“I’m really looking forward to it, it’s the biggest leap of my life, but I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time.” It can be said louder, but not clearer. Andrea Revuelta finds herself at 18 years old facing a big step. On September 24th, her American adventure will begin. She’s going to Stanford and will join Paula Martín in the ranks of the Californian team. The second Spaniard in history to achieve this.
Excitement is an understatement, just the right amount of vertigo. The smile on the Madrid girl’s face goes from ear to ear every time the word Stanford is mentioned: “I was there in February, and the truth is that I enjoyed it very much, every corner of the university lifts you up, the level is very high and I’m dying to get there,” says Andrea. In case there were any doubts, she affirms emphatically: “The excitement for what’s coming can much more than the sorrow for what I leave behind”.
Paula and she are great friends, but this year they still won’t be able to live together. As ‘freshmen’, the university chooses the group of people they are going to live with. However, Revuelta doesn’t stop writing to her: “Every doubt and every step I ask her. She has already lived it and is helping me a lot”.
When one door opens, another closes. The summer has been a constant farewell. Lots of golf, lots of rest. Europeans with Spain (team and individual) plans with friends, the US Amateur and also lots of time with the family. “The closure has been perfect, I have enjoyed playing with the Spanish girls, we are very good friends and for many like Cloe, Balma, Ana… it was also the end of a stage. It has been incredible”.
Looking back, the Spaniard chooses two moments she will never forget: “The first one without a doubt is the Ryder Cup Junior last year in Rome. That stays with me forever. The second is not a specific moment, but everything I have been able to live this summer with Spain and my friends. I have enjoyed it a lot”.
Andrea won’t arrive at Stanford until the 15th, but her trip to the United States is brought forward to this week because she is going to play nothing more and nothing less than her third Solheim Cup Junior. She equals Azahara Muñoz (2002, 2003 and 2005) as the European with the most participations in the event. On the American side Alisson Lee (2009, 2011, 2013) and Jane Rah (2005, 2007 and 2009). A record participation. Nobody will have played more than the Madrid girl. Only Lee has won three times and Andrea wants to be the first European in history to achieve it.
The Spaniard has been lucky, because you can’t play this event being already a university student. Stanford is one of the few universities that start at the end of September and that allows her to play this competition. Rocio Tejedo for example has already started in Louissiana and can’t play it.
Andrea has won the two previous editions and is looking for the third in a row: “I think we have a great team, the United States is very strong, but in a certain sense we have lost a little fear. They beat us five times in a row, but we have two consecutive victories. The captain, Gwadys Nocera, has been motivating us this summer, the team this year is much younger, but we are going for it all”.
When asked about next year, the goal is clear. The first thing is to arrive, settle in and enjoy, but Andrea is ambitious: “I would love to win the Nationals, but above all to do a great job in the ANWA and why not, win in Augusta. It would be a dream, really”. When asked about the World Number One Amateur, she is clear: “Obviously I look at it, but the reality is that for me it is not a priority, I know it is a consequence of my game and the results. If I play well, the rest will follow”.
The amateur is going to Stanford, but she is clear that she will keep in touch with her lifelong coach, Alejandro Ramos. “I haven’t been working on anything specific in recent months, but I think I’m in great shape and after being able to rest for a few days”.
This Friday, Andrea Revuelta will board a plane to Stanford via the Solheim. A journey that will undoubtedly be filled with great challenges, dreams and lots of golf.
