement from competition, as she announced that the Chevron would be her last tournament. She has been Number One in the world, has won two majors and has six victories on the LPGA Tour. She is one of those players who has left a mark even more important than her record suggests. Her most impressive stat in the Majors is in the US Open: she has played it fourteen times and has finished in the top 25 twelve times.
